Should Napoli stick with Walter Mazzarri?

An argument of censure is often heard of current Napoli boss Walter Mazzarri, that the make-up of his team is predominantly one- dimensional, or some cynics would say Napoli are a one trick pony outfit, who can only play on the counter attack.

This judgement might be moderately true, however since Mazzarri has taken over the Partenopei he has expressed his way of playing football through his players in the best possible way, attacking, flair, innovative and sparkling performances have been seen since his tenure at the club.

He has brought back the smile on the Napoli fans that was lost since the days of Maradona and Careca, playing an excellent brand of football that, let’s be honest Serie A needed, since his arrival Napoli have contested the big teams in Italy and have grown close in realising their dream of winning the Scudetto.

He has learned as he has gone on with this Napoli outfit, last season his team would let the opposition come on to them, the team would soak up the pressure from the opposing team and then hit them on the break, with fascinating counter- attacks.  Mazzarri’s men showed they could however adapt to his 3-5-2 into a more cautious 5-3-2.

This particular plan would frequently work, he has shown Napoli are not always the one dimensional team cynics would say as he likes to attack and play an attacking brand of football, there is nothing wrong in entertaining, especially in front of the San Paolo.

The problem for Napoli is that if they were to revert to a more cautious approach, they would need the players, defensively Napoli are not that sound, they require world class centre backs, with the players at his disposal Mazzarri is doing a fine job, maybe some responsibility should be directed to the club hierarchy, club president  Aurelio De Laurentiis should dig deep into his pockets and buy more steel at the back, Paolo Cannavaro, Salvatore Aronica, Hugo Armando Campagnaro and Miguel Angel Britos are not defenders forwards would fear.

Napoli have shown in recent seasons in Serie A they can match the big teams attacking- wise, defensively is where they stutter, even if Mazzarri sticks to the counter attacking game his side requires a better defence.  Napoli are very good in possession, they just need that extra step- up in class as it showed in last night’s encounter with Juventus, if Napoli had a better defence with possibly another creative maestro they wouldn’t lack in ideas when the opposition manages to stop the speed of their attacks.

If Walter Mazzarri was to leave, who would possibly have the same impact and novelty as him, Montella wouldn’t leave Fiorentina, Donadoni is doing a fine job at Parma and you can’t really imagine Marcello Lippi returning, so the only realistic option is to continue with Mazzarri as he has already made an impact at Napoli, and in case people have forgotten his side sit second in the league standings and trail only three points behind a very strong Juventus side, who else could possibly put Napoli higher up in the standings consistently year in year out?

Mazzarri has shown he isn’t tactically inept, quite the opposite infact, he has brought Champions League football to Naples, ask yourself a Napoli without Mazzarri would probably mean an end to an adventurous team, would we really want to see that in Serie A… thought not.