The former Real Madrid and Chelsea boss does not feel his current squad are at the level where they can properly compete with the Serie A leaders <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Napoli may have been one of Juventus’ main rivals for the Serie A title in recent seasons but Carlo Ancelotti says overtaking the Bianconeri is still a step too far for the Partenopei.<\/p>\n
Napoli finished in the top-three under Maurizio Sarri in each of the past three campaigns, ending as runners-up to Juve on two occasions.<\/p>\n
Ancelotti replaced Chelsea-bound Sarri ahead of the 2018-19 season and has maintained their position as Juve’s nearest competitors, however they still trail the league leaders by eight points after 17 matches.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And while usurping Italy’s dominant side is a target, Ancelotti does not believe they are ready yet to go one better than Juve, who have won the last seven Scudetti.<\/p>\n
“I think each of us must motivate ourselves not measuring ourselves against others, but measuring against ourselves,” he told the Corriere della Sera.<\/p>\n
“If you want to become [Leo] Messi then your path is influenced by genetics. But you can train every day to be better.<\/p>\n
“It’s the same when it comes to the squad. If I say that we have to commit ourselves to beating Juve it\u2019s an objective that’s too far away.<\/p>\n
“I’m here to win. The objective is to have a team which fights until the end of the season.”<\/p>\n
The former Real Madrid coach also admitted a second stint at AC Milan almost materialised after his departure from Bayern Munich last season \u2013 the Rossoneri eventually opting for Gennaro Gattuso.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“Twice,” he responded when asked if he had been close to returning to San Siro.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“When I left Real Madrid [Adriano] Galliani came hunting, but I had to recover from a back problem.<\/p>\n
“Then another time with [Marco] Fassone there was half an approach after I left Bayern.”<\/p>\n
Napoli are back in action on Boxing Day when they take on third-placed Inter a crucial match in the race to secure a top-four finish.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The former Real Madrid and Chelsea boss does not feel his current squad are at the level where they can properly compete with the Serie A leaders Napoli may have been one of Juventus’ main rivals for the Serie A title in recent seasons but Carlo Ancelotti says overtaking the Bianconeri is still a step…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}