“I hope that our victory over Salernitana can give us a confidence boost. Fiorentina beat Napoli earlier the season, so we’ll need to hit the nail on the head when it comes to approaching the game in a composed way and with the right mentality.” Walter Mazzarri shared his thoughts ahead of Napoli’s Italian Super Cup semi-final against Fiorentina on Thursday.
Can Napoli’s January transfer window arrivals give the team added drive?
“Right now this doesn’t factor in. Our sole focus is the Super Cup. The message I’m looking to send to the team is to give their all in our upcoming game.
“I’m happy with Saturday’s win because it’s given the lads confidence and peace of mind. We need to keep this up in order to fully recover the belief that we’d lost in recent times."
What’s the latest on injuries and players returning?
“From what I understand [Jens] Cajuste could feature. [Piotr] Zielinski is doing better - we’ll assess him ahead of the match. [Diego] Demme suffered a sprain to his quad, and while it’s nothing serious he missed out on training. It’s hard to imagine him making the Fiorentina match.”
Could this Super Cup be a chance of redemption for you after the disappointing defeat in Beijing?
“That match was unusual but I don’t want to discuss the past. Many years have gone by and Napoli have taken a giant step forward, winning the Scudetto and consolidating themselves in Europe. We’re just focusing on tomorrow. We’ve come through a period of ups and downs but against Fiorentina the players have a chance to really show what they’re capable of.”
Have you settled upon a line-up and your formation?
“You’ll see who plays tomorrow – I’m still weighing things up. I’ll keep this to myself. What counts is going out there and showing composure and quality.”
Napoli lost to Fiorentina in Serie A. How will you get a positive result tomorrow?
“I wasn’t coach for that game – I don’t like talking about a period in which someone else was in charge. I’ve obviously watched that game back recently – it was a bad defeat for the lads and I’m trying to figure out what we can do to avoid making the same mistakes.”
