Lazio got off to a great start, winning the Super Coppa over league champions Inter and winning their first two league games. It appeared that Lotito’s move was smart and that Lazio were better off without the players labelled as dissidents. 13 weeks into the season Lazio are now struggling big time and this could be Ballardini’s last game in charge. Lotito might have won the battle, but it looks like he lost the war. For those of you who like irony, one of the rumoured replacements is former Napoli boss Edy Reja, who was sacked last season after Lazio defeated Napoli at the San Paolo.

The bottom line is that Lazio are struggling, and there doesn’t seem to be a quick fix anywhere. Sometimes teams in turmoil can be tough to play against. Either the team is playing to save the manager’s job, like Catania recently under Gianluca Atzori, or the team is playing to impress the new manager, like Napoli in their last five matches. But in this case there seems to be very little motivating Lazio right now, and it’s hard to see why things might change for the next game. Napoli drew Lazio on the schedule at just the right time.

Former Lazio boss Delio Rossi, ironically a candidate for the Napoli seat after former Napoli manager Edy Reja was fired, has spoken out on his former club and Ballardini. Rossi has a great reuptation in many Serie A circles, and it appears Lazio made another mistake by not holding on to Rossi. Once again, Lotito lost the war in order to win another personal battle. That’s my take on Lazio, and for any Lazio fans that read this please feel free to correct me on errors or if I’ve misinterpreted the situation.

One note on former Lazio striker Goran Pandev: in a recent friendly against Canada he converted two penalties and was part of a Macedonia offence that pretty much played Canada off the pitch in the first half (3-0 final). Of course there are many nights where Canada is not a formidable opponent, but it seems like Pandev still has an awful lot to offer prospective teams.

Napoli on the other hand seems to be getting stronger every week. The recent 0-0 draw with Catania could be a minor glitch as Napoli continues its revival under Mazzarri. Enthusiasm is so high that around six or seven of the non-internationals reported back to training a day earlier than required. Campagnaro and Zuniga are healthy (until Campagnaro breaks down again) and Hamsik’s star continues to rise.

Even Lazezzi is happier, although in a recent interview he made no promises about his long term future other than seeing out the remainder of his contract. I think he loves the city and the fans, but he’ll fly away somewhere else because someone in management made a contract promise that wasn’t followed up.

In other news, Walter Gargano became the third Napoli player to qualify for the World Cup after De Sanctis and Hamsik. Uruguay defeated Costa Rica 2-1 on aggregate to claim the final Americas berth. Gargano sat on the bench in the 2nd leg 1-1 draw in Montevideo but as long as he’s healthy he’ll be going to South Africa. Quagliarella still has a chance to make the Italy squad, but he’ll have to pick up his game pretty quickly.

In tranfer rumours Napoli and Liverpool are in a Mexican standoff for the services of Andrea Dossena. Both sides are doing an awful lot of talking but neither side will make even a small move to get the action started. Napoli, Dossena, and Liverpool all want the move to go through. Reports say Liverpool is not willing to sell for less than the 7 million they paid. Dossena would be a good addition but I like how Napoli is holding out to get the best possible deal.

Napoli is also after Udinese’s Gokhan Inler and rising star Antonio Candreva who is on loan at Livorno. These are initial rumours and there’s really nothing concrete about them.

Here is the projected Napoli lineup for Lazio:

De Sanctis – Campagnaro, Cannavaro, Contini – Maggio, Gargano, Cigarini, Zuniga – Lavezzi, Hamsik – Quagliarella

I don’t know about TV for this game, so the best option might be a live internet stream. Since I missed the Catania match and a large chunk of the Juve match it will be nice to sit down and watch an entire Napoli game start to finish. I’m hoping you’ll enjoy the match as much as I will, and once everything is said and done there will be the usual report before a trip to Parma next weekend. Forza Napoli!

Gianluigi Buffon
Petr Cech

Defenders

Fabio Cannavaro
Roberto Carlos
Lilian Thuram
Alessandro Nesta
Paolo Maldini
Lucio
Carlos Puyol

Midfielders

Zinedine Zidane
Kaka
Cristiano Ronaldo
Pavel Nedved
Michael Ballack
David Beckham
Michael Essien

Forwards

Ronaldinho
Lionel Messi
Thierry Henry
Wayne Rooney

Now a bit about the methodology. First, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t biased in favour of recent players who are fresh in the memory. It’s easy to overlook players who were great in the first five years of the decade but haven’t done anything recently, and I tried not to do that. Second, I wanted equal representation for each position. I decided on 2 goalkeepers, 7 defenders, 7 midfielders, and 4 strikers before I wrote down a single name. I also wanted to make sure the defense and midfield had both central and wide players. Finally, I decided on trying to include players with different skills within their position. I did not want to show favourtism for one style of player, i.e. the creative midfielder or the attacking fullback.

The main criteria I used for selection was how important a player was to the overall strength of his club and country. Although the list has many Italian, French, and Brazilian players I didn’t want to punish players whose national teams or clubs just aren’t as competitive as the traditional heavyweights. I also put emphasis on a player’s peak form. Players had to have been dominant or close to dominant in their position to be included.

Now for the explanation. The biggest surprise might be the inclusion of Petr Cech. Casillas would be most people’s second choice behind Buffon, so why did I go for Cech? Well, Casillas has a sparkling resume: 2 Champions League titles and a Euro 2008 win in the last ten years. But given the relative strength of the Real Madrid and Spain teams, Casillas has never had to dominate games every time. Cech on the other hand almost single handedly (along with Nedved) lifted his Czech Republic team to the Euro 2004 title. Even though Greece won, I still maintain the Czechs were easily the best team that tournament. No disrespect to Greece fans, but the 1-0 semifinal win over the Czechs was a bit fluky. It was a game the Czechs dominated and had so many near misses. Cech was also getting lots of acclaim at Rennes. Is it really his fault Rennes never won a Champions League title like Real Madrid? Cech was also one of Abramovich’s first signings. That shows you how valuable he is. True, his quality has dropped off recently, but I think he’s never been the same after getting accidentally getting kneed in the head and suffering head trauma. Casillas has been more reliable over the last ten years but at his peak Cech had better technique than Casillas and played bigger roles in his teams’ success. People will accuse me of punishing Casillas because he plays on great teams that don’t always need great goalkeeping (probably a good accusation) but I still think that Cech in his prime came closer to Buffon that Casillas does. That’s why I’m including Cech, but it was the most difficult decision I made. There’s a strong temptation to include Casillas because he outplayed Buffon in the shootout at Euro 08, but there’s more to goalkeeping than shootouts.

On defence the two controversial choices are maybe Lucio and Puyol. I think Lucio is hugely underrated because he’s a defensive minded Brazilian defender. He’ll always be overshadowed by players like Roberto Carlos and Maicon, but he’s been the rock of the Brazil defence since around 2002 and is now Dunga’s captain. For some reason South American defenders never get the credit they deserve, and Lucio is a master who has worked his way from Bayer Leverkusen to Bayern Munich to Inter. He’s won plenty of titles and has valuable leadership skills. Maybe he’s a bit out of place in European club football, but I ask you how would Zambrotta look playing at a Brazilian club like Santos or Fluminese? He wouldn’t fit in very well there either.

Puyol has really emerged as a dominant player for Barcelona and Spain the last five seasons. Like Lucio he often goes unrecognized because his style insn’t glamorous but he’s currently among the best defenders in the world. He was the defensive rock of Barca’s memorable double last year as well as Spain’s 2008 win. Often because of Puyol his goalkeepers (Valdes and Casillas) have very little to do. And like Lucio, Puyol has leadership skills and is a reliable big game performer.

In midfield the surprise is probably Michael Essien. Like Cech, Essien showed world class skills for teams that were never going to compete for major titles (Lyon and Ghana.) But if you’ve every seen Ghana play you know that Essien single handedly (OK, with help from Appiah and Muntari) made Ghana into what I think is currently the best overall African team (arguments could be made for Cote d’Ivoire or Egypt.) Essien is great defensively and can also get forward to score massive goals. Since moving to Chelsea his versatility has actually harmed his individual profile as he frequently gets asked to play in positions that aren’t his best. But whenever he plays central mid he usually ends up dominating and he makes the rest of the midfielders on his team so much better.

Ballack might be left off of many people’s lists, but he has been the best player for Germany the last ten years and took the team to the World Cup final in 2002 and the Euro final in 08. The last few years he’s shown his age a little, but in the early part of the decade he was dominant, leading Bayer Leverkusen to the CL final and turning Germany into a major force again. He’s great with penalties, set pieces, and his defensive skills and physical presence make him more valuable than a player like Pirlo.

Nedved should also be an obvious choice even though he tailed off in recent years. His suspension for the 2004 Euro Cup semi final was a huge blow to his Czech team, probably keeping them from winning the title. His ball skills, passing, creativity, and tactical knowledge are all world class. He also does more defensive work than people give him credit for. It was an easy decision to include Nedved.

Some people might be surprised by my inclusion of Wayne Rooney in the strikers ahead of someone like Drogba. But for the last six years he’s been essential to Everton, Man United, and England. He does have discipline problems every once in a while but there aren’t too many strikers with his combination of finishing, speed, and physical play. Actually, it’s kind of sad how much England depends on Rooney being in the lineup to have any hope of success. And with Ronaldo leaving the same could almost be said of Man United. What other strikers have been as essential a component to their teams as Rooney? Eto’o and Drogba come close but Rooney has been in peak form longer and more consistently so that’s why he gets the edge.

For ever player I tried to think of good reasons for excluding them. Is Beckham overrated because of his public appeal? I decided no. He could be included for his passing and his free kicks alone but he’s also competent (but not great) defensively and isn’t afraid to make key tackles when necessary. He’s also a great athlete and in his prime he is just as effective in the 90th minute as the first. Was Maldini only dominant in the 90’s and never at his peak in the last ten years? Maybe, but until 2005 he was still one of the best defenders in the game. Even though he was in physical decline his reading of the game and skills were sublime. I had to include Maldini over someone like Zambrotta who was in his prime for most of the last ten years.

What else is there to say? I was going to make a list of honourable mentions but it became so long that I gave it up. There are definitely a lot of players who come close and would be included on other people’s lists. However, if I could create a team of 22 with two players in each position I would include Cafu to reach 8 defenders and Figo to reach 8 midfielders. Both have been in decline for most of the decade but in the first few years they were dominant players in their positions. It’s easy to forget them because they haven’t done anything lately but Cafu was essential to the Roma scudetto and the Brazil WC win in 01 and 02, and like Roberto Carlos he was always better defensively than what people gave him credit for. Figo in 00 and 01 reached the top 3 both years for FIFA World Player of the Year. He was also the key player in the Portugal side that reached the semis of Euro 2000 and the final of 04. Like Maldini, it would be unfair to penalize these players because they were at an advanced stage in their careers for the second half of the ten year time span.

So let’s hear your feedback… where did I screw up, and why? Try to list a number of reasons rather than something like, “Drogba scores more goals at Chelsea than Rooney does at United.” I can counter that by saying Rooney didn’t need to score as often because of Ronaldo’s goals from midfield and Rooney is also better at creating goals for others. But if you have a complete evaluation with a number of different reasons, I won’t be able to counter it very well.

I want to write about the Quagliarella situation. It’s no surprise that he was dropped from Lippi’s squad for the upcoming Italy friendlies (Maggio was included though) but he’s also not guaranteed a starting spot at Napoli. When he was subbed against Catania he (apparently) got angry and started swearing at Mazzarri. Normally this would be a violation of team rules, but the club is willing to make an exception for Quags. Why? Probably because he’s a local and his loyalty to Napoli is unquestioned. That’s fine, but it risks creating two sets of standards. Lavezzi misplaces his passport and everyone attacks his motives and he gets a fine. Quagliarella swears at the manager and it’s all OK… that’s Napoli in a nutshell. Napoli is going to find that favouring certain players over others – for whatever reasons – isn’t good for the long term unity of the team. One incident isn’t going to do much harm, but you can’t create two different classes of players. There was a reported Italy-South America split under Reja, and it might have led to the team’s long and painful slide in 08-09.

New director of sport Riccardo Bigon has spoken about the team’s plans for the upcoming January mercato. He claims that the attack is going to be left as it is, but I’m not sure about this. Our two starting strikers have combined for 5 goals in 12 games, and Pia and Hoffer aren’t likely to get much playing time. I think Bigon is hiding the team’s real interests because if everyone knows that Napoli is looking for a striker, the price just keeps going up. In the world football market you don’t declare a position of weakness before going shopping.

As for his comments about Dossena, I can’t really read much into them. He basically reaffirms that Dossena’s track record speaks for itself. I think he’s using the same principle as above: if he declares a huge interest in Dossena, he’s going to be on the losing end of negotiations. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Finally, Gargano’s injury is not as bad as first thought and he’s off at international duty with Uruguay. Gargano’s Uruguay play a home and home playoff with CONCACAF 4th place team Costa Rica for a place at the World Cup. In the early parts of qualifying Gargano was often a sub, but in the recent games he’s started including the decisive 1-0 loss to Argentina that saw Lavezzi’s team win the last automatic berth.

“It’s the ideal week to lose to Catania. They are a team of a good level that plays good football and if there is too much enthusiasm this could well become negative because the enthusiasm has to stay with the fans,” Mazzarri said.

“We should no longer have to concede to wake ourselves up, painful things do give a better taste in the end, but we are working to ensure it doesn’t happen anymore.”

Last season they whooped us nice in an efficient 3-1 victory, when we were in the beginning of what would be some treacherous form. Now the roles have reversed a bit. Mazzarri showed us that achieving a road victory doesn’t have to be a once a year holiday, but rather a reoccurring celebration. And… the Etnei, 7 points in 11 games.. ouch. No surprise that Atzori’s job may be resting on this one despite quite the injury crisis. Along with the injuries (Delvecchio the most notable) there are suspended defenders Matias Silvestre and Ciro Capuano from the spanking they got from Viola last week. That is poor luck because Capuano has looked a ray of shining light for the Sicilians in defense so far. While I look down on Catania from our 6th place perch, it should be noted that our avg. goals per match allowed is 2.2, compared to their 1.4 (away, to home, respectively). Humility boys, humility. With Japanese sensation Morimoto coming back from suspension, lining up alongside Mascara, Catania are a team to take seriously in terms of potential goal threats. Our back four has not looked like the most assured aerial force either.

A Game to Win
Mazzarri will be looking for a clean cut victory here, no last gasp emotional come backs, just some start to finish solid play all the way through. The kind of play that will start to officially give the team an identity. There shouldn’t be any massive changes from the side that whooped Juventus.

It will be interesting to see if Datolo gets his wing spot back after his stellar role last week, as well as if Quags gets to be in the starting 11.

Probable Lineup (3-4-2-1): De Sanctis, Grava, Cannavaro, Contini; Maggio, Gargano, Cigarini, Aronica; Hamsik, Lavezzi; Denis

Lining up against our old nemesis 3-5-2 the midfield battle should be interesting, but winnable, easily- really looking for Gargano and Cigs to dominate here (as I do pretty much the whole team). We can’t get give away possession cheaply in midfield, as all it takes a through ball to Contini to pass the ball to Morimoto in front of net. But again, defense needs to be stable, hopefully we learned from the Milan game. Speaking of stable, or lack thereof, where has Zuniga been? Talk about the antithesis of reinforcement. I’m pretty upset he’s been about as useless as an empty mayonnaise jar, as I had high hopes when he was signed. But did I mention I love Hamsik? Get that contract extended even further.

Unfortunately I have to leave for the weekend : ( to a land of no internet- but espn360 is showing us live again so I’ll catch the replay. Have a great weekend everyone.

Lets make it a 5 game unbeaten record Mazzarri, Forza Napoli

Instead I would like to focus on the current team. My initial feeling about last week was “too good to be true” but when I look at how the team has been shaped over the last few seasons it’s right about where the team should be. The two wins against Fiorentina and Juve were clean and well earned victories, and even if the comeback against Milan was a little miraculous it was still a legitimate result.

For those who remember last year, Napoli got off to a great start and had home wins against Fiorentina and Juventus, and an away win against Lazio. I don’t know if these results were on three consecutive matchdays, but they all took place in a time span of about a month. So there is a precendent for the amazing results of last week.

And since returning to Serie A, Napoli has created a habit of playing some big games against the top teams. Two seasons ago there was the famous 3-1 in against Milan that knocked them out of the Champions League, and in the last two seasons Napoli has beaten Scudetto winners Inter twice at home. Then there’s last year’s Coppa Italia game where Juve need penalities at the Stadio Olimpico to eliminate Napoli. To summarize, playing big teams hasn’t been one of Napoli’s shortcomings over the last few seasons.

What does Napoli need to make the next step into a perennial European team? The answer is playing against the mid and lower table teams. In Reja’s one complete season in Serie A the club managed some good results against these sides and snuck into Europe via the Intertoto. But it was clear that Reja had reached the limits of his managing abilities and couldn’t sustain this kind of success. The big question is, can Napoli find a winning formula for teams that will stick ten men behind the ball? Can Mazzarri keep rotating players so that later on in the seasons intagibles like fatigue and motivation won’t be a problem? These questions will be answered over the next six months, but if you’re bold enough to make a prediction the comments section is all yours.

I really think that Napoli has the talent to be a perennial European team except in a few areas such as defence and maybe attacking depth. After watching players like Datolo and Hamsik show their immense talents over the last week, some fans and experts are raising the issue of former d.s. Pierpaolo Marino who brought all these talented players to Napoli. Wasn’t it Marino who built up this great side?

My answer to that is yes and no. Yes, Marino did a great job of identifying talent. I don’t think anyone is disputing that. But at the same time, he had an awful lot of resources to work with (DeLa’s money) and even though he landed a number of talented players he did a poor job of managing the overall balance and development of the team. Also, for every smart purchase he had a bad one. For ever Lavezzi there is a Denis, and for every Datolo there is a Navarro. Sure, Denis has scored some big goals but Marino got ripped off paying about $8 million for him. Navarro, who cost around $4 million, showed brief glimpses of talent but never really fit into the team. In the end Napoli had to go out and get De Sanctis.

Marino therefore desereves a lot of credit for bringing these talented players to Napoli. But it should be noted that he had big resources, and with the sheer number of players he bought some were bound to work out. Plus, there’s more to a director of sport than spotting talent before others, and I think the other parts of the job are what got Marino fired.

Napoli’s next move – bringing Liverpool’s Andrea Dossena to Napoli in the January market – is the kind of thing Marino should have been doing. Dossena is an established player in his prime years who fills an urgent need on Napoli’s team (left defence.) He wants to come to Napoli, and all that really needs to be done is haggle over the price. This will be a good test for Bigon to see his negotiating skills. Hopefully he won’t get a reputation as someone who will pay more than market value as Marino frequently did.

Napoli has also been linked with a couple of young Ghanaians who could end up in Milan. Domenic Adiyiah recently won the Golden Boot at the U-20 World Cup, leading Ghana to victory. 16 year old Edmund Hottor is currently in the primavera squad of Triestina and had 50% of his rights purchased by AC Milan. While Adiyiah couldn’t reach an agreement with AC Milan, he will be at a top club one day. It’s great to see Napoli being mentioned as a destination for the world’s best young footballers. Even if the world’s best young players end up at clubs like Milan, Juve, or Man United, Napoli is closing the gap as a great club for young talent to shine.

Closer to home there are rumours of a swap with Lazio for Pandev and Ledesma. Napoli could really use a striker like Pandev. He’s not the most athletic player is the world, but he’s great technically in front of goal. Ledesma would likely provide depth at the centre midfield position. He could challenge Gargano or replace him if the Uruguayan leaves. Napoli shouldn’t give up a lot for these players though. Defintely NO to Santacroce and Cigarini. Bogliacino, Rinaudo, and Zuniga are more expendable. Even if this deal doesn’t go through, Bogliacino and Hoffer could be transfer listed in the January market. Both players are not getting much playing time and probably have better futures elsewhere.

Apologies for not including any pictures or video this post. I believe Chris will be back to cover the Catania game as I have another commitment on Saturday. You can look forward to some creative pictures and graphics then. Until that time, keep on savouring last week’s impressive victories. There could be more of them to follow.

My apologies for the delay. With course scheduling taking place, the past couple of days have been about as frantic as Juventus’ back four on Saturday. So while a lot of the hype has died down from our epic battle at the Olimpico, I’d like to recap a little bit of what happened; But at the same time to stop and take a breather for some perspective of where our team is right now– because 6th place is more than I expected, especially after a recent rough stretch of matches (Roma, Bologna, Fiorentina, Milan, Juve). We are making up for lost opportunity from the dark ages of the Donadoni era…

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Lets start with what went wrong (mainly one thing, to which you can probably guess before reading a second further):

First, Contini:

We need to work something out with Contini, hmm… leave and De La will pay for your haircut? If we are going to take the next step up in quality, and thrust ourselves into European competition, it would help if he didn’t grace the other team with easy goals, thus forcing Hamsik into further brilliance. While I enjoy seeing the latter, Hamsik could spare the additional sweat to keep his hair fresh.

That was just sad to watch. Contini, succumb to Anne Robinson’s wrath.

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Second, Conceding early

A recent footballitalia blog was written about this, raising a couple of questions. Mazzarri’s style is clearly one of passion and inspiration, but what will happen if we are leading and need to maintain consistency this way? Saving Reggina from relegation, earning promotion for Livorno, are all great comeback feats suggests the article, but what about for Napoli, who are expected to migrate towards the high end of the table and be consistent? Is he the right man? These seem to be a legitimate questions seeing as he’s known for that, but I don’t think we should look too far into it yet. As mentioned before, it was a difficult stretch of games that he came into, and with the exception of Bologna, the early goals were mere lapses of concentration (as shown above) that can’t necessarily be fully pinned on him. This being said, the next game against Catania will be the true meter of how much we should look into this issue. Mazzarri will have to settle them down from last weekend, because while their team is terrible, there are some players who can punish you in those brain fart *cough* Contini *cough* moments.

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The Good:

Again, hats off to all the players and Mazzarri, even if we lost or tied that game- while I would have been pissed- I would have been immensely satisfied with the competitiveness that the players showed up with. Wow what a contrast of play between these past four games and when Donadoni was leading. Personally, I recall many times being fed up with our lackluster play in the second half of a ‘Donadoni Napoli,’ and thus not feeling bad leaving the computer to make an extra cup o’ joe to ease the stress. With a ‘Mazzarri Napoli,’ the cup o’ joe best be ready before the game, or it’s waiting until half time.

Mazzarri Praise

I’m wondering if in these past couple of decisive games, anyone who was on the fence when he was hired, feels differently after getting to know him better. These were the results of last quiz.

While I can’t remember which one I voted for, I do remember being hesitant (but still in an ‘anything is better than this [Donadoni]” attitude). Apparently De La knew this was the right move two years ago! Maybe this guy knows more about football than everyone thinks…That’s another story though.

“I had already thought about Mazzarri two years ago. I was sure that he would be ideal for a place like Napoli.”
“But I was in Los Angeles, I couldn’t pursue the deal. And when Edy Reja left, Donadoni arrived. I shouldn’t have given him a two-year contract.”

The Juve game definitely changed my views. Mazzarri really had the team playing, and he really displayed some tactical know- how. As De La again said, the subs were perfect.

Datolo the super sub?

(Don’t strangle the guy!)

Well I don’t think the phrase super sub has ever had as much meaning, coming on to slot a clutch goal (was it his very first touch?), and then an even more clutch assist. There are two things I’d like to look at here:

1) The progression of Datolo as a player under Mazzarri, and
2) The tactics of this substitution within the game

First, every coach has his new breed of favorites, and who they think fits best where, blah blah blah. But even so, I was surprised to see two of Mazzarri’s changes to Donadoni’s standard starting 11: Pazienza for Cigs, and Aronica for Datolo. I think many of us would agree that the latter players have more quality than the former ones. It seems Mazzarri may have pulled one over on us, while he shook up the line up to further instigate these players to the quality he needs. And I think it is in the process of working. Cigarini is improving, scoring against Milan, and regaining his starting position.

Second, the tactics of this were brilliant. What’s that? Camoranesi is not on the field helping to protect the flank with ‘the weakest link’ Grygera? Instead, it’s Tiago, who, after reading the Juventusoffside’s comments, is regarded as a useless and overrated player. So what does Mazzarri do but recognize this and push even further for wing play. And he got it. The flank was often overwhelmed and if Grygera could questionably mark a man tight in a 1 v. 1 situation, he sure as hell couldn’t do it in 2 v. 1 situations.

Again, all of this is great, but now it’s up to Mazzarri to instill the ‘one game at a time’ mentality before we take on Catania.

Are you a Mazzarri convert? or still Hesitant?(survey)

Forza Napoli!

4-2-3-1 vs. 4-2-3-1

Well we’ve both been through the formation changes, unfortunately for learning new systems during the season ours had to accompany a coaching change too. Ours is in it’s fetal stages, theirs is growing into freakin Achilles. Anyone remember that bullshit I was spewing in one of my first posts about the rebirth of the trequartista (in Serie A)? Well apparently that fad is on the outs now, the trequartista experiment has failed for a at least a couple of teams- Milan, Lazio have found themselves migrating to a 4-2-3-1 (even though it hasn’t done them too many favors in the depths of the table… Pandev and Ledesma anyone?) Juventus started out with the 4-3-1-2, utilizing Diego, who at the beginning of the season looked like he was going to replicate his Werder Bremen success and THEN some. This was looking awesome for my fantasy team (go Diego, just don’t score tomorrow), but it wasn’t to continue. Teams learned if they glue a couple guys to mark the shit out of him, the Juve three pronged attack would be more like a spoon. Hence, we have the switch to the 4-2-3-1, aka a way to have Diego and former treq. backup Giovinco, playing at the same time, along with the very in form Mauro Camoranesi, who when he can play more than one game in a row, is just a dominant, underestimated force to be contended with, AHHH! Ours is still getting it together, and it will be interesting to see how Cigarini and Denis’ performances will impact Mazzarri’s selection. I think you could make a case for both of them being in the line up, Cigarini for Pazienza and Denis for Quags. For them, there is little question as to who’s up top (although Del Piero could reportedly make an appearance), Amauri despite an early goal drought started scoring, said he was going to score more, and is scoring more. That is some cause for concern, but then again so are most strike forces when lined up on paper to our back four. I really feel that Mazzarri is getting the best out of these guys though. The Milan game showed that despite the early trembles, the defense held its own for large portions of the game. I suppose part of this was due to our consistency in possession and attack, something Donadoni could not produce.

Finishing vs. Buffon

Damn, if Dida was frustrating, imagine Buffon. Despite needing knee surgery, he’s in that type of fantastic form that has a tendency to single handedly win Juventus games. As much as I love Quags, we may need that little bit of something magical to beat Buffon, and what do you know, of all people to show some of that finishing magic, it’s Denis! Fuck, if he can score, put him out there.

Perfect Timing?
I’ve seen a good amount of Juve’s league games, some of the Champions League matches they played, and nearly every game Buffon was key in the last 10 minutes. For some reason or another, Juve have a tendency to take their foot of the pedal at this time of the game. It is actually somewhat funny to watch, it starts at the top with the strikers who lose possession, the DM’s make bad passes, and all in all it ends up being a shit show in front of Buffon who comes up with some serious saves to maintain the status quo of the game. Team quality doesn’t necessarily matter either, it happened against Bologna, a very late header in stoppage time, and it very nearly happened against CL group underdogs Maccabi Haifa (who they actually play again next week which could be an additional advantage for us) as they barely held onto their 1-0 lead towards the end of the game. Unfortunately, this graph isn’t the greatest representation of my point, but you can sort of get the gist, most goals conceded are before the breaks.

Our goals conceded under 15 is sad- looking at this through the preview function, the bar is so long you can’t even see the tally (Don’t ask don’t tell). But if we can hold off early pressure, and be patient and attack at the right times I think we can win this one. Again, not a completely logical argument for thinking we can win away against Juventus, but the type of spirit Mazzarri has our team playing with, well it has carried over to me a bit, and I can’t help feeling optimistic against any opponent.

Grosso vs. Maggio
Everyone knows the greatest weakness of Juve is at the fullback position. It’s what exposed their CB’s last season, and although it’s looking better this year with Grosso and Caceres, I think it’s still something that can be exploited. I’m looking for Maggio to have an explosive game. It will be a very interesting battle between he and Grosso, who can sometimes be caught up field in vulnerable situations. If Maggio finds the right balance between going forward and and defending, good things will happen. On their left, Grygera, probably the weakest link in the line up due to Caceres’ broken nose, can be easily exposed. Some reports have us lining up a 3-4-3 which I think could work well in this context of working wing play. It would also obviously allow Denis to get on the field as well, which up until a recently I decided is a good thing.

Draw up the game plan Mazzarri!

Forza Napoli!

Here is the complete record of the interview.

“If the players lost three kilos playing, then I lost five. But for me this draw is worth a victory because it said so many things.”

Sure, the draw feels like a victory, but in the end it’s still a single point. Napoli did show lots of heart, character, courage, whatever you want to call it. But on this night it was only worth one point.

“All the players were very good, even Luca Cigarini and German Denis, the goalscorers. They sacrificed themselves and now await the next game.

I wonder if DeLa is expecting Cigarini and Denis to start next game? Even if they don’t start, their goals must have earned them a start sometime in the future.

“I would say that Napoli have been very good. We showed character, but also demonstrated that we know how to play football. And we did it against a great team that castigated us twice in five minutes on two uncertainties.

Completely true! I don’t know if Milan is a great team this season but Napoli is showing lots of things that were missing under Donadoni.

“We reacted and created six or seven chances, and found an immense Dida. If I have to find fault with the team then I end up looking even more pedantic than I am made out to be even though I am not. But it’s true that we create a lot and score a smaller percentage,” De Laurentiis concluded.

I love how DeLa understands that people will accuse him of being pedantic if he finds fault with the team. Hey, I feel the same way as a blogger. But he’s right – Napoli’s slump last season started when the team was able to create all kinds of chances without scoring from them. I would rather the team go for higher quality chances and put them away rather than trying to accumulate lots of low quality chances.

DeLa can say some strange things but I think his assessment of the game was spot on. I’m looking forward to the Juve game. I think it will be a much better yardstick than the Milan game to see where Napoli is right now. The team is still creating an identity under Mazzarri, and there’s plenty of matches left and lots of work to be done.

1) Inzaghi doesn’t miss an open net. That second half blunder has to go down as one of the misses of the season, and it cost Milan two points.

2) Leonardo does his job and takes Abate out of the game. I have to give credit to Leo because after the game he admitted his mistake. Some managers won’t do this. After Abate’s first yellow in the 13th minute, I predicted he would eventually see red. It was clear that Abate couldn’t handle Lavezzi, and it’s amazing the veteran Oddo wasn’t brought in.

The reason I say Napoli didn’t deserve a draw is because those two key events were outside of Napoli’s control. In other words, it was just Milan screwing up and this game should be seen as Milan throwing away two points rather than Napoli dramatically earning a point.

Auriemma highlights:

I love how every time an opponent scores against Napoli Signor Auriemma reacts like someone has stabbed him in the heart. At the very best, he seems confused as to how to properly deal with the situation.

Yes, Napoli did play well for large chunks of the game and a lot of things were done quite well on Napoli’s end. Notice how Mazzarri took out Campagnaro after he picked up his yellow? That’s good management. Mazzarri identified a player who has a history of recklessness and took action to prevent a future problem.

Napoli also pushed forward most of the game and if not for a few great saves by Dida, could have started a comeback earlier than the 90th minute. But Dida did make those saves, and good goalkeeping is often a component in Serie A.

Now I want to talk about the formation Napoli used. Our back four would have been better with:

Campagnaro – Cannavaro – Contini – Aronica

but for this game it was:

Grava – Campagnaro – Rinaudo – Aronica

In any case, I don’t like how Napoli played the 4-2-3-1 formation today. On both Milan goals, Napoli could not get control of the ball in midfield, and Milan was able to play two great passes to give Inzaghi and Pato clear breakaways for their goals. If you look at how the formation lines up on paper, there’s a couple of holes in midfield:

De Sanctis

Grava Campagnaro Rinaudo Aronica

Gargano Pazienza

Maggio Hamsik Lavezzi

Quagliarella

The two person line of Gargano and Pazienza is a bit thin, and space needs to be covered on both wings, either by the outside defenders moving up, or the wingers dropping back. On both goals Milan had players in midfield who were able to play a quick pass to break through Napoli’s flat back four. If Napoli wants to win using the 4-2-3-1, the team has to do a better job of winning the midfield battle. With Maggio and Lavezzi usually thinking attack, it was more like a 4-2-4. That’s a problem formation in today’s game.

And that is why Napoli found themselves down 2-0 after just five minutes. AC Milan proved you can’t win a game in the first five minutes, but Napoli also proved it’s possible to lose a game in the first five minutes.

In Mazzarri’s three games Napoli has scored five goals, all of them coming in the last 20 minutes and four of them coming in the 88th minute or later. That’s a worrying trend. It’s made for exciting finishes and seven out of nine points, but what happens when Napoli’s late game heroics come to an end?

And there’s also the Quagliarella situation. To put it bluntly, Quagligol has been playing very average the last few games. On top of his average performances there’s also been a missed penalty. Against Fiorentina, he was subbed for Denis in the 86th minute, and against Milan the same substitution was made in the 71st minute. I’m asking a couple of questions: is there any chance Quagliarella could be dropped from the starting lineup? And is there any chance he’ll lose his place in the Italy World Cup team? I’m saying yes to both questions. Even if he continues to start at Napoli despite indifferent games, there’s a lot more competition for strikers in Lippi’s squad. I hope he finds his form quickly before other Italian strikers start making their claim for a World Cup place.

So, even though the overall situation is good – Napoli is 2-1-0 in the last three games, with two of them coming against Champions League calibre opponents – there are still some problems that have to be worked out. I would like to see Mazzarri experiment with different lineups over the next 2 months to see which ones work the best. Should Cigarini start over Pazienza? Well, if you want an attacking player, yes, but if you want a defensive player Pazienza might be a better option. Also, who are Napoli’s best defenders? This season, Napoli’s best defender has been….. nobody. Not Santacroce, not Cannavaro, not Aronica, not Rinaudo, not Grava, not Contini. There is a case to be made for Campagnaro, but as many fans have observed he tends to drift in and out of the lineup due to injury/suspension and at his best he is still a bit reckless.

Given the way Napoli started the season I should probably be delighted with a point against Milan but I’m not. Even though Napoli have played a lot of tough games so far – it continues next weekend with Juventus away – many of the teams in the bottom half of the table are finding their form as well. Parma and Bari are currently overachieving, and teams like Atalanta and Livorno are doing better under new managers. Just like last season, positions 4-14 will be hotly contested. There have been a lot of upsets so far and with the parity in Serie A any team can win on any given day. I look at Napoli squeaking out last minute results, and my emotions tell me to view the glass as half full, but my brain tells me to view the glass as half empty.

I guess the best way to conclude this post is to hope that Napoli starts making something out of something rather than something out of nothing.

Forza Napoli!

For about five years, from 2003-2007, Milan were doing everything right. The team had star players in their prime, a great supporting cast, a manager who knew how to pull the right strings, and so many intangibles that lots of winning teams have: innovation, loyalty, commitment, etc. But competing in Europe with the ultra rich EPL is tough, and Milan fell off the wagon in Serie A, finishing 5th in 2007-08. Ironically it was Napoli who knocked Milan out of a Champions League spot late in the season at the San Paolo.

What did Milan do wrong? They simply didn’t look to the future. The core of the team became a bit older, and some veteran players got complacent because of no internal competition. Instead of identifying weaknesses and coming up with solutions, the club signed players like Ronaldinho and Beckham for marketing reasons. I would like to note that these two players are still quite good, but they didn’t really solve any of the team’s problems. Every time I go to the Milan offside there is an endless debate about how to use Ronnie. That’s not a good situation.

Last season Milan finished tied for 2nd with Juve, and seemed to have recovered from their problems. Then two key individuals, Kaka and Ancelotti, decided to move on. If the club had a bit of foresight as they were celebrating their 2007 Champions League win, they would have realized losing key personnel was bound to happen. If you look at Milan’s roster they haven’t really been able to replace either of those two people. Even though Milan is a good bet to qualify for the Champions League again, I wouldn’t describe them as a team with star players in their prime, a strong supporting cast, and a manger who knows how to pull the right strings. They still have a lot of work to do before they can earn that status again.

To be honest, I have no idea if they’re rebuilding or retooling, but they still have an awful lot of quality. The same question of age still hangs over the team though: is Milan too old to compete at the highest level in Serie A and Europe for a whole season? And if they do show some problems due to a heavy schedule, can Leonardo make the right adjustments? I don’t know the answers to these questions, and I have to conclude that Milan is a team that can play frighteningly good football (anyone see the 3-2 win over Real Madrid) but is still vulnerable on some nights.

Napoli have won twice under Mazzarri with two late goals to make a giant leap up the table. Incredibly, if they defeat Milan and other teams slip up on Wednesday, they’ll be in 4th(!) by next weekend’s showdown with Juventus. This simply proves that it’s still early in the season, and there’s plenty of time for the challengers to rise to the top and the pretenders to slip down a little.

It remains to be seen whether Mazzarri will rest anyone for Juventus. Campagnaro isn’t ready, and if Gianluca Grava is good enough to play a full 90 minutes away to Fiorentina, he could be used again. Cannavaro returns from suspension, but does Rinaudo keep his place at centre back? Leonardo believes the game could turn into a tactical chess match, and this game might be decided by managerial moves.

If Milan plays the forward line of Ronaldinho-Borriello-Pato, Mazzarri could use four at the back in a 4-2-3-1 lineup. Here is how it might look:

De Sanctis
Grava – Cannavaro – Contini – Aronica
Gargano – Pazienza
Maggio – Lavezzi – Hamsik
Quagliarella

This is of course just one option for Mazzarri. Since he’s only been manager for two games there’s no history of him working with the Napoli lineup.

Finally, in transfer news Liverpool’s little used left back Andrea Dossena could be moving to Napoli in the January window. Dossena has the same agent as De Sanctis, and with the Napoli keeper cementing his spot in the Nazionale – he might even surpass Marchetti to become Buffon’s back up – a move to Napoli might help Dossena’s chances of making the plane to South Africa.

Sorry for the quickness of this preview but I finally got my internet connection back after about a week without and I was eager to get a post up. I missed the Fiorentina game but I watched the Auriemma highlights with great joy. It looked like a very entertaining game with lots of chances and some good goalkeeping. Here are the highlights:

I’d like to finish with a question: who takes Napoli’s penalities? Last time Hamsik had to push Quags away, and then missed. Now Quags goes up to the spot unchallenged, and misses. As Signor Auriemma asks, why not Hamsik, il rigorista? Did something change once Mazzarri took over?

Enjoy the game Wednesday as Napoli look to make it three wins in a row. When was the last time that happened? Forza Napoli!