Antonio Conte has a lot of work to do.
Conte became Napoli’s fifth coach in little more than a year when he was hired in June and on Sunday the former Tottenham and Italy coach saw his new team crumble 3-0 at Hellas Verona in his first match back in Serie A.
Dailon Livramento and Daniel Mosquera, twice, scored on their league debuts to hand Verona the win on the opening weekend of the Italian league season and there was further bad news for Napoli as it lost key player Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to injury.
Napoli have been in a slump since Luciano Spalletti left last summer to take the Italy job after steering the club to their first title in more than 30 years.
They finished 10th last season but are hoping for much better under Conte, who led Juventus and Inter Milan to the title.
However, they drew 0-0 with Serie B side Modena in the Italian Cup on Conte’s debut, going through on penalties, before Sunday’s second-half horror show.
Also on Sunday, Bologna drew 1-1 at home to Udinese. Roma and Lazio were playing later, against Cagliari and newly promoted Venezia respectively.
Meanwhile, Serie A club Empoli apologised on Sunday for the poor state of the pitch at their Stadio Carlo Castellani during Saturday’s season-opener against Monza.
The two sides played out a 0-0 draw but the appalling state of the grass stole most of the attention, with brown, uneven patches visible all over the pitch.
The Tuscany club said that due to high activity between the seasons, it had been impossible to give the turf the treatment it needed in time for Saturday.
“While apologising once again, we are certain that for the next home match against Juventus (on September 15) the pitch will once again be in perfect condition,” Empoli said in a statement.