Gattuso loses on Napoli debut as late Gervinho winner lifts Parma

Gennaro Gattuso lost his first game as Napoli's head coach 2-1 to Parma as the Naples side dropped to eighth in the Serie A table.

New Napoli boss Gennaro Gattuso walks off the pitch dejected after the 1-2 defeat to Parma.

Gennaro Gattuso’s debut as Napoli coach ended in a 2-1 injury-time defeat to Parma as last season’s Serie A runners-up extended its winless run to eight league games.

Gattuso took over after Carlo Ancelotti was sacked despite Napoli’s 4-0 Champions League win over Genk booking its place in the last 16 in midweek.

But the former AC Milan coach’s reign got off to the worst possible start as the southerners drop to eighth -- 17 points behind leader Inter Milan which plays Fiorentina on Sunday.

Gervinho struck the winner in the third minute of injury time after Dejan Kulusevski had put Parma ahead after just four minutes in Naples.

Arkadiusz Milik pulled the host level on 64 minutes in the game which had been delayed after high winds damaged the roofing of the San Paolo Stadium.

“This team is suffering psychologically,” said Gattuso, “paying for the fact that it has not won (in the league) for 50 or more days.

“The mirror of the current situation was the first ten minutes. It’s tough, as are the whistles of the fans. There’s a lot of work to do.”

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Kulusevski struck early as defender Kalidou Koulibaly lost control of the ball minutes into the game.

The Senegalese defender went off with a thigh injury just after his blunder, with Parma also losing striker Andreas Cornelius to injury after quarter of an hour.

Napoli captain Lorenzo Insigne missed chances to break through, inexplicably sending wide with just Parma goalkeeper Luigi Sepe to beat.

Gattuso brought on Dries Mertens after an hour with the Belgian setting up Milik to head past Sepe, the Polish striker following on from his hat-trick against Genk.

Gervinho threatened when he raced up the pitch, past the Napoli defence with Alex Meret stopping with his foot.

The Ivorian finally broke through three minutes into added time, scoring after a counter-attack with Kulusevski.

“Insigne? He’s not the problem, he’s not the only one who played badly,” said Gattuso as Napoli sit eight points off the Champions League places with their last win against Verona on October 19.