Gonzalo Higuain is enjoying a year of booms and busts, his fortunes seemingly swinging from the sublime to the ridiculous to the sublime again.
After scoring a hat-trick against Lazio towards the end of last season, the Brest-born forward went to the World Cup full of confidence and was expected to star as part of a formidable Argentine forward line.
That he was overshadowed by Lionel Messi is no disgrace, but Higuain’s personal World Cup was frustrating and didn’t really get going until he scored the only goal of the quarter final against Belgium – a trademark fierce snapshot from just inside the area.
From that moment of redemption, he was utterly uninspiring against the Netherlands in the semi-final and endured a torrid time against Germany in the final. Most obviously, he missed an easy chance early on before being thoroughly clattered by Manuel Neuer as the game progressed.
That was how Higuain turned up when Serie A started. He may have scored in the Champions League playoff against Athletic Club, but he looked ineffective for Napoli as Jose Callejon took all the plaudits and scored all the goals. Even with the Spaniard’s hot streak, the Partenopei struggled with Higuain out of form.
After the recent draw with Inter, in which Callejon scored twice, there were suggestions that the former Real Madrid man was unhappy, rumours which were compounded by his non-selection in the Europa League defeat at Young Boys though the club insisted that decision was as a result of squad rotation.
Yet, again, from his lowest embers, Higuain lifted himself up, grabbing a hat-trick in the last 25 minutes of Napoli’s win against Hellas Verona, and following it with a goal against Atalanta in their next match.
Life does not follow often offer such regular narrative arcs.
Certainly, it could be that the disappointing World Cup exit had a negative impact on the start of Higuain’s season; equally, it is worth noting that Arsenal asked nothing of their German internationals at the beginning of the season, finally calling them back into action in late August.
It was a luxury not offered to Higuain, who was back in action well before that, scoring in a Blue Riband friendly against Paris Saint-Germain on the 11th of the month, before the Champions League playoffs a week or so later. Only after another disappointment in that competition did his form falter, and even then, only in Serie A as he found the net in each of his first two Europa League games.
Blaming Higuain’s poor form on a World Cup hangover is simplistic, but it is undeniable that he was not delivering the same level of performance as might be expected of such a valuable player early on in the season. The first five games saw the Argentine average only two shots per 90 minutes, a figure that has almost doubled in his next four appearances to 3.29 and maintaining a shot accuracy of 62 percent, will always result in goals.
It is difficult to tell whether Napoli struggled because Higuain was out of sorts, or because of the nature of striker he is, whether Higuain struggled because Napoli were out of sorts. The Inter game marked a line in the sand for both, the Argentine looked himself in a team that looked themselves around him.
What is undeniable since that game is that both are beginning to find their feet. Provided they continue in the same vein, there’s no reason the Partenopei cannot scale the same heights as last season.
