Napoli legends rips into Rudi Garcia for Osimhen decision in loss to Fiorentina

Napoli legend Giuseppe Bruscolotti has criticised Rudi Garcia for substituting Osimhen in the second half of their 3-1 loss to Fiorentina on Sunday, Soccernet reports.

Napoli suffered their second loss of the Serie A season when Fiorentina visited the Stadio Diego Maradona over the weekend. The Partenopeans failed to dominate the tie, and they eventually went a goal down in the 7th minute via a strike from Josip Brekalo.

Osimhen scored in the 23rd minute, but his goal was ruled out for offside after a VAR review. However, he was not to be denied, as he scored a penalty in stoppage time of the first half to make it 1-1.

Osimhen had a good chance to give Napoli the lead early in the second half, but he fluffed his lines. Napoli paid for it minutes later, as Giacomo Bonaventura scored in the 63rd minute to make it 2-1 for Fiorentina.

After going down again, Napoli failed to up the ante. They failed to create much in the final third, and then Garcia surprisingly took off Osimhen for Giovanni Simeone in the 77th minute.


Napoli needed to score, but instead, they conceded again in stoppage time via a strike from Nicolas Gonzalez.

Following their loss, club legend Bruscolotti has ripped into Garcia. He feels the decision to substitute Osimhen was very poor.

“Garcia needs to come to his senses a bit, I see him in total confusion,” Bruscolotti said per Napoli Magazine.

“The players don’t want to be in charge, but they want to make it clear that this isn’t going anywhere. Garcia must know that if he is losing, he cannot take away Osimhen.”

There are already talks that Napoli have contacted former Marseille coach Igor Tudor as a possible replacement for Garcia. If he does not start winning games consistently, he could be on his way out of Naples soon.