Welcome, Mr. Lippi

By: Neil | October 27th, 2009

A very special spectator will be at the San Paolo Wednesday night as Napoli host Milan in a battle of two teams who are in the process of finding their top form. Nazionale boss Marcello Lippi will have an eye on a number of players, but most importantly Milan’s Alessandro Nesta and Napoli’s Christian Maggio. Nesta is still officially retired from Italy, but if he continues to play at his best Lippi will do everything he can to pull the former Lazio captain out of international retirement. Maggio is available for selection and the right sided midfielder is recapturing the form that earned him a big money move to Napoli and an initial callup to the Italy squad. Watch the game live on Fox Soccer Channel @ 3:30 Eastern time.

For an insider’s perspective on AC Milan, please check out the Milan offside page. For now, here is my report on Milan, from an outsider’s perspective:

For about five years, from 2003-2007, Milan were doing everything right. The team had star players in their prime, a great supporting cast, a manager who knew how to pull the right strings, and so many intangibles that lots of winning teams have: innovation, loyalty, commitment, etc. But competing in Europe with the ultra rich EPL is tough, and Milan fell off the wagon in Serie A, finishing 5th in 2007-08. Ironically it was Napoli who knocked Milan out of a Champions League spot late in the season at the San Paolo.

What did Milan do wrong? They simply didn’t look to the future. The core of the team became a bit older, and some veteran players got complacent because of no internal competition. Instead of identifying weaknesses and coming up with solutions, the club signed players like Ronaldinho and Beckham for marketing reasons. I would like to note that these two players are still quite good, but they didn’t really solve any of the team’s problems. Every time I go to the Milan offside there is an endless debate about how to use Ronnie. That’s not a good situation.

Last season Milan finished tied for 2nd with Juve, and seemed to have recovered from their problems. Then two key individuals, Kaka and Ancelotti, decided to move on. If the club had a bit of foresight as they were celebrating their 2007 Champions League win, they would have realized losing key personnel was bound to happen. If you look at Milan’s roster they haven’t really been able to replace either of those two people. Even though Milan is a good bet to qualify for the Champions League again, I wouldn’t describe them as a team with star players in their prime, a strong supporting cast, and a manger who knows how to pull the right strings. They still have a lot of work to do before they can earn that status again.

To be honest, I have no idea if they’re rebuilding or retooling, but they still have an awful lot of quality. The same question of age still hangs over the team though: is Milan too old to compete at the highest level in Serie A and Europe for a whole season? And if they do show some problems due to a heavy schedule, can Leonardo make the right adjustments? I don’t know the answers to these questions, and I have to conclude that Milan is a team that can play frighteningly good football (anyone see the 3-2 win over Real Madrid) but is still vulnerable on some nights.

Napoli have won twice under Mazzarri with two late goals to make a giant leap up the table. Incredibly, if they defeat Milan and other teams slip up on Wednesday, they’ll be in 4th(!) by next weekend’s showdown with Juventus. This simply proves that it’s still early in the season, and there’s plenty of time for the challengers to rise to the top and the pretenders to slip down a little.

It remains to be seen whether Mazzarri will rest anyone for Juventus. Campagnaro isn’t ready, and if Gianluca Grava is good enough to play a full 90 minutes away to Fiorentina, he could be used again. Cannavaro returns from suspension, but does Rinaudo keep his place at centre back? Leonardo believes the game could turn into a tactical chess match, and this game might be decided by managerial moves.

If Milan plays the forward line of Ronaldinho-Borriello-Pato, Mazzarri could use four at the back in a 4-2-3-1 lineup. Here is how it might look:

De Sanctis
Grava – Cannavaro – Contini – Aronica
Gargano – Pazienza
Maggio – Lavezzi – Hamsik
Quagliarella

This is of course just one option for Mazzarri. Since he’s only been manager for two games there’s no history of him working with the Napoli lineup.

Finally, in transfer news Liverpool’s little used left back Andrea Dossena could be moving to Napoli in the January window. Dossena has the same agent as De Sanctis, and with the Napoli keeper cementing his spot in the Nazionale – he might even surpass Marchetti to become Buffon’s back up – a move to Napoli might help Dossena’s chances of making the plane to South Africa.

Sorry for the quickness of this preview but I finally got my internet connection back after about a week without and I was eager to get a post up. I missed the Fiorentina game but I watched the Auriemma highlights with great joy. It looked like a very entertaining game with lots of chances and some good goalkeeping. Here are the highlights:

I’d like to finish with a question: who takes Napoli’s penalities? Last time Hamsik had to push Quags away, and then missed. Now Quags goes up to the spot unchallenged, and misses. As Signor Auriemma asks, why not Hamsik, il rigorista? Did something change once Mazzarri took over?

Enjoy the game Wednesday as Napoli look to make it three wins in a row. When was the last time that happened? Forza Napoli!