Matchday six is in the books and plenty of new burning questions have sprung up – should Napoli be considered Scudetto contenders? What’s Allegri’s future with Juventus, and are Monza the disappointment of the season so far?
By Matteo Bonetti, US Serie A expert
Napoli’s New Expectations
What a week it has been for Napoli. They continued their undefeated streak in all competitions by torching Liverpool 4-1, a scoreline that doesn’t do Napoli any favours by the way, as it could’ve easily finished 7-1!
After that dominant performance in the Champions League, Luciano Spalletti opted to rotate a few players given the hectic schedule of now playing a game pretty much every three days. At home against Spezia, Napoli took care of business once again, relying on Giacomo Raspadori’s late finish to give them all three points and keeping them at the top of the Serie A table.
So with a month of Serie A action behind us, is it too early to wonder if we all slept on Napoli this summer? Keep in mind that the Partenopei were a 25/1 underdog to win the Scudetto; compare that to Roma who were at 8/1, and it makes those odds look sillier by the week.
Of course, the idea was that a rebuild always takes some time to translate on the field, as chemistry needs time to develop.
Napoli lost players this summer who were not only important in games, but behind the scenes in the locker room too. Kalidou Koulibaly, Lorenzo Insigne, Dries Mertens and Fabian Ruiz left to make room for younger signings like Kvicha Kvaratskhelia, Kim Min-Jae, Giacomo Raspadori, Giovanni Simeone and Tanguy N’Dombele.
Napoli’s scouting plan for the transfer window had a clear plan in place: Empty out big wages of players in their 30s with no resale value, to make way for U-25 signings with plenty of potential and room to grow. So far, it has looked like a masterstroke. The Georgian winger Kvara was just named the August player of the month in Serie A. Kim Min-Jae has been a rock at the back – showing aggressiveness, a fantastic aerial game and plenty of pace for such a tall player (6”3). Up front, Simeone and Raspadori suddenly give Spalletti plenty of options in case striker Victor Osimhen goes down with injury or needs a rest. Finally, N’Dombele, a mercurial player who has bags of talent but issues with work rate and fitness, looks like the type of signing that could be the ideal project for Spalletti to work his magic on.
At the start of the season, I wondered whether Napoli would even challenge for a Champions League spot in the top four. With the inconsistency some of the other top teams have have shown so far, I’m now changing my predictions and considering them as a dark horse for the Scudetto.
The Allegri Dilemma
Juventus have opened the campaign with two wins and four draws, but perhaps more concerning is their disjointed style of play which has been a grim continuation from last season. The manager Max Allegri has been under fire since he came back to Juventus, the club that wanted to go in a different direction last time he was manager despite having won a Scudetto together. At least in his first stint, Juventus were winning, albeit without really entertaining. Now, they seem to be unable do either. Against Salernitana, Juventus fell 2-0 down despite playing at the Allianz Stadium, a venue that once was a fortress that visiting teams viewed as an impossibility in terms of getting a result.
Forgetting the dramatic Juventus comeback in the final seconds and the controversial VAR decision, the overall point is that Juventus still struggle to assert any sort of dominance against teams they should be beating easily.
You could make the case that Juventus are without key players, and while that is true, that would only work as a debate point if this wasn’t just a continuation of all of last season. Every team has periods where they’re without key stars, especially now with this ultra-condensed schedule. Allegri’s Juve has this bizarre mentality where they seem content with draws – a tactic normally seen only with mid-table sides. There’s also no real identity when they have possession. Once upon a time Allegri could get away with a lacklustre offence because the defence was so solid, that they could squeeze out 1-0 wins whenever they felt like it. With the backline now conceding silly goals against smaller teams, then what exactly is the strength supposed to be here?
If Juventus continue to drop points like this, it brings up an interesting debate about the manager Allegri. If he wasn’t on such a long, expensive contract (apparently a 4 year deal signed in 2021 worth €9m per season), would he be on the hot seat?
Monza’s Nightmare Start
Monza was Silvio Berlusconi and Adriano Galliani’s little project, a town not far from Milan with no football pedigree to speak of, but with deep pockets at the top to help take them to the promised land. Once Monza finally got promoted to Serie A in May, they went to work right away in the summer and had one of the most impressive transfer windows of a newly promoted team in Italian history. Monza were able to sign five current or former Italian internationals. They also brought in the talented Juventus-owned midfield pairing of Andrea Ranocchia and Nicolo Rovella, Arsenal defender Pablo Mari, and arguably the best wingback from the second division, Pisa’s Samuele Birindelli.
As you’d expect, this transfer window was met with plenty of enthusiasm. The talk wasn’t just about Monza avoiding relegation, but potentially sneaking into the top half of the table. Six games in, and a new reality has set in – one point total, the worst defence in the league by far with 14 goals conceded, and lacklustre play. Sadly, this is nothing new for Giovanni Stroppa. The current Monza manager was already sacked once in Serie A with Crotone only three months into the season due to being rock bottom with the worst defence in the league. To make matters worse, the attack is doing no better – the four main strikers have combined for one goal in total, scored by Dany Mota. Caprari and Andrea Petagna are still waiting to score after six games.
There’s still plenty of season left to play, but at the moment, it looks like Stroppa is the manager who’s on the hottest seat of all. On paper, Monza look too good to go down. In reality, it seems like the sheer number of new signings will take some time to gel and build chemistry together. For Berlusconi and Galliani, the hope is that the product on the field starts resembling the expectations laid out in the summer.
(Images from IMAGO)
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