Ranieri positive after Roma defeated by Napoli

Romelu Lukaku, formerly of Roma, scored the only goal of the match for Napoli.

“Looking back, we have some problems and that's why I got the call. We were up against a team fighting to win the Scudetto,” Ranieri told Sky Italia.

“Having said all this, I am happy with the performance of my players. We made some mistakes that we'll talk about this week, but the hunger and determination to get back on track was there. There is still a lot of work to do, but I am positive.

“The aim was to keep more possession, which we did in the second half, and with the diagonal runs we also prevented Napoli from creating so many chances. We saw that Lukaku was sometimes followed by two of our defenders, leaving Kvaratskhelia unmarked. He missed one chance when he was completely unmarked in the opening minute, after which El Shaarawy fortunately managed to cross and provide cover.

“I thought this way we could be more solid and gain a foothold in the game.”

He also said, “They need the right character to help themselves and others. When I arrived the team was obviously a bit closed, but I think in the second half we started to open up a bit. We had that header with Dovbyk and also the Baldanzi chance.

“We know there is work to be done, we need to focus on responding rather than sitting there and feeling sorry for ourselves.”