A Promising Start All Set To Unravel

By: Neil | October 6th, 2008

Genoa – Napoli 3-2

Just like our loss to Benfica on Thursday, there is no shame in losing to a quality side on the road. But for the second straight game, our management team has resorted to excuses like bad luck and a bad ref to cover up obvious defensive problems.

After Ezequiel Lavezzi’s first minute goal, we were technichally leading Serie A for a short time on Sunday. But by the end of the day we had slipped to 6th place, and once again it looked like we lost confidence after concending goals. Although the team has played some great soccer so far, the results we’ve earned have all been scraped out. We need to start controlling games better, or else the results are going to disappear as they did against Genoa.

I was really happy with the first twenty minutes or so. Beyond Lavezzi’s goal, which was really a gift from the Genoa defence, Napoli was concentrated, precise, and only a great save from Rubinho on a Denis header prevented us from going up by two. Although I don’t usually like to single out one event as changing a game, that save seemed to kick start Genoa. From that point on they took the initiative and scored three straight goals, the last one coming after Rossi’s explusion. Napoli finished the game strong and Denis cut the lead with a well taken goal, but we couldn’t find the equalizer even after Papastathoupoulos was shown a second yellow and sent to the dressing room.

Here are the post match interviews from Reja and Marino:

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=897460

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=898618

If Reja’s can’t find any problems with our last two losses, there’s something completely wrong. Even though Genoa is a really good attacking side, there’s no way we should be allowing three goals in a game. I don’t know whether Reja pays attention to Napoli’s stats – sometimes I wonder if he even follows the team at all – but we haven’t scored three goals in a Serie A game so far this year. If Reja is OK with conceding three goals, we would have to set a season high for goals scored just to start getting draws. Also, why was Sanatacroce subbed at halftime? Sure, he was partly at fault for Papastathoupoulos’ goal – Gianello actually should take more of the blame, because it was a weak shot – but you can’t take out your team’s core players after one mistake. Also, why wasn’t Cannavaro in the centre of defence, marking Diego Milito? Milito was man of the match, and we had our starting centre defender resting on the bench. Unbelievable. It’s funny how Santacroce was called up by Marcello Lippi to play for the Azzurri, yet Reja can’t get the best out of him.

This is also the second straight game where Marino has taken a shot at the ref. If we need perfect performances from the ref in order to win, that’s a huge sign we have some weaknesses.

Right now the management team needs to realize that defenders like Aronica, Rinaudo, and maybe Contini are going to struggle when playing against world class attackers like Milito and Palladino. Our five man midfield is supposed to protect our backline by slowing down the other team’s breakouts closer to the source, but teams can get around that by playing three strikers and sending them direct balls that bypass the midfield.

I can continue to rant about how players like Rinaudo and Pazienza shouldn’t form the spine of our team, but I’m quite certain I’ll have more opportunities to do so in the future.

Here are the extended highlights from what was a very entertaining game:

I don’t have much else to add. In two weeks time we’re back at the San Paolo, which will be half empty for Juventus thanks to ongoing sanctions. Four of our players – Hamsik, Gargano, Santacroce, and Maggio will be on international duty with their respective countries, although it’s unlikely that Santacroce and Maggio will have a significant role with the Azzurri. Both are first time call ups, and neither will probably start.