Francesco Calzona came out and offered an apology and frank assessment of Napoli's disappointing display after watching his side slip to a 1-0 defeat at Empoli.
"I apologise to the Napoli fans and everyone who supports us. We were soft and meek, unlike Empoli, who played very aggressively. There's no excuse for our attitude today and I take responsibility for it. Clearly I wasn't able to give the team the right mentality
“To be quite honest, if we play like that, it's going to be difficult to achieve any sort of objective. I saw a disconcerting statistic today: we're the team that has scored the fewest goals in the first 15 minutes. That shows we don't start games well enough.
“We struggle to regain possession. We have lots of quality up front but we're not able to win the ball and get it forward. I've been telling the lads the movements they should be making but we're not seeing the results.
“As I said, I have to take responsibility. Maybe the team have had too many negative experiences this year but we must do better. We must honour the Napoli jersey.
“The club lets us work in peace, so all the blame lies entirely at my doorstep and at the players'. We must play with pride in our remaining games.
“I can only thank our fans for all the support they're giving us. Even when they protest, they do it with passion. Now we need to rediscover our pride and show we deserve to play for this club.”
