Someone Please Give Zio A Tranquilizer

By: Neil | November 20th, 2008

After the jump:
- De Laurentiis furious with Napoli’s recent defeat
- Maggio sees first action for Italy
- Santacroce ‘The Animal’ of the new millenia
- Lavezzi and Denis shine in Maradona’s first game
- mercato rumours, including Leo Messi

Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis flew off the handle after the Partenopei’s 3-1 defeat to
Atalanta last weekend. It’s hard to criticize DeLa because he has undoubtedly been the main man behind Napoli’s renaissance, even more so than Marino. But I always worry he’s going to turn into a Palermo or Livorno type President who interferes with things when he should just keep quiet and continue running the club from way up high. Last year after a home loss to Empoli he got even angrier, and apparently fired Reja on the spot before coming to his senses. This outburst, while nowhere near the same degree, shows the same emotional reaction. Yes, the Atalanta game was a bad one, no question about it. But there’s no reason to attack the players for being soft and lacking something. We’d played so many good games in a row, something like the Atalanta game was bound to happen eventually. There’s no need to overreact, all that’s necessary are some minor tactical adjustments and a new striker in the January market.

Napoli right wingback Christian Maggio fulfilled a dream by stepping on to the field for the first time as an Italy player in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Greece. He became the first Napoli player in 16 years to earn a senior international cap, coming on for Mauro Camoranesi in the 60th minute. Maggio played right midfield and did not disappoint, earning a 6.5 from Channel 4’s pagelle.

Defender Fabiano Santacroce also played for Italy on Wednesday, missing an open net in the U-21’s 1-0 friendly defeat against Germany. Santacroce is not a natural in front of the opposing team’s goal, and blew his chance by hitting the woodwork. Germany’s Kroos scored a smashing goal, which was so impressive I had to include a link.

While Santacroce won’t pile up the goals for Napoli or Italy, he may become one of Italy’s greatest ever defenders, according to Pasquale Bruno. Calling Santacroce “The Animal” of the new millenium, Bruno believes Santacroce can match the careers of Maldini and Cannavaro. I never like to compare players, so I don’t know if he’ll achieve what Maldini, Cannavaro, or even Nesta did, but there’s no doubt he’s on the path of greatness. I was planning on doing a profile of him after the Milan game, but I didn’t find the time for it. Right now I would argue he’s the world’s best young shut down defender. As mentioned above, he isn’t strong at going forward but his only defensive weakness seems to be missing the occaisional tackle which gets him into card trouble. Maybe he is already as valuable to the team as Lavezzi.

Maradona won his first game as Argentina manager, a 1-0 victory over Scotland at Hampden Park in Glasgow. Maxi Rodriguez scored the only goal, finishing off a wonderful team move involving man of the match Carlos Tevez. I didn’t catch the game, but according to the goal.com report both Lavezzi and Denis played well. Lavezzi was given a surprisingly high 9.0 in le pagelle, while Denis was named as the most dangerous of Maradon’a subs. Hopefully the Argentine duo will return to Napoli full of confidence and demolish Cagliari at the San Paolo on Sunday.

It’s no secret that Napoli are always shopping the market, especially for a new striker. But that striker looks like it won’t be Basel’s 20 year old Eren Derdiyok, who thinks his best option is to move to Leverkusen. That’s OK, Eren. We really didn’t want you all that badly anyways.

Two players Napoli are still monitoring are Fiorentina’s Giampaolo Pazzini and Brescia’s German star Savio Nserenko. Napoli have a great relationship with Bresica, having taken Hamsik, Santacroce, and Mannini from them in the last year and a half. Now I’m starting to wonder who does the scouting or developing at Brescia, because apparently they do a great job of bringing in unheard of kids who go on to be stars. It would be great to see them back in Serie A sometime soon. As for Pazzini, he’s not getting that much playing time at Fiorentina. Visit Fiorentina’s offside page to see how he’s being doing so far this season. As Ted points out, Fiorentina will probably loan him out or keep co-ownership. And here’s a story about Barcelona’s Leo Messi, who knows the city of Napoli quite well. Let’s hope Napoli improve to the point where acquiring Messi is more reality than dream.

That’s all the midweek news, but I’ll be back as usual with a preview of the Cagliari game. I’m looking forward to watching two of Italy’s brightest young players, striker Robert Acquafresca and goalkeeper Federico Marchetti, come to the San Paolo and fall victim to Napoli’s greatness. Should be a lot of fun.