Gennaro Gattuso will need to get the fans onside if he is to be a success at Napoli, according to former midfielder Massimo Crippa.

Napoli sacked Carlo Ancelotti after Tuesday's 4-0 win over Genk secured their passage into the last 16 of the Champions League, the 60-year-old paying the price for a string of poor results and discord between the players and president Aurelio De Laurentiis

Former Milan boss Gattuso was confirmed as the successor to Ancelotti – who he won two Champions League titles under as a Rossoneri player – at a news conference on Wednesday.

Gattuso had been out of work since leaving Milan at the end of last season after they missed out on Champions League qualification.

The 41-year-old outlined his ambition to steer the team from seventh in Serie A into the top four, and Crippa – part of the Napoli team that won the UEFA Cup in 1989 and the Scudetto the following year – thinks he will need to turn things around quickly if he is to last at the San Paolo.

"Rino [Gattuso] worked really well at Milan. He had a squad that wasn't at the same level as the club's reputation," Crippa told Omnisport.

"You cannot appoint Gattuso and sack Ancelotti without clear ideas about the future.

"We have to remember Gattuso is a Milan legend. Napoli fans can forgive anything but if you don't do well..."

Gattuso will hope to end Napoli's seven-game winless run in Serie A when they entertain Parma on Saturday.