Juventus needed a victory and did not get it wrong. Two beautiful goals, from Alajbegović and Boga, gave the Bianconeri a 2-0 win over Napoli and three precious points, lifting them to 17 in the table. After the heavy defeat at Genoa, the team produced an excellent performance, even if it still has areas to improve, and Spalletti spoke to DAZN once the match was over.
“The Embrace With the Staff Had a Different Meaning Tonight”
Asked about the embrace he shared with his staff at the final whistle, Spalletti explained why it felt different. “A different meaning, because they suffer together with me. They work with me from morning to night. I am the first to arrive and the last to leave, but they are present almost all day. And they care about the outcome, so they work.”
He then turned the credit away from himself. “But tonight the merit belongs to the squad, which managed to find the will to take the first step, to try to gain ground even by imagining it, in order to move forward. In the second half they managed it, fixing something. Tonight they earned the victory again, and they won back a bit of respect for the level of football they can play.”
“The Most Important Speech Was Carnevali’s”
After Genoa, Spalletti sent the squad into a retreat, and by his own account it was the CEO’s intervention that made the difference. “The most important speech was made by Carnevali. They are not used to hearing that voice, and that alone creates attention, the need to absorb what he says, because it is the first time he has done it. We who are there every day together can only stay close to them.”
He then described the psychological state he believes he was dealing with. “They enter this malaise of self-esteem, of difficulty where nothing works any more. They lose confidence in the most normal things and transfer it to a wrong pass, and then the decision not taken is worse than an error.”
It is a more sympathetic reading of the Genoa collapse than the one he gave on the night, when he questioned whether the players had enough “everything” to give. It also agrees with Carnevali’s own diagnosis, which was about spirit and pride rather than tactics.
How the Match Unfolded
Spalletti was candid about the opening. “Napoli started the match well, even though two or three times we hit back. But as the minutes passed, the players became very good at getting into the rhythm and making the right choices to go and press them, with the confidence of playing with ground behind them, where it then becomes difficult to defend in open space.”
He singled out the substitutes. “Those who came on did so very well. Tonight the merit belongs entirely to the players.”
