Spalletti: Dzeko is reproducing his club form with the national team

Luciano Spalletti has praised Edin Dzeko after the striker bagged a brace for Bosnia & Herzegovina against Cyprus on Monday night, stating his belief that the goals will boost his confidence ahead of this weekend’s match with Napoli.

“Edin is a great player and he’s performing well with the national team, as he has been doing here at Roma,” said Spalletti ahead of a meeting of match officials, captains, coaches and management personnel in Milan. “I’m pleased he got his double – he’ll come back full of enthusiasm.”

How is Radja Nainggolan?

“Radja is improving. He’s trained well and his fitness is getting better. I expect him to improve even more because his problem is that he’s got us used to such high standards from him. I expect him to be at 100% at all times.”

What’s your view on the Napoli game, now that Arkadiusz Milik is out?

“First of all I’d like to wish both him and [Riccardo] Montolivo the best of luck. They’re great players, assets to Serie A. Milik is a fantastic player and I have to congratulate Napoli for having found him, as they’ve done in the past with other great players like [Ezequiel] Lavezzi, [Edinson] Cavani and [Gonzalo] Higuain.

“They also have [Manolo] Gabbiadini, who has always performed well within Napoli’s playing style. In fact, he might even have the edge in terms of experience, for what [Maurizio] Sarri asks of his team. The absence of Milik doesn’t give us an advantage. Over the long term, Napoli will feel the effects of it in some shape or form, but not on Saturday night.”

Sarri has said that Napoli v Roma is all about second place. Do you agree with that?

“I think Juventus have done well to open up a little gap, despite not performing to their best in terms of their play. We need to shift up a gear because we’ve already lost a bit of ground. I’m pleased that we’re having this clash already because it will be a chance to measure how good each team is. We’ve not done amazingly so far this season and we absolutely have to improve if we’re going to compete with them. We want to compete against them all.”