Napoli still improving

Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri has warned his team against complacency when they come up against Fiorentina on Saturday in the Serie A.

After their 3-0 thumping of Juventus on Sunday – which came courtesy of a hat-trick from Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani – Napoli are in second place in the league table, just four adrift of leaders AC Milan.

Yet Mazzarri insists the side must continue doing the hard work that put them in such a lofty league position, rather than admire the view from the top.

“I don’t look at the table, I’m just saying that we’re making great progress and that we want to continue doing so,” Mazzarri said.

“You can see that we’re organised and can play. We don’t just play with heart but we’ve also got good football brains.”

“However we can’t stop, we can never relax our concentration if we want to stay at the top.”

“We’ve already shown that when we play our best we can beat anyone but at the same time we can never lower our guard.”

Fiorentina boss Sinisa Mihajlovic, meanwhile, feels as though Napoli have emerged as genuine Scudetto contenders this season and the Serbian believes Mazzarri – who joined Napoli in October 2009 – is a large reason why.

“I don’t know Walter Mazzarri very well. Perhaps through reading his interviews he doesn’t come across as very nice, but I believe that this doesn’t interest him a lot,” Mihajlovic said.

“He has done well wherever he has been and if Napoli are right up there now then a lot of the credit is his.”

“Napoli could really be the anti-Milan, especially if they continue playing like this.”

“They have everything required to win the Scudetto, even if there is still a long way to go this season.”