Conte: ‘Napoli sent a message to ourselves, will always take time off in future’

Antonio Conte said Napoli ‘sent a message to ourselves’ with their 1-0 victory away to Roma in the Scudetto race, but revealed he will ‘always’ take time off in future to give everyone breathing room.

The DAZN studio joked that things had also changed since Conte took a few days off last month, so perhaps he ought to do it more often.

“It is not unusual during the break for international duty in England to have time off, they gave it to me without even asking at Chelsea and Tottenham,” replied Conte.

“It was in full agreement with the club, seeing as there are four months where we play constantly. I have great staff, so like I did in England, I think I’ll always do that in future. There’s pressure, preparing games every three days, it is a lot. Giving myself and my family, plus those who remain at the training ground, a bit of breathing room seems wise.”

The Partenopei have been revitalised by the injury crisis, as it forced the coach to transform their tactics to a formation that is getting the best out of some players who had been ignored.

Specifically, David Neres completed a rapid counter-attack to score the decisive goal beating Roma 1-0 at the Stadio Olimpico, and it was his third goal in two games, after a brace to beat Atalanta.

“Coming to the Stadio Olimpico and playing with the kind of authority we did, pushing forward constantly, that is not easy,” insisted Conte.

“Roma were coming off a run of positive results, they were ahead of us in the table, and are a very good team. I am pleased, as I saw a performance of character from the lads, we looked them in the eye from the start.

“I am very pleased. Having said all that, we cannot beat around the bush, we are in a very difficult period with so many players out of action, and that is going to keep going for a while. It’s not that I am worried, but I do hope the players I have now stay healthy, otherwise we’ll have even more trouble.

“The good news is that the team had a great response to all these absences, we had to change the tactical system and went back to the 3-4-2-1 that I had at the very beginning when I got to Napoli. That is dictated purely by the number of midfielders we have right now, which are Lobotka and McTominay.

“Some said that McTominay is being sacrificed in this system, but in my view that is his role too, he is a box to box midfielder. We couldn’t do anything else, as only Elmas is an alternative, and that’s not even his role, while Vergara is from the youth academy and he’s going to have to play eventually, because if one of those two midfielders is absent, we’ve got nobody else.

“These lads are proving their enthusiasm, hunger and determination every day, it is what allowed us to win the Scudetto last season, something incredible. We will try our best to defend it this term, hoping there are no more long-term injuries.”

Although Roma saw a lot of the ball, their only real chance was in the final minute with Vanja Milinkovic-Savic’s one-handed save on Tommaso Baldanzi.

Check the Football Italia Player Ratings for Roma 0-1 Napoli

Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis celebrated the victory with a message on social media: ‘A great victory for a group that is led by a real commander!’

“Did he mean me?” laughed Conte when shown the tweet.

“I am truly happy for the lads, because this is a moment when we need to put armour on and go into war. We have to make do, but we continue with this enthusiasm, united and overcoming every obstacle in our way.

“We beat a strong Atalanta side, then Qarabag, who are the surprise of the Champions League, while today we had a convincing victory away to Roma. It was a message for ourselves too, to know we can do it if we try.”

Napoli are now joint top of the Serie A table alongside AC Milan, one point clear of both Roma and Inter, while Bologna could also leap into that group if they beat Cremonese on Monday.

The big games keep coming, because next weekend will see Conte face one of his former clubs, as Napoli host Juventus at the Stadio Maradona on Sunday evening.

To conclude, Conte was asked for a word to describe the work of a coach and came up with an intriguing response.

“I honestly wouldn’t recommend it to a friend, to go into this line of work. I might advise it to an enemy…. So I’d describe it as the most inadvisable profession in the world!”