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Napoli manager Gennaro Gattuso has defended Victor Osimhen after the forward struggled once again in Thursday night’s Europa League defeat at Granada.
The Partenopei lost the game 2-0 by a pair of goals in the space of two minutes, as Kenedy first created one with his cross for Yangel Herrera’s header, then scored with an angled drive.
“Victor Osimhen is still struggling to make any kind of impact, while Lorenzo Insigne was visibly limping during the game,” Gattuso told Football Italia.
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“As I already said, Osimhen was out for a long time, he’s still playing with strapping to his shoulder and is not 100 per cent. He needs to find consistency and sharpness to play his game. At the moment, he has these gaps and isn’t capable of moving consistently, as we’ve seen it in the statistics.
“I think this team came here and did the maximum it was capable of at this moment in time.”
The second leg will take place next week Thursday at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
18 Comments
The players in the team dont play for him, they play for themselves. Its as if they are trying to prove a point, that they dont need him or they resent the fact that an African kid is leading the line in the team. They dont pass the ball to him when he is free, they rather shoot from an impossible angle or pass to another teammate. Most people see this, I wonder why the coach doesn’t and why he doesn’t address this. If this continues to the end of the season I see gattuso losing his job and osimhen being sent out on loan unless the new coach addresses the issue.
Look at Sadiq umar at almeria, the team is designed for him, the players are all young, I even read that he is among the oldest at 24. They give him the wall freely and create chances for him to score. There is no ego problem there but at Napoli they are all big men because they have been playing at serie a for years. I just hope they change their attitude towards osimhen and start playing as a team.
If they don’t play for him, he should Create it. Or else, he will be termed a flop. Let him come home and score to boost his confidence.
Here we go again, baseless excuses, he is not fit yet period, we all know what VO can do on a good day, but pinching the lack of goal or his fitness to his teammate not cool, VO will be back to his able best soon.
Osimehn should quickly bounce back abeg ,Italian journalists will soon label him a flop.i don’t know how to advice him cause I don’t know what the problem is.
@SportFans, thanks for your observation – I watched couple of Napoli’s matches and in those matches I observed those guys are not ready to pass the ball to Victor Osimehn. The Midfielders and Wingers hold the ball too long and dribble stupidly with no sense of direction.
Napoli is not a Team – The Coach needs to address their stupid dribbling and unnecessarily holding of the ball ASAP.
It is coach fault. A team that was able to beat juventus. If I was the coach I will ask the team to play like the way they did against juventus no matter the opponent. They always play to much with the ball and that Is the reason they are losin. How can oshimen score when all the defence are in his front. …the coach shud study lille ‘s game to know y the guy score goals
As I watched the game I noticed Osimhen had very few touches.
I thought since a couple of players were injured he would have a chance
to get on the score sheet. But other players just do their own thing.
Osimhen feeds of scraps, when people shoot and miss he tries to
go for the rebound. He constantly throws his hands on his head because
he doesn’t get the ball, I saw an instance where Osimhen was passed the ball then a teammate took it and turned it over near the goal.
I don’t even think they notice him
playing. All the team wanna do is shoot long range shots, its ridiculous,
not even an away goal. He had only one good shot on the 86th minute reversed
shot, only first and only attempt on target. I saw I don’t know if it was Isigne or
Di lorenzo who was upset with Bakayoko for taking the free kick early and wasn’t prepared,
everybody was a mess.
I mean if you watch the goal Osimhen had at Lille he was assisted many times, he had good teammates compared to the Napoli team. This team has a huge ego and don’t respect Osimhen and I don’t know the coach is gonna address the problem
I think enough is enough of blaming Oshimen’s lack of proficiency in front of goal and bad overall display so far on His Team-mates. He was in a more poorer team compared to Lille and whenever the Midfield goes to sleep, Oshimen still performs! We all know what he is capable of. For someone that was struggling to impress for his club before the Shoulder injury, do we blame him going to NIGERIA for show-off on his teammates too?? Oshimen’s problem is his problem and enough of terming everything on his teammates.
The only advice I’ll give him is to work hard and harder to regain his confidence and form. We all love him and want the best for him being our show boy. Else, Gattuso defending him will soon be over oo.
***compared to Napoli*** I mean
Honestly, osihmen is not the problem of that team, it’s the entire team, they don’t play good football, even if osihmen is in form how can we know when he never gets chances, I watch the match from the beginning of the game to the end, they dont creat chances at all, my conclusion is either gattuso is not good enough to manage a good attacking football play, or direct play, bcos when they play up to their opponents yards they will start dancing around and they hardly pass to the 18 yards where the striker is waiting, after dancing and dancing they play backwards and sideways, I don’t know if na for match they want to learn passes, Granada collect the ball and plays more direct and they get quick goals without going through all that napoli display, I think osihmen is doing his best, they should feed him balls with the trust he needs if not they we lose their 70 million efforts, their biggest problem is isigne that guy is just overrated and he spoils alot chances i don’t like his style at all. Lookman is more intelligent than insigne
My hope is for koulabali and Martin’s to return, I think they will work better for osihmen.
Nice one @ Collins Id. You watch with your eyes opened. I won’t ever waste my time going into any argument. In as much as Osimene is not yet at his best but there are so many things wrong with that team, that even a fit Osimene will still struggle.
A team where everyone is around the opponent’s goal area wanting to score themselves leaving the few defenders at the mercy of quick counter attack. I see the plot to frustrate Gattuso. Players do these things believe it or not.
Osihemen was not scoring for Napoli yet he came to Nigeria and scored. You and I know that osihemen is far skillful, sharper and deader than poul. If Victor could get half of the kind of services poul gets, the goals would have been flowing. Let him come to afcon and see if he will not score again. The just want to label him flop.
Please Who is poul ? I never hear that name before
Osimhen is faced with different problems at Napoli. But the main problem is his Shoulder injury. I don’t think it has completely healed. Probably the Team Medics just had to rush things to get him back on the field of play. We all know Osimhen potentials right from U-17 world cup. His pace, agility, shooting accuracy, positioning and strong mentality. But all these are lacking because of the injury. Also he his match rusty and not yet fit otherwise I’m pretty sure he will contribite a lot even if his teammates refused to feed him. Lastly his teammates are not helping at all. Especially all their stupid wingers Lozano and Politano and even Insigne the captain that prefer to shoot rather than passing. Before his injury they’re always reluctant to pass to him except they are left with no choice. Only Dries Mertens is trying to help Osimhen and now he his also injured.
Why is Victor Osimhen Underperforming?
This is a tricky question. On the one hand, it would be easy for me to argue (as I have done recently) that Osimhen’s teammates are starving him of much needed service. But this excuse runs the risk of ringing hollow in the global football community. Afterall, neutral observers would argue that I am merely crying wolf for an underperforming striker who happens to be failing to live up to the hype and who crucially happens to be A FELLOW NIGERIAN.
Whilst there can be nothing wrong in defending my country man, I also want to fight shy of peddling baseless conspiracy theories. Still, as much as I would distance myself from sensationalism, I will also align myself closer to the school of thought that Napoli’s attack line is made up for glory hunters who want to write their own names in the stars and make headlines – if possible – ahead of others.
Insigne (10 goals), Lazano (10 goals), Politano (7 goals), Mertens (5 goals) and Zielinski (5 goals) are all deadly determined to get in on Napoli’s goals scoring act and their returns individually and combined this season plainly attest to this assertion. And you can see it in the way their philosophy plays out on the field of play.
With that many goals-glory hunters in a team’s forward line, inevitably, the centre forward’s slice of the goals pie will be reduced. See Nigeria for example, the minute Amokachi, Amuneke, Finidi and Okocha delivered themselves from the iron grip of Westerhof in 1994, Yekini’s goals started to dry up (and theirs increased).
Like I said in a prior presentation, I will be reluctant to attribute wrongdoing to professional Italian footballers. That said, from what I see from the way they play, Osimhen’s return in front of goal has the potential to be greatly diminished.
See a typical example in the 2nd goal conceded by Napoli against Granada in this week’s Europa League match: instead of Politano (from the wings in 20 minutes) locating Osimhen and 2 other players inside the 18 yard box, he elected to run himself into trouble, only to lose the ball and Granada punishing his selfishness with a goal straight from the counter-attack.
That summarises Napoli’s attack line: more often, individual players seeking to make things happen for themselves.
Conclusion:
I don’t envy Osimhen’s position. He is surrounded by big name players who want to improve their own goals-haul. I am not peddling any conspiracy theories but if Napoli attackers aren’t more selfless, then, as a team they can expect to witness more nights like the disappointing 2:0 loss to Granada in the Europa league this week.
The boy needs to watch videos of obagol, batistuta, Adriano,Crespo, hopefully he would learn something from all these great strikers , who painted Italian league with goals.He should continue to fight be more friendlier with his teammates, humble himself more and he should stop whining when they don’t pass the ball to him. He mustn’t allow the criticism of those racists Italian press gets to him,the lad is an eagle he would surely fly and touch the sky again,