Napoli, Conte to Sky: De Bruyne sub? The devil is in the detail | OneFootball

Napoli, Conte on Sky: "The substitution of De Bruyne? It is said that the devil is in the details..."

Antonio Conte, coach of Napoli, has made some statements to Sky Sport after the defeat against Manchester City.

"We all left with a bitter taste in our mouths because we had prepared a game as we played it in the first 20 minutes. The expulsion changed the game. It's already difficult to play against City 11 against 11, but in the first 20 minutes I saw a great attitude. I think they would have encountered some difficulties. If you stay 80 minutes with ten it becomes impossible to come out unscathed from here.

The substitution of De Bruyne? It is said that the devil is in the details. Last year we didn't even have one expulsion. The substitution was the only thing I could do, I felt sorry for the boy. We took away the satisfaction of playing most of the game in his old stadium.

I am very honest, in the first 20 minutes I had the feeling that we had prepared the game in the right way. The feeling I had was that we could get to hurt them. I'm sorry because these are games that when there is an expulsion they ruin them. I was a footballer and I know that after a while fatigue sets in, then I brought in fresher people because the boys had given so much like Lobo, Matteo and Frank. Matteo had to be the fifth, but he is not: he lowers when he has to lower. If he has to stay fixed there he is also good, but it is not his role. We also got a bit distorted trying to bring home the result. I am happy with the mentality and self-sacrifice of the boys. I leave this game with positive perceptions.

These are games where you are forced to defend: we concede goals when we go to press a ball from a lateral foul. When you play against teams at this level you can't do it, rather you have to hope for some restart even if you don't want to do it. We must be more mature also from this point of view, understand the situations. Today was the least suitable game to stay the first time in ten. I was angrier about the last ten minutes with Fiorentina."

Carlo Gioia

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.