The Story So Far…

By: Christopher | November 3rd, 2009

book

My apologies for the delay. With course scheduling taking place, the past couple of days have been about as frantic as Juventus’ back four on Saturday. So while a lot of the hype has died down from our epic battle at the Olimpico, I’d like to recap a little bit of what happened; But at the same time to stop and take a breather for some perspective of where our team is right now– because 6th place is more than I expected, especially after a recent rough stretch of matches (Roma, Bologna, Fiorentina, Milan, Juve). We are making up for lost opportunity from the dark ages of the Donadoni era…

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Lets start with what went wrong (mainly one thing, to which you can probably guess before reading a second further):

First, Contini:
26-giovinco
We need to work something out with Contini, hmm… leave and De La will pay for your haircut? If we are going to take the next step up in quality, and thrust ourselves into European competition, it would help if he didn’t grace the other team with easy goals, thus forcing Hamsik into further brilliance. While I enjoy seeing the latter, Hamsik could spare the additional sweat to keep his hair fresh.

That was just sad to watch. Contini, succumb to Anne Robinson’s wrath.

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Second, Conceding early

A recent footballitalia blog was written about this, raising a couple of questions. Mazzarri’s style is clearly one of passion and inspiration, but what will happen if we are leading and need to maintain consistency this way? Saving Reggina from relegation, earning promotion for Livorno, are all great comeback feats suggests the article, but what about for Napoli, who are expected to migrate towards the high end of the table and be consistent? Is he the right man? These seem to be a legitimate questions seeing as he’s known for that, but I don’t think we should look too far into it yet. As mentioned before, it was a difficult stretch of games that he came into, and with the exception of Bologna, the early goals were mere lapses of concentration (as shown above) that can’t necessarily be fully pinned on him. This being said, the next game against Catania will be the true meter of how much we should look into this issue. Mazzarri will have to settle them down from last weekend, because while their team is terrible, there are some players who can punish you in those brain fart *cough* Contini *cough* moments.

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The Good:

Again, hats off to all the players and Mazzarri, even if we lost or tied that game- while I would have been pissed- I would have been immensely satisfied with the competitiveness that the players showed up with. Wow what a contrast of play between these past four games and when Donadoni was leading. Personally, I recall many times being fed up with our lackluster play in the second half of a ‘Donadoni Napoli,’ and thus not feeling bad leaving the computer to make an extra cup o’ joe to ease the stress. With a ‘Mazzarri Napoli,’ the cup o’ joe best be ready before the game, or it’s waiting until half time.

Mazzarri Praise

I’m wondering if in these past couple of decisive games, anyone who was on the fence when he was hired, feels differently after getting to know him better. These were the results of last quiz.

While I can’t remember which one I voted for, I do remember being hesitant (but still in an ‘anything is better than this [Donadoni]” attitude). Apparently De La knew this was the right move two years ago! Maybe this guy knows more about football than everyone thinks…That’s another story though.

“I had already thought about Mazzarri two years ago. I was sure that he would be ideal for a place like Napoli.”
“But I was in Los Angeles, I couldn’t pursue the deal. And when Edy Reja left, Donadoni arrived. I shouldn’t have given him a two-year contract.”

The Juve game definitely changed my views. Mazzarri really had the team playing, and he really displayed some tactical know- how. As De La again said, the subs were perfect.

Datolo the super sub?
datolo
(Don’t strangle the guy!)

Well I don’t think the phrase super sub has ever had as much meaning, coming on to slot a clutch goal (was it his very first touch?), and then an even more clutch assist. There are two things I’d like to look at here:

1) The progression of Datolo as a player under Mazzarri, and
2) The tactics of this substitution within the game

First, every coach has his new breed of favorites, and who they think fits best where, blah blah blah. But even so, I was surprised to see two of Mazzarri’s changes to Donadoni’s standard starting 11: Pazienza for Cigs, and Aronica for Datolo. I think many of us would agree that the latter players have more quality than the former ones. It seems Mazzarri may have pulled one over on us, while he shook up the line up to further instigate these players to the quality he needs. And I think it is in the process of working. Cigarini is improving, scoring against Milan, and regaining his starting position.

Second, the tactics of this were brilliant. What’s that? Camoranesi is not on the field helping to protect the flank with ‘the weakest link’ Grygera? Instead, it’s Tiago, who, after reading the Juventusoffside’s comments, is regarded as a useless and overrated player. So what does Mazzarri do but recognize this and push even further for wing play. And he got it. The flank was often overwhelmed and if Grygera could questionably mark a man tight in a 1 v. 1 situation, he sure as hell couldn’t do it in 2 v. 1 situations.

Again, all of this is great, but now it’s up to Mazzarri to instill the ‘one game at a time’ mentality before we take on Catania.

Are you a Mazzarri convert? or still Hesitant?(survey)

Forza Napoli!