Conte on Lobotka and ‘valid alternatives’ from transfer market

Antonio Conte gives an important fitness update on Stanislav Lobotka for tonight’s Champions League tie with Eintracht Frankfurt, and makes a pointed comment about the transfer strategy.

It kicks off at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona at 17.45 GMT.

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from this game and Juventus-Sporting CP on the Liveblog.

Lorenzo Lucca is suspended following his red card in Eindhoven, plus Kevin De Bruyne, Billy Gilmour, Leonardo Spinazzola, Alex Meret and Romelu Lukaku injured.

The good news is that Stanislav Lobotka is fit to make his first start in over a month.

“Lobotka trained before the Como game too, so he can play, and one hopes possibly for the whole game,” Conte told Sky Sport Italia.

Eljif Elmas and Miguel Gutierrez are in the starting XI too as an all-new left flank for Napoli, as Spinazzola is out injured and David Neres dropped to the bench.

When asked to describe them, Conte seemed to be making a pointed comparison to some other players like Noa Lang who haven’t made the right impact.

“They are two players who are the good novelties from the transfer market, as they settled in the right way, and present valid alternatives.”

The pressure is already on the Partenopei, who were held to a 0-0 draw by Como on Saturday and yet still went clear at the top of the Serie A table.

Their situation is more complicated in Europe, having lost 2-0 at Manchester City and 6-2 with PSV Eindhoven, scraping only a 2-1 home victory over Sporting CP.

Conte said in his press conference yesterday that Napoli ‘caused problems’ for the media and system challenging for the top of Serie A, so will they also be able to cause problems in Europe?

“It takes time and patience, for everything,” he replied.