‘Insigne perfect Neymar replacement’

Former Milan and Italy boss Arrigo Sacchi claims Lorenzo Insigne “would’ve been the perfect replacement” for Neymar at Barcelona.

Gazzetta dello Sport reported on Saturday that Barca had a €100m bid for Insigne rejected by Napoli, and Sacchi feels the Blaugrana should have tried harder for “the best Italian talent in 10 years”.

“I don’t think Barcelona are up to the same standard as Real Madrid,” the ex-Real Madrid and Atleti man told the newspaper.

“Having lost Neymar, Insigne would’ve been the perfect replacement. He is the best Italian talent in 10 years and has some genial intuition.

“He just needs to avoid being ‘sneaky’ when he isn’t in the mood to run.

“When Dries Mertens and Marek Hamsik block the midfielders who can only go via the right-back, he looks back and tries to make preventative blocks instead of trying to snatch the ball.

“It’s a shame, because tactically he really is wonderful.”

The forward started Italy’s 2018 World Cup qualifier against Spain on Saturday but could not prevent his country from going down 3-0 to La Roja.

Tags Arrigo Sacchi Lorenzo Insigne Napoli Neymar
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