Napoli 'too worried and fearful' as Antonio Conte urges players to adopt dark arts after Serie A title defence takes another blow

Napoli's hopes of retaining their Serie A crown suffered a significant setback on Sunday afternoon as they fell to a solitary goal defeat against Udinese at the Stadio Friuli. In a tightly contested affair that saw the champions struggle to impose their authority, the result has left them vulnerable in the race for the Scudetto, allowing rivals Inter to move into first place in the table.

For Conte, the result was a bitter pill to swallow, particularly given the manner in which his side crumbled in the second half. Napoli had appeared relatively comfortable in the opening 45 minutes, denying the hosts any clear sights of goal. However, the game turned on its head after the interval, with Napoli retreating into their shell and inviting pressure onto themselves. It exposed a psychological fragility that their manager was quick to highlight in his post-match assessment.

"The approach was there," Conte said. "Udinese never had a shot on goal [in the first half], we created a couple of chances that we could have exploited better.

"The second half started with this long throw-in, there were some approximate clearances and we risked conceding a goal. From then on there was a bit of fear, you could see it because in the first 20 minutes of the second half two goals were disallowed, they hit the crossbar, we were a little bit too worried and fearful.

"We will certainly have to work a lot from this point of view. I always tell the boys: we must be good especially in negative moments, when on the pitch you have to take a breath, use a bit of experience and craft, manage situations in which we must improve."

The defeat highlighted a recurring theme for Napoli this season: a lack of "street smarts" when the momentum shifts against them. Conte, a manager renowned for building teams that relish the physical and mental grind of winning, expressed his frustration that his current crop of players are too naive when under the cosh.

The former Chelsea and Tottenham boss suggested his players need to embrace the darker side of the game to break up the opponent's rhythm, adding: "I told the guys too, we have to be good at managing these moments, because they [the opponents] manage them. With a bit of experience, a bit of malice, wasting time on the pitch too.

"After that, [you must] not lose courage, not get overwhelmed by the fear of conceding a goal. Because then if the attitude is this, you call the goal upon yourself and we called it upon ourselves. There is work to be done in this aspect."

Conte was careful not to absolve his players of blame but emphasised that character traits are harder to coach than tactical systems. He pointed to a lack of vocal leadership on the pitch as a critical flaw, noting that in difficult away environments, personality is often more valuable than technical ability.

"I have nothing to reproach these guys for, who are giving everything in an emergency," he continued. "It is inevitable that if I go to analyse some situations, especially away from home, we have to be better at managing it, talking more, bringing out character. Because there, beyond the footballer, the person must make themselves heard.

"Perhaps it is the most difficult aspect to work on: on a psychological level you try to work and find the right way, but many times there are footballers who have charisma and personality and we from this point of view must grow and can grow. They are excellent guys, I would like to help them grow from this point of view too because the whole team would benefit from it."

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The loss to Udinese was not an isolated incident but rather the continuation of a worrying trend. During his post-match address, Conte pointed to a grim statistic to underline the scale of their struggles, lamenting that his side have now lost seven matches away from home across all competitions.

"The alarm bell I gave even when we won, because these are situations that in the long run... There is little to say," Conte remarked. "At the beginning of the year anyway, when you play many competitions, you worry about making a squad up to par. If then for external reasons this squad is reduced anyway you can hold up, but in the end you have to pay for something, otherwise we would all be phenomena, the guys, me.

"You have to pay something, but precisely by virtue of this we must continue to do what we are doing. Unity, compactness, we must not lose enthusiasm and motivation."

Despite the gloom surrounding the result, Conte remained defiant about the path forward. He acknowledged that the current season was always going to be a struggle and called for unity from everyone associated with the club. However, he refused to hide from the reality that conceding control for 20-minute spells - as they did against Udinese - is a habit that must be broken immediately if they are to salvage their season.

"Anyway for us this year will not be a simple year," Conte concluded. "But the important thing is to always want to be united, compact and face difficulties trying to improve. Then some things are objective and under everyone's eyes, but I don't want to highlight or say some situations.

"We must go forward in our work, knowing that the whole environment must be close to the team because it will not be a very simple year for us. We all know it, we want to work and fight knowing we have lost seven away games: there is little to say... When the wind goes the opposite way we must improve because we must know how to travel even with the wind against us."