Sarri: Napoli players who watch Juve 'are d***heads'!
Maurizio Sarri is being his entertaining self again. Before going over the top with silly comments about homosexuality, the Napoli gaffer was seen as a bit of a cult hero for his public statements, and his latest is more of the same.
Speaking of the pressure that Scudetto contenders Napoli are dealing with, the Tuscan Coach underlined the pointlessness of focussing on rivals Juventus, who are six points clear at the top thanks to last night's 1-0 win over Sassuolo.
The Partenopei have already played the defending champions twice, and now need three points from Sunday's opponents, Palermo, to keep up.
"The team knows it's had a splendid season and is giving its all" Sarri told the press in the Azzurri's pre-game press conference "This helps the players avoid regret, and fight till the end.
"We need to take things one game at a time, and never focus on our rivals. Yesterday I told my players: 'whoever watches Juve tonight is a d***head!'.
The former Empoli Coach went on to convincingly explain his line of reasoning.
"We need to think about tomorrow's game, and tomorrow's game only. If it were up to me, we'd play every game at 3 o'clock, there's no point watching what the others are doing. It's an aspect of modern football which I don't like.
"If we look ahead we risk getting anxious, and there's nothing we can do to affect a team that has been winning non-stop for five months.
"So we focus on Palermo, a difficult tie considering what's happened of late, and which will likely pit us against a motivated opponent"
Sarri also had some thoughts about Napoli's recent Europa League elimination at the hands of Villareal, which has left the Partenopei competing on just one front: the Serie A. They were knocked out by Inter in the new year... in a 2-0 defeat more famous for the explosion of #Sarrigate.
"Being knocked out of the Europa League and the Coppa Italia has allowed us to work more calmly and get our physical and mental energy back".
