Fantasy football, De Ketelaere false nine?
The run-up to Napoli will start again from Arechi and immediately from an important doubt for Pioli. Who will be the starting forward in the 4-2-3-1 at the restart? Origi’s injury complicated the plans of the Rossoneri coach, who was calmly awaiting the return of Olivier Giroud on 30 December after the post-World Cup holidays, before gradually inserting him. There is the suggestion Charles De Ketelaerearrived in the summer to play on the frontline or at most as a right winger, but has not yet convinced in either position.
Last year, the Belgian had an excellent season as a centre-forward, with 15 goals and 17 assists in 33 league games for Bruges, the opposite of his first four months in Italy. Since he landed at the Rossoneri he has mainly played attacking midfielder, with some exceptions as a striker, and in 13 appearances he has never scored (the only assist was on the scoresheet on matchday three against Bologna). A new possibility opens up for De Ketelaere: he can be deployed as an attacker. The amount invested to take him from Bruges is important, 35 million euros which at the moment have not been repaid on the pitch. Could it be 2023 of the turning point in Fantasy football too?
Obviously it’s just one of the offensive options: there’s Ante Rebic, Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be back and in any case in that role Pioli will embrace Olivier Giroud again on 31 December, starting center forward and reference. But the experiment is to be taken into account, also for the future.