“We didn’t turn in a performance that was up to standard,” explained Andrea Sottil after the reversal by the odd goal at Lecce on Friday evening. “It wasn’t how we’re used to playing.
“I expected Lecce to play like that and we did the opposite of what we’d prepared for the start of the game. We lacked precision when bringing the ball out.
“The penalty made it more of an uphill struggle for us. In general terms, the performance wasn’t up to standard.
“As I always say, it’s better to have a complete squad. It’s not easy without [Gerard] Deulofeu, Beto, [Isaac] Success and [Enzo] Ebosse. They are big losses for me and the players, but we’re not looking for excuses. [Ilija] Nestorovski played his game and was a lion in attack.
“We need to be honest and clear-headed when analysing the match. We certainly should’ve played better.
“In the second half, we should’ve offered more going forward and tried to get into more one-on-one situations, which is why I brought on Festy [Ebosele] and [Florian] Thauvin, who both did well.
“Lecce defended well. The players who came on did well, but to conclude, we weren’t at our usual level in terms of performance. We’ll put this one behind us and think about Napoli.”