BY now, Maurizio Sarri’s weaknesses need no introduction. Just as he did at Napoli, the veteran coach has shown Chelsea supporters that his biggest strengths can also lead to issues, his total dedication to his system making him uncompromising in many aspects of the game.
Foremost among those are a tactical inflexibility and a steadfast refusal to rest or rotate his players, and it was those same two points that ultimately saw him fall short in Napoli’s push for the Serie A title.
The team he left behind in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius are even further behind Juventus this season than they were with Sarri at the helm. They still sit second but the gap is currently 20 points with just seven rounds left to play, and after Napoli crashed out of the Champions League in the group stages, they dropped into UEFA’s secondary competition.
Mertens overtakes Cavani for Napoli Serie A goals pic.twitter.com/sZdN9qHLRw
— B/R Football (@brfootball) April 8, 2019
However, with a tough quarter-final against Arsenal coming later this week, it is hard not to feel that most of this is by design. In replacing Sarri with Carlo Ancelotti, the Partenopei opted for a man who is the polar opposite of the coach he inherited the job from, both their results and their performances reflecting that stark contrast.
Possessing a wealth of experience he has garnered from a career that has taken him to England, France, Spain and Germany, “Carletto” returned to Serie A after a nine-year absence this past summer. He was fully aware of the gulf between Napoli and Juve, but while insisting at his inaugural press conference that “no one sets out to finish second,” Ancelotti also recognised the need to evolve.
“I've come to Napoli to win things and to build something positive, I have a great group of players here and an ambitious club behind me,” he told reporters shortly after being appointed last July. “I was impressed by the job Sarri did and I haven't come here to erase his work, I’m here to develop the team further using my own ideas. I like my teams to take the game to the opposition, keep tight as a unit and to play their own style.”
While many expected a renewed push for the league title that has eluded Napoli since Diego Maradona was in town, what has unfolded at the Stadio San Paolo is almost a complete transformation in approach. Recognising they had little to no chance of finishing first but were all but guaranteed a place in the top four, Ancelotti has sacrificed a number of league games, clearly shifting his focus to prioritise the Europa League.
"We’re defending badly at the moment & that means we cannot control the game. If you control the game, you don’t let the opposition turn & run at you. It’s an alarm bell, certainly, because if we play like this in London, then we’re in trouble"
– Napoli manager Carlo Ancelotti pic.twitter.com/aYnnVc5EbY
— AFTV (@AFTVMedia) April 8, 2019
On the pitch, they still control the ball, Opta data showing that – just as was the case under Sarri – they lead Serie A in terms of possession (56.7%), passes per game (606.8) and passing accuracy (87.4%), but watching them play reveals a very different approach.
Sarri’s team would enjoy large portions of sterile possession, retaining the ball for the sake of retaining it, but Ancelotti has them playing in a much more direct manner. They now take more shots (18.3), get more shots on target (6.2) and complete more take-ons (8.6) per game than they did under the previous coach, and they do so from a very different system.
Despite playing within nothing but a 4-3-3 system for the last three years, the squad has quickly adapted to Ancelotti’s more flexible approach. He has largely opted for a 4-4-2 framework, preferring to play either Dries Mertens or Lorenzo Insigne alongside the taller Arkadiusz Milik rather than trying to find a formation that suits all three.
Insigne has responded with an excellent campaign which has yielded 13 goals and six assists in all competitions. “I always had faith in myself, but now the coach has put me a bit closer to goal and that saves me a little effort in defence,” he told Sky Italia back in October. “In return he asked me to be more precise and determined in my finishing and I’m enjoying it more and more. I get to focus on one aspect of the game and the fans love goals, so I love giving them goals to cheer!”
Insigne: "I'm 28 and it could happen that I receive an offer I can't refuse. But there are no clubs, no approaches, no shows of interest, and right now, I'm not thinking about leaving. As long as I'm at Napoli, I will always give 110% and I want to stay here for a long time". pic.twitter.com/1kJNMoFMtR
— Everything Napoli (@NapoliAndNaples) April 6, 2019
He has certainly done that, becoming club captain after Marek Hamsik moved on to China during the winter, the Slovakia international finding himself surplus to requirements as Fabián Ruiz and Piotr Zielinski leapfrogged him in the pecking order, joining the combative Allan in a hardworking but talented midfield.
Behind them the defence remains as stout as ever, the hugely impressive Kalidou Koulibaly continuing to stand out as one of the continent’s most impassible stoppers. His man-marking, physicality and quality on the ball are a rare blend and continue to see the 27-year-old linked with a move away.
For now though he remains the linchpin of a backline that has kept 19 clean sheets in 31 Serie A games this term, managing to do so even while playing three different goalkeepers. Seven of those have come in Alex Meret’s 12 appearances, Orestis Karnezis and former Arsenal man David Ospina notching four each as they have deputised for the young Italian at various points this term.
Meret is likely to get the nod in a tie that is likely to define the season for both Carlo Ancelotti and his team. Winning against Arsenal would unquestionably make them favourites for Europa League glory, proving that the change of coach has made a world of difference and that Napoli have what it takes to succeed.
