Another blow. After the clear elimination in the Italian Cup, the Naples of Antonio Conte falls again against Lazio – this time with the starting lineup – and loses the top of the table after nine matchdays. A hard blow for the Neapolitans, this time defeated after a certainly more balanced match and conceding goals perhaps at the moment of maximum push, but paying for an offensive phase that struggled to take off. Of course, the defeat by suffering a counterattack at that moment may seem like too great a punishment, but Napoli pays for not having attacked the match at the decisive moment and the little impulse received from the substitutions (Neres only in the 76th minute, role for role for Politano, and the others between 82′ and 90′). “Looking at the statistics we did better than Lazio, we return home with a defeat, but the path is the right one”, Conte’s words in the post but then he begins to deal with the offensive numbers which leave no room for interpretation.
The numbers speak clearly
If on the one hand Napoli are the best defense in the championship, with which they have built their ranking and many victories, on the other they have often limited themselves to their homework in the offensive zone. In the last two victories there were positive signs in this sense, making a lot of mistakes against Roma and exalting Milinkovic-Savic in Turin, but when the opponent’s level rises a worrying offensive sterility takes over. In fact, to date Napoli is only the seventh attack in terms of goals, the seventh attack in terms of offensive production (xG), even eighth in terms of average shots and tenth in terms of average shots on target. Numbers that in the long run cannot keep you in the upper echelons.
Conte finally addresses the attack problem
The seventh attack of the championship. A fact that was proposed to Conte in the press conference: “It is a fact that we must improve the offensive phase. The data is irrefutable, in terms of scoring, for the time we are in the last third of the opposing team we achieve little. working hard to improve, we have to go with confidence and be good, we have significant room for improvement. It’s a fundamental aspect for us, because if you want to win you have to score goals.”