Napoli vs AS Roma - Garcia blames lack of threat for winless run

Roma coach Rudi Garcia has lamented the club's lack of options up front ahead of Sunday's crucial encounter with Napoli in Serie A.

Garcia's side are winless in five matches ahead of the trip to Stadio San Paolo and have managed only two draws and a defeat since they were hammered 6-1 by Barcelona in the Champions League.

The dip has seen Roma drop to fourth in the table, five points behind league leaders Inter Milan, and below Napoli, who are third.

The Giallorossi's struggles have coincided with the absence of Mohamed Salah, who was injured against Lazio on November 8, and they have also missed Gervinho, who has been out with a thigh strain.

Salah, however, is available again after coming off the bench against BATE Borisov on Wednesday, while Gervinho was set to start the match but pulled out after the warm-up.

"It comes down to the fact that this isn't the same side that began the season, in that we have fewer options up front," Roma coach Rudi Garcia said after the goalless draw.

"The same guys are playing every game at the moment."

Garcia continued: "We're going through a tough spell. We dropped two points against Bologna and two at Torino that we could have taken. It'd be a whole different story had we got those.

"Now we have three more matches left this year. We have to recover quickly."

Napoli would have moved top of the table last weekend had they not slipped to a 3-2 loss at Bologna, a defeat that brought to an end the club's 18-match unbeaten run.

Gonzalo Higuain scored both of Napoli's goals and the striker can break a club record belonging to fellow Argentine Diego Maradona this weekend, if he nets in his ninth consecutive home match.

Maurizio Sarri's men thrashed Legia Warsaw in the Europa League on Thursday to complete a perfect record in Group D and Dries Mertens, who scored twice, believes the win showed the squad's strength in depth.

"Even the less regular players showed they are the same high level as the others. It was a victory of the whole team and we are thrilled because we recorded the maximum points and goals in the Europa League," Mertens told the official club website.

"Now we have to keep on working hard. On Sunday we are going to face Roma and it will be an important challenge where we want to give our all".