Serie A Portion of Season Slipping Away

By: Neil | January 30th, 2012

Italy Soccer Serie A
Napoli’s brilliant form in cup competitions is a huge contrast to its sputtering Serie A form. Despite advancing in the Champions League and reaching a Coppa Italia semi-final, the Serie A table tells a different story. In the last 7 rounds Napoli has a record of 2-3-2 in what must be considered an easier strech of schedule. The opposition: Novara, Roma, Genoa, Palermo, Bologna, Siena, and Genoa has not been too difficult a test. The most recent setback, 3-2 to Genoa, saw the team fall behind 3-0 for the first time since Bayern away. Despite a fierce Napoli comeback it was too little, too late and Napoli thoroughly deserves its 7th place ranking in Serie A. The difficult part for a Napoli fan is that there’s little evidence the Serie A form will improve dramatically.

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On Sunday a poor first half from Napoli saw Genoa rightfully take a 2-0 lead. I hate to say this, but the turning point for Napoli was when Cannavaro picked up an injury and had to come off. On came Christian Maggio and Napoli switched to a 4-3-3 with Maggio assisting on Napoli’s first goal. After il captiano’s substitution Napoli outscored Genoa 2-1 and almost had another miracle comeback but Dzemaili’s screamer was too central and not a big problem for Frey to punch away. It must be said that Genoa was much stronger than the team picked apart 6-1 by Napoli in December, and the addition of Gilardino has revolutionized the attack. The Gilardino-Palacio partnership has seen Genoa score 9 times in 3 matches with a pair of 3-2 home wins over Udinese and Napoli.

Highlights:

So Genoa was good, in fact very good. Over the whole 90 minutes Napoli wasn’t bad – a one goal loss was probably correct – but the first half was poor and revealed Napoli’s defensive problems. It wasn’t just individual mistakes like Canna getting beat for Gilardino’s goal, but plenty of structural problems. Too many times there was lots of space between the 3 man backline and Napoli’s midfield. Genoa was happy to exploit that space, and Palacio’s stunning first goal came from that no man’s land – too far for a defender to go out, but well in behind Napoli’s midfield at the same time. Brought back memories of Inler’s goal against Napoli last season.

Speaking of Inler, I actually agree with Mazzarri’s decision to rest players – which includes Cavani, Inler, Maggio, and Aronica. There is yet another midweek Serie A round on Wednesday. The issue I have is that any deviation for the first eleven (i titolarissimi) and the team struggles. Zuniga wasn’t very effective on the right, and both Gargano and Dzemaili are the same type of player. After the match Napoli was being linked with a Michele Pazienza return, but I don’t believe that would solve Napoli’s problems. It would just mean even less playing time for Dzemaili and Donadel. I would have liked to see Donadel with Gargano against Genoa. The ex-Fiorentina man could have sat back and performed defensive duties a little better than Dzemaili. But for some reason Mazzarri has his favourites, and Dzemaili will always be first sub in central mid even if it’s a bad tactical decision.

Another note: did anyone notice Hamsik’s missed chance when the game was 2-0? Hamsik was in all alone yet he hit a weak shot low and into the keeper. I maintain that Hamsik is still more of a midfielder who is good at getting forward. Contrast Hamsik with Palacio, who has a real striker’s instinct. I’m not a huge Palacio fan but he’s knows he’s in the lineup to stick the ball in the net and he has a good nose for finishing. Palacio now has 11 goals and is well ahead of Hamsik (6) and Lavezzi (4). It wouldn’t surprise me if Palacio was ahead of Lavezzi in the Argentina setup (although El Pocho has other attributes that Palacio doesn’t.) Regardless, Genoa’s 2 strikers scored 3 times while Napoli’s 3 strikers scored only 2. Which forward line is more efficient?

If you saw anything else in the Genoa game the comments sections is all yours. Better to forget about this loss and look to the next couple of matches – Cesena at home on Wednesday, and AC Milan away on the weekend. Cesena is a must win to get confidence back before AC Milan. Napoli can and should beat Cesena at home. Right now the 3 points won’t do much in the standings (unless other teams drop even more points) but it’s more about confidence right now. I thought the confidence would return after the Inter victory but once again Mazzarri didn’t match up well tactically in a Serie A game.

I think Napoli can still climb the table a little, but based on the past 2 seasons I’ve given up hope that Mazzarri can turn this group into a top 4 team every year. The goal should be to prioritize the Coppa Italia first, to get Napoli into the Europa League, the Champions League second to see how far Napoli can get, and finally Serie A to recover some pride. Not only are Napoli battling with teams above them – Roma, Inter, and Lazio – but teams behind them as well. Palermo, Genoa, and Fiorentina are within striking distance of Napoli and all 3 clubs have the resources to compete for 6th to 10th. Hey, if Palermo and Genoa are on 8 wins right now, why is Napoli stuck on 7? No more excuses Walter, please pay more attention to tactics.