Interview With The Vampire

By: Neil | October 29th, 2009

For the record, Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis is not a vampire. But whenever I see his cold, unmoving face, the image of him ripping apart his players’ flesh and drinking their blood flashes across my mind. Sorry for the gruesome thoughts but I just had to do a Halloween themed post this year. DeLa gave an extensive interview after the 2-2 draw with Milan, and some of his comments are certainly worth discussing.

Who has tastier blood, strikers or midfielders?

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.