Napoli vs. PSV
By: Neil | December 6th, 2012Jimmy returns with his thoughts on Napoli’s final group game. It’s been a very interesting group – as Jimmy rightly points out PSV’s form has been a bit wild which gave Napoli a chance which they took with wins against Dnipro and AIK the last two matchdays. Interesting how Cavani was mostly responsible for those two wins…
Napoli vs PSV
Napoli probable team: Rosati; Uvini, Fernandez, Campagnaro; Maggio, Behrami, Donadel, Dossena; El Kaddouri; Vargas, Cavani
It’s the last group game in the Europa league and Napoli have qualified already, due more to PSV’s wildly fluctuating form than to any great plan from Mazzarri. We can’t overtake Dnipro at the top of the table and can’t be overtaken by PSV or AIK so second place is already assured.
Both teams have big games at the weekend so this will likely be a battle between the fringe players. Napoli should be resting players for a huge test away to Inter and PSV who have lost their last three games in all competitions and fallen from top spot in the Eredivisie have a home game against the current leaders FC Twente.
Rosati will start in goal and the Europa league has been useful in a way in identifying an impending goalkeeper issue. De Sanctis’ form has been on the slide in the last two years and from Rosati’s performances we can see that he is not a suitable replacement. It’s unlikely that there will be any January changes in the goalkeeping department but I would expect a serious reshuffling in the summer.
Fernandez will start in the centre of defence after being suspended for the last Europa league game and Bruno Uvini will make his Napoli debut. Uvini is likely to be loaned out in January so this is his opportunity to show that he deserves to stay at Napoli to fight for a spot in the first team.
Dossena and Maggio are the two two wing-backs which likely means that Mesto is being kept for the Inter game unless Maggio can improve considerably on what we’ve seen of late. Dzemaili was injured in training today so either Behrami or Inler will partner the uninspiring Donadel in the centre.
El Kaddouri will play ahead of them and he showed some nice touches for the limited time he had on the pitch last weekend so hopefully he will continue in this vein. He is also reported to be going well in training so his confidence should be up. Hamsik isn’t even going to be on the bench so it’s likely that El Kaddouri will get the 90mins.
Cavani apparently requested that he play rather than being rested so he will partner Vargas up front. I would expect that Cavani and Pandev will get a half each to give them a run out before the Inter game so cross your fingers and offer a prayer to your deity of choice that Cavani doesn’t get injured in a meaningless Europa league game. This is a gilt-edged chance for Vargas to put in a positive display, PSV are low in confidence and will be fielding a second-string side. He seems to take up good positions and while earlier in the season it seemed he and Cavani couldn’t play together I think he has turned a corner and just needs a goal to spark him into life. He gets chances but doesn’t have that clinical edge that comes with being confident in front of goal.
Napoli have an unbeaten home record to maintain in Europe so I would hope that the players will be up for the game but win, lose or draw we are marching on to the next round…
Some Related Napoli Posts:
Category: Team News
Comments
-
How many goals has that useless plank Rosati given up this year in europe and how much money are we givin him to cost us goals
-
Just goes to show you how valuable De Sanctis is… when Rosati came over from Lecce, he was supposed to be the long term successor after a few years of growth and learning. Now we’ll be looking for another long term successor. A new De Sanctis will be hard to find.
-
Mattia Perin would be my choice, he reminds me of Buffon when Buffon first started playing.
-
OK get Cavani out of there now
-
Jekyll and Hyde team. We were costing for the first 30 minutes of the match then the mistake left the team with the jitters, as much as i like Campagnaro when he is in the team the defence is left with too many holes when he goes up field.
-
we had an agreement with matavz and groningen that we were gonna sign him in thee upcoming transfer window a year back then he all of a sudden changed his mind. smart move on his part would be the player he is if he came to napoli behind cavani and mazzarri
-
Good thing this match didn’t mean anything, for some reason Napoli doesn’t match up well tactically against PSV… outscored 6-1 in just under two games, you can’t put that down to individual errors or players having off nights.
-
Rosatti is a joke.
-
OGGI I MANDOLINI NAPOLETANI NON ERANO ACCORDATI. HANNO SUONATO UNA SERENATA GIA DIMENTICATA…..
SI VA AVANTI…..THE SHOW MUST GO ON…..
-
How did Roberto play?
-
The positives: Cavani scored and looked dangerous. Pandev has returned from injury and got a run out. El Kaddouri showed that he has a good touch, a good footballing brain and pace, hopefully he will become a worthwhile backup to hamsik. There were no injuries.
The negatives: Rosati can’t be trusted to deal comfortably with routine saves, we need a new young keeper. The defending was poor especially as Ciro said when Campagnaro went too far upfield. Donadel has no engine, we need a new backup in this department because since his injury he simply can’t get around the pitch enough. Vargas had plenty of chances but continues to frustrate.
-
Good to see Pandev back out there, making some things happen. When he’s been in form the team clicks, as it did early in the campaign.
-
Impressed with El Kaddouri, Vargas had very good movement needs to finish better though, Roberto Insigne had an awesome touch inside the box on a long cross- impressed me.
On another note- Rosati is the opposite of DeSanctis. Made a mess of some easy saves and gave up terrible rebounds
-
Yes we had an agreement with his old club but Matavz chose PSV over Napoli because he said “they are more prestigious than Napoli”.
-
Let’s face it we would have won if not for Rosati, even then we still should have at least tied. Missed too many chances but it doesn’t matter we march on they are out.
-
More prestigious huh? If you say so Matavz.
So just finished reading Maz’s comments…once again Napoli were unlucky. Interesting
-
Unlucky that Rosati turned out to be as bad as he is. At least El Koudorri looked good. I remember criticizing him earlier in the season. I guess he just needed time.
-
just saw the highlights and they made rosati look worthless once again. granted the club has been someone successful in buying players as we are second in the league but imagine if some of these transfers that were close to being complete in the past went through… armero, vidal, matavz, shaqiri, criscito, and the list goes on
-
Rosati, che sfacimmmm!
-
Would have loved if napoli were to pull the trigger on asamoah
-
So I read an article today that has CSKA Moscow potentially bidding for Behrami. Huh?
Also read that Mazz is looking to want to loan Vargas and bring in Pazzini. I would like that.
-
The phenomenal surge of desire to win from all the Napoli fans across the world, will surely be, a playing factor on how the boys will do on Sunday. I have absolutely no doubt of that.
I have seen the results of this” phenomena ” from the SanPaolo when we have the celebratory explosions of emotional release caused by Napoli goals. The now illegal fireworks have nothing on that.
I will say that I for one, have asked the esoteric support from San Gennaro and I am not ashamed of my Neapolitan superstitious element. -
The San Siro is a jinx. I’ll be happy with a point, ecstatic with 3.
Forza Napoli!!!
-
As we speak Hamsik is not at 100 %.Confident we can win this one……
So will it be Pandev or Insigne?
-
They are saying the game might be postponed due to potential bad weather.
So what do you guys make of Napoli getting docked 2 points? Will that go into effect this year?
Read the rest of the comments
Home 
