Antonio Conte has a lot of work to do.
Conte became Napoli’s fifth coach in little more than a year when he was hired in June and on Sunday he saw his new team crumble 3-0 at Hellas Verona in his first match back in Serie A.
“We melted like snow in the sun after the first goal,” Conte said. “We should apologize to the Neapolitan people, who follow us with passion. I am the coach and it is right that I take full responsibility. In the second half there was an unacceptable performance.
“We should be ashamed, and I have to be ashamed as I am coach. Those who know me know that today my heart is bleeding, and I hope that some of the players are also bleeding so that would mean that at least we are on the right path.”
Dailon Livramento and Daniel Mosquera — twice — scored on their league debuts to hand Verona the win on the opening weekend of the Italian league season and there was further bad news for Napoli as it lost key player Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to injury.
Napoli has been in a slump since Luciano Spalletti left last summer after steering the club to its first title in more than 30 years. The southern team finished 10th last season and it hoped for much better under Conte, who led Juventus and Inter Milan to the title.
However, it drew 0-0 with Serie B side Modena in the Italian Cup on Conte’s debut, going through on penalties, before Sunday’s second-half horror show.
Conte blasted his team, who only scraped past Serie B outfit Modena on penalties in the Italian Cup last weekend, for melting “like snow” once Livramento put Verona ahead four minutes after half-time.
“It is really worrying. Good teams react to difficult situations… but we completely fell apart,” added Conte.
“I’m the coach and it’s my responsiblity, so I apologise. It was a debacle and it’s my fault.”
On Saturday Conte described this season as “year zero” after Napoli finished 10th as defending champions in their previous disastrous campaign in which they went through three different coaches.
The former Juventus, Chelsea and Italy coach also warned against heightened expectations from fans as he waits on reinforcements while Victor Osimhen, the star of Napoli’s historic 2023 title triumph, has been frozen out for pushing for a transfer.
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