Napoli 0 vs Lazio 2: The Aftermath

By: Neil | March 8th, 2009

It was frustrating to watch the same story unfold: Napoli shows no offensive bite, and the team takes another big step back after some small steps forward. I’d like to write that Napoli lost another exciting game where we fell just short to a great team, but that hasn’t been happening. I was actually disappointed in Lazio because other than Rocchi’s two shots on net they didn’t really create much. But like the past nine matchdays, Napoli found a way to drop points. In the preview I wrote that a loss wouldn’t necessarily kill Napoli’s hopes of qualifying for Europe, but given how bad our form is it would take a miracle to even contend for one of those spots.

The difference today was goalkeeping. Rocchi’s two goals certainly weren’t spectacular shots. They were both good shots, low and towards the corner, but many Serie B goalies could have stopped them. Especially the second one. Today we would have been better off with either 40 year old Luca Bucci or 18 year old Luigi Sepe in net. Muslera was great for Lazio today and that’s the kind of goaltending you need at the Serie A level. If the teams had switched keepers before kickoff the score might have been 3-0 for Napoli.

Highlights:

Since the competitive part of our season is now over, here are the things I want to talk about.

A Four Man Defence

Rocchi’s first goal today demonstrated perfectly that having one extra man at the back offers no guarantees. When a defence breaks down, it breaks down whether there’s three or four people back there. Having said that Lazio didn’t get many quality chances, and both Santacroce and Aronica looked good making the transition from defence to attack. With our current defenders I think a four man defence would be better but our offence would struggle even more than it’s already doing

Aronica

I’m not going to do any pagelle for this game because there were too many low numbers. But if I had to pick a Napoli man of the match it would be Aronica. He did a great job going forward and once again showed that he is more calm and collected on the ball than Contini. I think he is much more comfortable in a four man defence than a back three, and the fact that he hasn’t played much this season looks just as bad on Marino as it does Reja. If you know the team is going to use a back three, why pick up a 30 year old defender who has been playing in a back four system his whole career?

Navarro

After every good game I think that Navarro could be Napoli’s keeper of the future, and that he’ll at least compete for the number one job when Iezzo becomes too old. But until he gets more consistent he doesn’t really have any kind of future in Serie A. He has what I call the Zalayeta syndrome: sometimes he’s lightning fast, other times he looks slow and lumbering. The worst part is you can’t blame his bad play on lack of experience or youth. Today’s goals were simply due to slow body movement combined with poor technique. I’m not going to criticize Marino for getting Navarro because when the deal was made it seemd like we had acquired a great goaltending prospect for a reasonable fee. But Navarro hasn’t worked out as planned yet.

Zalayeta and Denis

I can’t remember the last time either one of these players scored. You can work hard on defence and do all kinds of running off the ball, but if a forward isn’t scoring goals and the team isn’t winning there’s a big problem. Reja has given each striker plenty of opportunity this season to win the starter’s job, but both have been goal shy. The last nine matchdays have resembled a merry go round with Zalayeta and Denis taking turns as a starter, with the other coming on when the first one has failed to find the net or create any offence. Three of Denis’s seven goals came in the same game, so his numbers are a bit misleading. Napoli paid around 8 million Euros for Denis, while Samp just payed 9 million Euros for Pazzini. Which one has been the better buy?

Reja

I think Reja should have been fired after the Bologna game. In the last nine games Napoli is 0-2-7 with plenty of home games in there, games against relegation candidates, and games against teams who have just played in midweek. I don’t want to read any more comments about Reja. It’s time to start ripping into Marino and DeLa for not making the change when it needs to be made. Conte has Bari in first place in Serie B, and Ferrara is learning under a master in Ranieri. I hope one of those two comes on board.

Hamsik

There is growing speculation that Hamsik will be sold in the summer. I don’t understand how taking the team’s leading scorer off the roster will improve things, but DeLa might want to recover some of the millions of dollars he’s spent on players like Denis, Navarro, and Pazienza. Selling Hamsik will be a tough pill to swallow, but if he can bring in enough funds it will be good for the long term financial stability of the team.

Next game is away to Reggina, who are currently in last place and six points away from safety. This run of winless games started with a loss to Chievo who were in last at the time, and with all due respect there is no better chance to win than against the team that is mathematically worst in the league.