No panic at Napoli despite Juventus defeat: "We're not worried"

Napoli assistant coach Marco Landucci insisted they are "not worried" by their lacklustre start to the season after Sunday's 2-0 defeat to Juventus, stressing that the team are only looking ahead.

Goals from Kerim Alajbegovic and Jérémie Boga earned the Bianconeri victory, easing the pressure on them and stretching their lead over Napoli to three points.

Landucci, who was in the Napoli dugout because head coach Massimiliano Allegri was suspended, oversaw a match in which his side were toothless in attack. The visitors managed only eight shots throughout the contest, just one of them on target, and generated 0.52 expected goals (xG).

Napoli's 14 points from their first 10 Serie A matches this season represent their worst return at this stage of the league since the 2009-10 campaign, when they collected the same tally (W4 D2 L4) and went on to finish the season sixth.

Asked whether there was a sense of panic at Napoli, who have slipped to eighth place, 14 points behind leaders Lazio and 9 points adrift of the top four, Landucci said:

"We're not worried, but we are very disappointed, because this match meant a lot to us. The truth is that this is how the game ended. Now we have to keep quiet and prepare for Wednesday's match. In this congested schedule, like many teams, we have a lot of injuries. At some point it becomes unavoidable, and you have to keep fighting."

Asked whether he had spoken with Allegri about the result, Landucci said: "Yes, we talked in the dressing room, but there isn't much to say. Naturally, he wasn't happy at all. Would you have been happy? He just said we needed to do better in the second half and that we paid a heavy price for our mistakes, that's all."

Napoli's problems deepened when Kevin De Bruyne and Giovanni Di Lorenzo were taken off at half-time. The side are already without the likes of Alessandro Buongiorno, Stanislav Lobotka, David Neres, Benoît Badiashile and Leonardo Spinazzola through injury.

Addressing the condition of the two players, Landucci said: "Clearly, they couldn't carry on. De Bruyne had an ankle problem; I don't know exactly what's wrong with Giovanni Di Lorenzo, but he couldn't finish the game either. Even so, despite everything, we should have done better. It was a balanced match that was decided by great goals, but we didn't make things easy for ourselves either."

After visiting Porto in the Champions League on Wednesday, Napoli will face title-race front-runners Lazio in their next Serie A match.