Napoli coach Gennaro Gattuso has once again come to the rescue of forward Victor Osimhen after the Nigerian put up another below par performance in the Partenopei’s 2-0 loss to Granada in the first of their Europa League round of 32-clash Thursday night.
Osimhen was on for the entire duration of the game and Eurosport rated the performance of the former Lille of France striker’s below average with a score of 4.5 over 10,the second lowest rank for a Napoli player in the game.
”Up there he still appears too dull and, moreover, his movements are very wrong, often hindering his teammates to shoot,’ wrote Eurosport about the Nigerian who was out of action for over 90 days due to injury and covid-19 issues.
The player’s brother and Gattuso have however come out to defend the Nigerian international forward.
”Victor has been out for so long and he has not been at his best because of that. He must play more to regain his match fitness and confidence,’ said Andrew Osimhen in an interview Thursday with Napoli-based Radio Marte.
Gattuso on his part explained why Osimhen is still struggling to make any impact.
“As I already said, Osimhen was out for a long time, he’s still playing with strapping to his shoulder and is not 100 per cent. He needs to find consistency and sharpness to play his game. At the moment, he has these gaps and isn’t capable of moving consistently, as we’ve seen it in the statistics,’ said Gattuso.
Osimhen will be hoping to quickly find his feet and start delivering for the club and its fans and Sunday’s game away at Atlanta could be the perfect game for his turnaround.