SARRI: "LONG ROAD AHEAD"
Maurizio Sarri expressed his satisfaction after Napoli beat Sassuolo 3-1 at the Stadio San Paolo on Sunday afternoon, but stressed that the challenge for his team will be maintaining their early-season form for the whole campaign.
"We’re picking up points very fast, but we’re only in October and there’s a long road ahead," said the Napoli boss, speaking after the final whistle. "The team is doing well, playing with tempo and quality. We’ve improved on last season – our stats are better and there is more pace to our play – but we don’t know what shape we’re going to be in later in the campaign."
Sarri acknowledged that all of the early pace-setters have amassed impressive points tallies.
"It looks like all of the teams around us are picking up lots of points – it’s not just us," he said. "I have a feeling that sooner or later the results will change and there’ll be more cagey, scrappy games as time goes on. If it goes on like this, you’ll definitely need over 90 points to win the title."
The Partenopei coach repeated his call for the team to stay alert even when apparently dominating games.
"We were so dominant today that we forgot about the risks," he explained. "We forget that we can actually concede goals because we believe that we already have our opponents dead and buried. The goal we conceded today was a classic for us. We have these lapses of concentration and we need to cut them out."
Sarri then turned his attentions to Wednesday’s visit of Manchester City.
"We’re proud to be playing in the Champions League against the team I believe to be the best in Europe right now," he said. "We need to be at our best, both in terms of the quality of our play and the strength of our character. It’ll be really tough going against City but we’ll try to give our all."
(Photo LaPresse)
