Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo has labelled Victor Osimhen’s reaction to being substituted in Sunday’s Serie A goalless draw with Bologna as “unnecessary”.
The Nigeria international was far from his best at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, missing a couple of big chances including a penalty in the 72nd minute which he played wide. The 24-year-old was taken off in the 86th minute and replaced by Giovanni Simeone and was clearly not pleased by making his frustrations known. Napoli manager Rudi Garcia stated he has already addressed the issue with Osimhen without going into specifics.
He said: “Even the greatest players in the history of football miss penalties. As for when he [Osimhen] went off, we talked about that, what I say to my players remains in the locker room.”
Di Lorenzo asserted the Super Eagles star knows his actions were wrong. The captain said: “Knowing him, I know he’s aware he was wrong.
“This attitude is unnecessary and we’ll speak between us calmly to solve this thing. He’s the first one to be disappointed, like all of us, for not winning, but we’ll start again.”
Garcia also defended his decision to substitute Osimhen, citing the attacking options at his disposal.
“We have a lot of quality in the squad and on the bench, so Simeone, Politano and Elmas came on, I still have Jesper available too. When we have this much quality, we can’t always have 90 minutes with the same men, especially as we have four games in nine days,” the Spanish tactician continued.
“There is a team that starts, one that is in the second half and another at the final whistle. We will not go far unless I can count on all the lads. It is a positive that players are not happy when they come off, just as it can happen that I am not happy with their performances. It is a large squad, I want to use them all.”
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One of those games where the ball won't go into the back of the net ⚽❌#BolognaNapoli pic.twitter.com/M4bYMXcW8m
— Lega Serie A (@SerieA_EN) September 24, 2023
The draw means Napoli’s title defence has not gone as planned with two, wins and one loss from five games which puts them in seventh place, seven points behind current leaders Inter Milan.
Osimhen and the squad will have a shot at redemption when they welcome Udinese to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Wednesday night.
