How do you know who has the goodness and the patience to read me, Napoli has always been my favorite for the Scudetto. It was before the championship began, it was after the home defeats against Spezia and Empoli, it is even more so now that it is second in the standings together with Milan.
Of the three leading players, Spalletti’s team is the only one without next or future midweek commitments (eliminated from the Italian Cup and the Europa League) and the only one to have won categorically and, therefore, convincingly in the previous round. Beating Lazio in the last second of recovery may have represented the turning point of the season.
The counter-proof will take place tomorrow evening in the direct clash with Milan. If Napoli wins – as I believe – the race for the title will only concern Spalletti and Simone Inzaghi. If they draw the advantage should be Inter, provided they win in the recovery with Bologna (by the way, it is not normal that we still do not know when to play, also because we cannot go too far with the season). If, on the contrary, they lose, Napoli can almost certainly consider themselves out, except for unpredictable upheavals.
In my opinion, the Azzurri are preferred to Milan essentially for three reasons.
The first: they found almost all the forces and the form of Lorenzo Insigne and Fabian Ruiz.
The second one: they play the best football in Italy together with Atalanta.
The third: Spalletti, the best and most experienced of the three coaches involved, is ready to win the top title also in Italy (he has already done so twice in Russia).
But Spalletti did more and better: he involved and convinced the players that this can be for everyone, for those who go (Insigne, Mertens, perhaps Koulibaly and Fabian Ruiz), and for those who remain (Osimhen, Zielinski), the great occasion. A train that passes once and, perhaps, never passes again.
And the coach’s conviction, in addition to being shared, is also well founded: the league has rarely had such a low share, Napoli is also in the running for the “ciapanò” of the Milanese, Juventus reduced their chances to a flicker when, at the end of August, they sold Cristiano Ronaldo, now replaced by Dusan Vlahovic, but it is too late. A series of conditions that, despite the points lost by Napoli in the two home matches with Spezia and Empoli, allow us to think concretely about the Scudetto.
A premise about the game. Many in Naples objected to the designation of Orsato and Valeri, recalling that he was the referee (and the other the Var clerk) of Pjanic’s failure to be booked in an Inter-Juventus decisive for the award of the 2018 championship, which ended with the success of the bianconeri. The next day, Napoli, coached by Sarri, showed up unloaded at the match with Fiorentina, immediately losing Koulibaly (expelled) and, in the end, also the match.
Now it is worth remembering that Orsato has refereed Napoli only once this year, with Lazio, and the game ended with a peremptory 4-0. In the previous totals with Napoli, Orsato’s results are 17 wins, 15 draws, 15 defeats. With Milan: 10 wins, 14 draws and 8 defeats. For years, for me, he has been the best Italian referee and tomorrow evening he will do very well by removing all doubts from the suspicious. Which, just to clarify, there are also in the ranks of the AC Milan fans, after the lack of advantage with Spezia (goal taken away from Junior Messias and lost game) and the touch of the hand of a Udinese player (goal validated and match drawn).
In a beautiful technical, tactical and calendar examination, presented on Friday by Gazzetta dello Sport, it is said that tomorrow night whoever gets the move will win. And that the move would be the agreement between Zielinski and Osimhen in the attack of Napoli and / or the left axis of Milan, consisting of Theo Hernandez and Leao.
It is not that I do not really agree with my colleague Fabio Lipari who signs the interesting report, but I am inclined to think about football in a different way, that is, following collective principles. And I believe that Napoli today has a game development that Pioli no longer haswho has players mentally and physically drained (I am referring to Giroud, Saelemaekers, Rebic, Brahim Diaz), that the physical condition is not optimal and that the motivations have also had some shocks.
Okay, Kessie should play attacking midfielder tomorrow, with Bennacer and Tonali in midfield, but not having changes in form is a problem both if the game goes well, and if there will be some catching up to do. For the rest Kalulu should not make Romagnoli regret it, while I would be prudent in conferring a thaumaturgical power to the mere presence of Ibrahimovic.
The Swede will go to the bench, but from that position, the team leads the coach, not a player. I do not think, then, that a remnant of the match of a single (no matter how good he has been out for more than a month) can change a confrontation that will live on choral ignitions. The single finalizes, but it is the game that commands.
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