MADRID, 20 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The SSC Napoli coach, Francesco Calzona, denied this Tuesday that FC Barcelona has “changed a lot” its “behavior” compared to February 2022, when both met in the round of 32 of the Europa League, the last precedent before now meet in the round of 16 of the Champions League.
“The behavior that they had two years ago has not changed much. They have had a period of difficulties, in 2024 they have suffered a little more. I don't think they have the average in front of goal that they were used to, but that doesn't change anything because the players and the coach are with the same concepts. Apart from something at a tactical level, there are no new developments different from those of Barcelona in 2022,” Calzona said at a press conference from the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.
“From today everything is reset, a new path is beginning. I have found a team that has made itself available to me immediately. At this moment, few words need to be said because we have work to do, we have had very little time and we have gone immediately to the field,” summarized the new Napole coach about his first training session.
Newly arrived at the celestial club, Calzona trusts in the performance of his pupils and the support of the fans. “We must be ourselves and make them feel proud. The objective is that for us, and more than asking them, we must be the ones who make them feel happy with our services and with the results from now on,” he argued in this regard.
“A coach can change little because we have not had time, we have to accelerate this learning process. Therefore, I have told the players that we have no excuses and we must improve our position at this moment,” he indicated about what has changed in the within Naples during the last 24 hours.
“It is clear that the debut is important, against an important rival. But all this does not scare me because Napoli is a strong team; they have to find some concepts, but they are a strong team and this makes me happy,” said Calzona before emphasize that his “mentality” is “to seek to win every game, regardless of the opponent we have in front of us.”
“I can't stand that my teams are not organized and do not acquire a certain mentality. We have the aggravating factor that, in addition to giving ourselves an identity, we must also achieve results. This can put a little more pressure on us, but I told the boys that they should not think about it, they should think about going back to doing what we did in the first training session: having a free head and thinking about having fun,” he concluded.
Along with the coach, Giovanni Di Lorenzo also appeared in the press room. “Surely the fact that the coach knows so many players accelerates the knowledge process and is a positive thing for us, it can give us a lot on this first day,” he commented.
“The coach arrived with a lot of enthusiasm and he transmitted it to us immediately, from the first training session. So we will have to start again together because it is a situation that does not make us happy. But all together and united we want to do well, and we have There is still one season left to play, so we are focused on that,” he concluded.