Conte: ‘Napoli and Atalanta don’t hold back, ask doctors about McTominay’
Antonio Conte warns Napoli and Atalanta ‘don’t hold back’ for today’s battle, but reacts with irritation to Scott McTominay fitness questions. ‘You’d have to talk to the doctors.’
It kicks off at the New Balance Arena in Bergamo at 14.00 GMT (15.00 CET).
You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from today’s Serie A games on the Liveblog.
This is a battle for European places, seeing as Conte is eager to shrug off any talk of a Scudetto challenge.
“It will certainly be a match where we need a lot of energy, as these are two teams who don’t hold back,” Conte told DAZN Italia.
“We want to dominate the game, these are sides who don’t sit back in their own half, wait and go on the counter. Inevitably, the duels will be decisive all over the pitch.
“Atalanta have unpredictability in attack too, as Sulemana and Zalewski can be devastating when they cut inside to shoot or go for goal. There are many talented players who can do the same.”
Conte frustrated at on-going Napoli injury crisis
The Partenopei are out of the Champions League and the Coppa Italia, while in Serie A they fought back twice to hold Roma in a 2-2 thriller.
Alisson Santos scored off the bench in that game and is rewarded here with his first start, especially as Scott McTominay, David Neres, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Amir Rrahmani, Kevin De Bruyne and Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa are still out injured.
Juan Jesus returns from suspension to bolster the defence, but when Conte was asked for injury updates, he looked visibly irritated.
“You’d have to talk to the doctors, because I haven’t seen McTominay training with us at all since he went off against Genoa. He has an inflammation, but we can’t figure out when he’ll be back. You need to speak to the medical staff, not with me, all I can do is say that Scott has not trained with us at all since Genoa.”
While De Bruyne is expected back in Naples next week, Conte warns that does not mean we can expect the former Manchester City star on the pitch.
“De Bruyne is a different matter, just look at how much Lukaku is struggling to recover from his serious injury, when the tendon was detached. I think talking about this is pointless now, as these are serious tendon injuries and a very long process for the full recovery.
“You have to hope these things don’t happen, as otherwise you risk losing a player for a whole year. So it’s not about when they return, but how they return.”