Antonio Conte Blames The Pitch In Napoli’s Disappointing Draw Against Venezia

Written By Onyeka Daniel

It might have been a disappointing result for Napoli at the Stadio Pierluigi Penzo in Venice, but for Antonio Conte, nothing has changed for the team after their 0-0 draw away against Venezia despite missing out on an opportunity to move to the top of the Serie A standings ahead of Inter’s game against third-placed Atalanta later today.

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Three points separate the top three sides in Serie A heading into the direct clash between Atalanta and Inter at the Gewiss Stadium on Sunday night. The Nerazzurri still command the league table, but all three teams will end the day level on points if Atalanta rise to victory and it could have been Napoli leading the Serie A table this afternoon.

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Instead, they failed to defeat Venezia at the Pier Luigi Penzo in the early kick-off, but Conte is not overly disappointed by what he saw from his players. Assessing his side’s performance, he insists that there weren’t too many dangerous situations for his defenders to deal with. “In football terms, I don’t think they caused us that many problems.”

“Only one team took the initiative and that was Napoli, against a Venezia side that is in good shape and has always caused struggles for opponents,” Conte told DAZN in his post-match interview. “We did what we needed to today, but it’s inevitable that when you have that many chances, you need to score.”

“We made some mistakes to allow them chances and what irritated me a great deal at the end was allowing a counter-attack of two against six. That should never, ever happen, because it means our heads are not in the right place. If we had conceded that goal at the end, it would’ve been a very different result to the draw at this stage of the campaign.”

On the other hand, Conte was more disappointed by the condition of the pitch rather than the performance of his players: “We played our game in a difficult arena, on a pitch that had not been wet properly and the ball wasn’t running very well. It’s the first time I’ve seen that this season.”

“I even asked Eusebio if it was their idea not to wet the pitch, he said no, but the ball was moving very slowly. As I said, I am happy with the performance, but when you create those chances, you need to score goals and be more determined. What made me really angry was that incident in stoppages, because I do not accept that.”

“I will not tolerate that and I explained it to the lads in the locker room. A team that wins needs to have its mind on the job from the first to the last second on the pitch.”Napoli will now have a fortnight’s interval before their next Serie A match due to the upcoming international break, but Conte insists that nothing will change in his approach to training during that period.

“There have been other breaks for international duty, so we will do the same thing, work with whoever is left. I can’t imagine it’ll be more than 10, but we’ll try to work and get some players back up to speed physically or tactically. Nothing will change, we continue to work.” Then, on the upcoming battle between Atalanta and Inter, he added:

“It changes nothing for us, we just need to focus on ourselves and give our all to the end, the way we did today. Then we’ll see the results of our efforts at the end of the season. “I was very critical where it was necessary, for instance against Como, but today we deserved to win and a draw is fitting too.”

“What infuriates me is the need to be a team to the end, not a group who look like they just turned up by accident.” He concluded. Meanwhile, the former Inter and Chelsea manager has been linked with the Juventus job, but he argued that media games is an art in Italy, refusing to be drawn into the transfer speculations.

Lately, Thiago Motta has been under scrutiny and is expected to be sacked if the Bianconeri fail to finish in the top four this season, while Conte has been linked with a return to the Allianz Stadium for next season and according to a report from Tuttosport, Conte is the favourite option among the Bianconeri supporters and a return to the club is possible.

The Turin-based paper launched a poll this week, and the results showed that Conte was Juventus fans’ favourite candidate and when he was asked his thoughts on this before the game against Venezia, he only branded the report as media games. “I don’t have to respond to anyone. These are media games, it’s an art in Italy,” Conte said.

“Any answer I give can create something. It’s all part of the media game, and that’s fine. I take note of it.” He also spoke about the Italy squad named by Luciano Spalletti, which includes five Napoli players.“Of course, if we can help the national team with our players, it’s a source of pride and satisfaction,” Conte said.

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“Let’s say that Meret, Di Lorenzo, Buongiorno, and Raspadori had already been called up. Politano has been recalled as a result of the good season he’s having, although I still expect a bit more from him. He knows that very well, but it’s still satisfying.” He further added.

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