Reja Finally Takes Responsibility

By: Neil | February 11th, 2009

Palermo 2 Napoli 1
It seems that upper management at Napoli finally caught on to Reja’s post match comments. After a string of excuses like bad luck, referees, fatigue – the only one missing is blaming the pitch – Reja finally admitted that he is responsible for the on field results.

I am including both the Channel 4 link and the goal.com link because it’s obviously the same interview but two slightly different versions of it.

For the record, Napoli used a 3-4-1-2 with Hamsik just behind the forwards. It wasn’t that big a change because even when Hamsik plays alongside Gargano he tends to drift upfield quite a bit and plays almost as a trequartista. I don’t have too much to say about the Palermo game. Basically, we lost the game in the first 15 minutes. After going down 2-0 Napoli had a lot of possession and Hamsik scored a peach, but the team didn’t come prepared. Reja blamed fatigue, and I actually think a few players were tired. Our whole back line including Navarro played 120 minutes midweek against Juve, except for Aronica who was subbed after 90. But if fatigue was the difference, then we would have lost the game in the second half and not the first 15 minutes. Napoli came out looking very uninterested in playing football, and you can’t do that in Serie A. The first 15 minutes were the low point of the year for me and I’ve seen every game except the Salernitana Coppa Italia match.

I also cringed when I saw that our backline was Cannavaro – Contini – Aronica. Contini hasn’t really played in the centre since joinign Napoli and he looked out of place. And how did Santacroce lose his place from last Wednesday but not Aronica? Santacroce is 22 and can handle two games per week. Aronica is 31 and has trouble handling one game. That was a weak backline, and Palermo did the damage before Napoli’s defence could get themselves warmed up. This was one of those games where you can say that playing three at the back cost us the game. Actually, if your defence is that bad even four at the back won’t be enough. Navarro also looked tired, but you can’t blame him for either of the goals because they were both scored right on Napoli’s doorstep. As a keeper there’s not much you can do when attacking players are directing the ball on net from three yards out. But he still looked tired, and couldn’t really react on the second goal when the ball hit him flush. Iezzo has been out of action for too long.

There are now doubts that Napoli can qualify for the Europa League next season. In order to qualify we need to finish 5th or 6th, although Napoli could qualify out of the 7th spot if the Coppa Italia winners qualify for the Champions League. But UEFA has dumped the Intertoto Cup, so no backdoor qualification this year. Former Napoli player Jose Altafini believes that a decline in the physical condition of the squad is a factor. He also suggests a lack of experience is one reason why players aren’t as fit as earlier in the season. I like how he talks about a lack of experience rather than Napoli’s vaunted youth. If you look at the age of some players you realize Napoli isn’t all that young. Our backline for the Palermo game had Cannavaro (28) Contini (29) and Aronica (31). That’s a high average age for a team’s defence. Other key players who aren’t that young include Iezzo (36) Maggio (27) Bogliacino (29) Blasi (29) Pazienza (27) Zalayeta (31) and Denis (27). Except for Iezzo none of these players are old, but you wouldn’t describe them as young either. When people talk about Napoli’s youth I think they’re referring more to the fact that not many of the players have a lot of experience playing with top teams. You could argue that the stars of the team like Lavezzi, Hamsik, and Santacroce are young, but when you factor in the rest of the lineup the average age is pretty normal. And Reja often keeps good young players like Santacroce and Russotto on the bench.

I don’t really understand how having young players is an advantage at the start of the season but not at the end. Wouldn’t it be the older players who start to feel the grind a bit earlier in the season? I think Napoli’s decline in physical condition has more to do with playing a lot of pressure filled games early in the year rather than age. Also the team’s style is very repetitive with lots of breakouts to the wings and then crosses back to the centre. I think that approach eats away at the players’ creativity and creates mental fatigue. There’s definitely more factors at work in Napoli’s fatigue than a midweek Coppa Italia match, although playing four days after a shootout loss isn’t easy.

Napoli now have two home games against Bologna and Genoa before going back to Torino for a rematch with Juventus. A poor result against Bologna and Reja could be gone. Even if Napoli wins that game it could just buy Reja more time.

Finally, I’ve done some thinking and given Napoli’s current players I’ve come up with what I think is Napoli’s best formation on paper. It uses the Christmas tree formation that Ancelotti uses at Milan. I’m not saying it’s the best system there is, but if you have the right players it works very well. Milan has won a lot using it the last five years.

———————-Iezzo———————-
Maggio—–Santacroce—–Cannavaro——Vitale
—–Blasi———-Gargano———Datolo——-
————Lavezzi———-Hamsik————–
——————-Denis————————-

Maybe Denis isn’t the ideal centre forward for this formation, but there’s still a nice balance there. And both Lavezzi and Hamsik get to play the trequartista role.

If you have anything to add about Sunday’s somewhat embarrassing loss to Palermo, please leave your comments below. That is all.