Gattuso hails Osimhen as kind of great striker Napoli lacked last season

SSC Napoli head coach, Gennaro Gattuso, admires Victor Osimhen’s style of play so much so that he admitted during a news conference that the kind of Nigeria international’s quality was what he sourly missed in his team last season, Completesports.com reports.

Napoli won the Italian Cup and finished seventh in the Serie A last season before they signed Osimhen from Losc Lille ahead of the new campaign. And in retrospect, a talent like Osimhen was missed by the club as far as Gattuso was concerned.

Osimhen didn’t score in two Serie A games against Parma and Genoa after netting two six goals in the pre-season via two hat-tricks, but Gattuso says he has scored with the spaces his attacks on opponents created for Napoli.

Osimhen was very impressive in the 6-0 drubbing of Genoa on Sunday and Gattusso reaffirms his earlier words to Aurelio De Laurentiis, which convinced the club President to strongly make moves for the signing the Nigerian from Lille.

“When he attacks depth we find many spaces. Last year he was a player that we missed, even if in the 4-3-3 at the tip we asked to tie the game while this year we have an alternative with him who attacks the depth systematically and when he does, it hurts you,” Radio Kiss Kiss Italia quoted Gattuso as saying during the post-match news conference.

“He has been very good in these two games, it is true that he did not score, but he also scored for the spaces he creates.”

Gattuso ‘fought hard’ to convince club president De Laurentiis to sign Victor Osimhen insisting that the Nigeria international striker could be the ‘best signing in the Serie A’.

Gattuso reportedly made it clear to De Laurentiis that it would be a great blow if Napoli missed out on the Super Eagles striker who scored 18 goals in 38 matches for Lille last season.

“He (Osimhen) can play anywhere, he could be the best signing in Serie A. Very fast, he gives us the right depth in attack,” were the words of Gattuso which prompted De Laurentiis to splash the cash on the Nigerian.

The Napoli gaffer seems to have been proved right with the Nigerian’s performance after just two games in the Serie A.