Osimhen is an excellent striker – Mazzarri hails Napoli hitman following injury return

Nigerian striker, Victor Osimhen has been hailed as ” an excellent striker” by new Napoli manager Walter Mazzarri following his return from Injury.

Osimhen came off the bench to provide assist for Elif Elymas to score the winning goal for Napoli vs Atalanta.

In his post match reaction after winning his first game in charge of the champions 1-2 at Atalanta, Walter Mazzarri said he was fully aware of Victor Osimhen’s qualities looks forward to the striker getting back to form.

“I didn’t need to be the Napoli coach to know that Osimhen is an excellent striker,” Mazzarri said via Football Italia. 

” I had watched him play! Fortunately he is back, I hope he gets his form back as soon as possible.”

Also, the new manager spoke about the clubs poor start to the campaign after an incredible 2022/2023 season which saw them crowned champions for the first time since 1990.

Under the guidiance of Luciano Spalletti, Victor Osimhen and his teammates flourished, taking the Serie A title with weeks to go while reaching the champions League quater-final for the first time.

For Mazzarri, the difference this season which led to the sack of Rudi Garcia was much more awareness by opponents when facing the champions.

He said “What I said in my first press conference was true, this is a team that dominated last season, played some of the best football in Europe and with players who were not accustomed to being in this position. So there was obviously going to be some sort of a dip after that.

“On top of that, all the opponents step up a level because they know that they are facing the Champions of Italy. It was always evident this was going to be a complicated campaign in those circumstances.”

On the performance to take victory over Atalanta at the Gewiss Stadium, he added:“I know a little something about tactics too and the players have done well to take on those lessons quickly.

” We worked on the defensive line, as I had seen in recent games that the defence sat too deep. We were tighter, more compact and I honestly didn’t expect to see these concepts put into practice so quickly against a super team like Atalanta.

“The only reason I didn’t use this system before was that my teams didn’t really have the players suited to it. The players really paid attention in training and wanted to learn as much as possible.”