Some of us or even most of us certainly know the football legend from Argentina, namely Diego Armando Maradona. A famous and viral player when he was known and dubbed the “hand of God”. When we try to flashback to 1986 when Argentina met England at the World Cup which took place at the Estadio Azteca, Mexico City.
The goal against the England national team which occurred in the 51st minute was a crucial goal that passed Argentina to the semifinals and finally became champions after Maradona and his friends managed to beat West Germany with a score of 3-2 and successfully won the 1986 World Cup title.
After the dark incident, even though Maradona was hated by the majority of British citizens at that time, he was still known as a legend by the Argentinean community. Not only that, Maradona’s name increasingly soared when he was in the uniform of the Italian giant club, Napoli.
Napoli’s superiority during Maradona’s time became even clearer when Napoli managed to dominate Italian football by successfully winning the Italian League title in 1986-1987 and 1989-1990. Even the addition of the Copa Italia title in 1986-1987 and the UEFA Cup in 1988-1989 made Maradona’s Napoli era known as the best in history.
After the end of the golden era of Napoli in the Maradona era, Napoli also seemed to have lost their name because of their achievements, but they were known by football fans in the world as an elite team that only enlivened the struggle for the Italian League title. In addition, their achievements on the European stage are also mediocre. The statistics of the previous few seasons also prove that Napoli has always been under the shadow of the Serie A champions, such as AC Milan, Juventus and Inter Milan.
Last season alone, Luciano Spaletti’s men were ranked 3rd in the Italian League final standings after winning 24 wins, 7 draws, and 7 defeats. Scored 79 goals and conceded 31 goals throughout the Italian League season, making them reach 79 points in total and 7 points behind Serie A champions AC Milan, and 5 points adrift of runners-up Inter Milan.
If you look at Napoli’s performance last season, the Azzurri should only need to patch up the squad this season by bringing in potential players who are ready to undergo the intense competition in the Italian League. Instead of adding strength, they have lost several core players this season, namely Lorenzo Insigne, Kalidou Koulibaly, David Ospina, Arkadiuz Milk, Faouzi Ghoulam, to Dries Martens.
With the departure of these pillar players, how is the fate of Napoli to navigate next season? How far have they moved in the transfer market this summer? The departures of Dries Martens and Kalidou Koulibaly this summer have in fact brought other problems. The striker axis is a question for football lovers, including the Napoli fans themselves.
Until now Napoli actually have not found a commensurate replacement of the missing players. Victor Osimhen, who was brought in last season, has not been able to help Napoli win the desired title. His contribution of 25 goals while defending Napoli is still considered unable to answer the expectations of the fans and the price of 70 million euros after being imported from Lille in 2020.
This season Napoli have brought in almost 7 new players. Such as Andrea Zambo Anguissa (Fulham), Matihias Olivera (Getafe), Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Dinamo Batumi), Hubert Idasiak (Napoli U-19), Davide Costanzo (Napoli U-19), Leo Ostigard (Brighton), and Kim Min-Jae. (Fenerbahce). But the question is, the players who are brought in are not commensurate in quality and track record while appearing to defend their respective clubs.
It’s interesting to wait, will Spaletti be able to change the quality of the players who just arrived at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium to their best performance? Napoli’s inability to shake the power of Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan in the hunt for the Scudetto is still a big problem that must be resolved together.
Of course we can see how terrible Napoli was in 2011 to 2014 when it was still inhabited by players like Marek Hamsik, Edinson Cavani, Ezequel Lavezzi, Gonzalo Higuain, to Gokhan Inler, making Napoli seem to be serious competitors in the race for the Italian League title at that time.
But over time, Napoli seemed unable to maximize the potential of the existing players, as a result the players who had displayed their best performances such as Edinson Cavani, Lavezzi, Higuain, Nikolas Callejon, and Raul Albiol instead chose to leave. In addition to the problem of maintaining star players suffered by Napoli’s management, regeneration is also a determining factor in Napoli’s performance in each season.
When Naples has gave up their best midfielder from Slovakia, Marek Hamsik, who left for Dalian Professional in the 2021 season, Napoli have yet to find a midfielder commensurate with Hamsik. Names like Piotr Zielinski, Fabian Ruiz, and Elif Elmas are deemed unable to raise Napoli’s prestige on the Serie A stage.
As a result, Napoli are only able to compete around the Champions League zone. Had occupied the top of the Serie A standings on several occasions. But in the end the inconsistency made them have to finish in the Champions League zone every season without winning a title.
Last season Napoli managed to rank third in the Serie A final standings. Statistical records quoted from the Sofascore page state that the average value of the team from the City of Naples, Italy actually won second place with a score of 6.99 points.
Achieving an average ball possession of 58.4% per game, scoring 74 goals with details of 61 goals from inside the box, 13 from outside the box, producing big chances per game of 1.9 and keeping a cleanshet of 16 matches are some of the records impressive that Napoli got last season.
But the problem is, Napoli often lose crucial points when they play important matches. One of them was when Napoli had a home match against Fiorentina on April 10, 2022 in the Serie A event last season. Napoli, who needed a winning trend in order to maintain their hopes of winning the Scudetto, actually fell 2-3 to the visitors.
As a result, the competition for the Scudetto title has changed. The Milan duo has widened the chances of winning the title and Napoli are getting further and further away from the competition. Napoli’s failure to coup AC Milan after the defeat against La Viola made Napoli have to feel at home in third place under AC Mulan and Inter Milan. Those are some things related to Napoli’s preparation to be able to compete in Serie A next season. How fresh will Napoli be next season?
ASL
