Tu, ca nun chiagne news
By: Joe | December 5th, 2007I just can’t bring myself to write about the disaster in Bergamo. I’m heartened by the assumption that the squad can’t play any worse and better days are ahead. Let it not say my cappuccino is half empty. At least coach Edy Reja stepped up and took responsibility for the disaster.
* Keeper Genarro Iezzo is unsettled over the continued talk of bringing in Marco Amelia from Livorno. Luca Urbani, his agent, says Iezzo “isn’t jumping for joy” over the gossip. Iezzo is under contract through 2010 and the Napoletano native has enjoyed his time with the Azzurri. San Genarro saved our asses last year in Serie B and I’ve said that he may have been the best Italian keeper in Italy last year (World Cup notwithstanding), but he’s been caught out of position a few times this year and when you let in five, I don’t really care about your feelings. Command the back line and stop picking the ball out of the back of your own net. If he doesn’t improve, then Pier Paolo Marino will have no choice but to look for an alternative in January. You could do a lot worse than Amelia, that’s for sure.
* Manuele Blasi is hoping Napoli will bounce back the way Udinese did after they were thumped 5-nil at home by the Azzurri. Back in Giornata 2, Napoli traveled to Udine and put on a blitzkrieg of an assault in Ezequiel Lavezzi’s Serie A coming out party (he scored a hat-trick in the Coppa Italia tie against Pisa which was his first prolonged appearance with the club). Udinese have since recovered and allowed 12 goals in their last 12 matches and beaten Juventus and Fiorentina and climbed all the way to 4th in the table.
* With Maurizio Domizzi suspended for the next match against Parma, Reja has been experimenting in practice with a four-man backline of Gianluca Grava, Paolo Cannavaro, Matteo Contini and Erminio Rullo/Mirko Savini. This apparently means Andrea Cupi isn’t healthy. Cupi was taken out of the first half of the Atalanta match with a leg injury and he’ll be missed this weekend. It also means the Gyorgy Garics experiment may be over for now. Garics was directly responsible for two goals last week and his crosses are weaker than atheist on his death bed or, perhaps, Massimo Oddo.
More to follow regarding our critical game against Parma.
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You can’t get off that easy, Joe — what the hell happened?! I was all excited to watch the match Sunday night, but the scoreline scared me off and I avoided it like the plague. Reja saying it was his fault is nice and all, but …. WHAT HAPPENED?! At least guess. Please.
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For what it’s worth, here are my thoughts:
In the last few weeks everyone and their brother has been linked with a move to Napoli (thanks to the Cannavaros that’s literally true) and I believe the squad in unsettled. The list of disgruntled players keeps growing: Calaio, Dalla Bona, Maldonado, Gatti, Iezzo. Even Domizzi talked about wanting to play for Fiorentina.
When the team’s sporting director starts dropping names like Messi, it makes everyone nervous about their position. It’s very difficult to be at your best when the team will just replace you if a better player becomes available.
Actually, bringing a player like Messi over is quite reasonable. There’s no doubt in my mind that any of the world’s top players would want to play for a team with 5 wins in 14 Serie A matches.
I Italians are prone to delusions of grandeur, but we should be proud of who we have, win or lose. After all, if you take big paces, you leave big spaces.
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*boggle* The brass are talking about Messi?! JESUS. Threatened or not, that’s got to make the team wonder who the hell they’re working for.
(Dalla Bona. That guy is always unsettled, isn’t he?)
Also, only tangentially related: Do you think they’ll be able to keep hold of Lavazzi by telling him over and over again that he’ll be worshiped like Maradona in Naples, or will he end up being sold to a big(ger) club sooner than later?
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Uhm, yeah..You go with that Messi thing..Go ahead and send Caliao to Palermo please
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Martha, you’re right. I can’t get off that easily. All I’ll say in my defense is I woke up late and by the time I got my wireless connection up and started streaming the match on SerieA.tv, Napoli were already 3-nil down and Andrea Cupi left with an injury. What I did see was an absolute disaster.
Reja says the fault lies with him because he believes Napoli came in perhaps overconfident and he didn’t train his squad to be aware of Atalanta’s pressure. They don’t give opponents much time on the ball and I think that may have surprised some of the players. Marek Hamsik has been off his game for over a month now and looks like he could use a rest. The kid just turned 20 and he’s played a ton of minutes for Slovakia and Napoli. The EURO qualification campaign ending may be the best news of all for him. Hamsik appeared to give the ball away too often and wasn’t crisp in his passing or his marking responsibilities. Gyorgy Garics has been exposed. He has pace but can’t cross for crap and either loses his focus or is too inexperienced to know his marking assignments.
There also appears to be confusion among the backline and Iezzo. I realize the competition is much stiffer in Serie A but last year defensively the squad was very disciplined about their man-marking and communication. I have seen far too many missed assignments this year. Whether the fault lies in the coaching staff preparing the players, Iezzo for not directing the traffic or the defenders themselves for not being on the same page, we’ll never know. Like all things, it’s most likely a combination of all these factors. I haven’t gone back to watch the entire match because I just can’t bring myself to do it. We got our heads handed to us and need to right the ship against Parma or risk going into a crisis of sorts.
Lavezzi, Hamsik and Gargano aren’t going anywhere, Martha. At least not for a few years. Marino has stated time and time again that he is building this squad around these youngsters and will add to the side judiciously. Unless there’s a major coup in the works (Messi? PUH-LEEZ), I don’t see us selling off any of these talents soon.
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It’s not just last year that the squad was more disciplined defensively, Joe. If you recall, the beginning of this season, Napoli weren’t letting much through:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/team/results?id=114&cc=5901Of course, Iezzo was out for a bit, and Gianello got the start during some of those matches. Actually, I’m not sure if Gianello even let ANY it!
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Thank you, for that Joe! I know Napoli defense was phenomenal last season — forgive my ignorance, but was Iezzo there then, or has he come in since?
I know they WANT to keep those guys, I just wonder if they’ll be able to afford it, if/when the big boys come calling. What’s Napoli’s salary cap? Can they pay Lavazzi a lot, if they have to?
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Marino picked up Genarro Iezzo from Serie A Cagliari side at the start of the 05 campaign. He’s been our #1 keeper ever since appearing in 32 games in Napoli’s promotion season out of Serie C hell and then played 39 matches last year. He was an absolute animal last year blocking PK’s, stopping shots and really ran the defense.
Matteo Gianello didn’t let in any goals in the games he’s appeared in this year (I’m going strictly off memory here, but I’m pretty sure you’re correct, Vin).
Napoli and, De Laurentis specifically, has the cash and will spend it. We spent the 5th most of any Serie A side this past silly season and our league salary is 10th out of the 20 Serie A sides. http://napoli.theoffside.com/de-laurentis/money-talks.html
I believe they understand they’d have a revolt on their hands if they sold of Lavezzi…I just don’t think it’ll happen. He’s under contract for, I believe three more seasons. Yeah yeah yeah, I know contracts in football aren’t worth squat. Still, he won’t go soon and, I’m hoping, not at all. At least not until we’ve got another scudetto!
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