Napoli manager Luciano Spalletti has explained why Axel Tuanzebe was left out of the club's Europa League squad.

Tuanzebe left Manchester United for Napoli on loan last month after cutting short his spell with Aston Villa.

"I explain it badly, but then you have to explain to me the exclusion of another to insert him," Spalletti said.

"The moment you would never want to be a coach is when you call a player in the office to tell him why he doesn't do the tournament.

"At Inter [when he was in charge] I said it at 3-4 because there was the reduced Uefa list, there was a massacre, you create a group of excluded but they are calculations.

"In this case Manolas leaves and Ghoulam enters who was injured, they are evaluations, the left-back is missing, there are 3 central players with the return of Koulibaly.

"In front of the force must be maintained if you want to make your way. It's still a shame for Axel, we're getting to know each other, now he has to take care of his back but he immediately joined the group, he already knows how to speak a little Italian, in training he is very strong and also helps us with contrasts, we thank him."