The Ciucciarelli played some spectacular football and were contenders for the Serie A title last season, but the tactician is finding it hard to reproduce the heroics of his first campaign in Naples.
After an impressive campaign in 2015-16, Napoli have not been as inspiring in Maurizio Sarri’s second season as coach of the Partenopei.
Currently, the southern Italian side are sixth in Serie A with 21 points from 12 games and they are nine points behind Juventus in the title chase. That said, they are on top of Group B in the Champions League after four rounds, but elimination from the group stage remains a strong possibility.
There are a number of reasons for the lack of consistency in 2016-17: some players who performed well last season have struggled to replicate their form in this campaign, key players have suffered injuries, and Sarri has been unable to adequately accommodate the summer signings into the squad.
With these issues impacting on the team, it seems that the 57-year-old Napoli tactician is suffering from second-year blues, but is he at fault for the Ciuccirelli’s underachievement early in the season?
So far this season a few players have not been able to influence matches like they did last year. Lorenzo Insigne performed splendidly on the left-wing in 2015-16, scoring 12 goals in Serie A and assisting in 10 others, but he has not scored in a competitive fixture for the Neapolitan club in 2016-17.
At the back, Pepe Reina was a fine shot-stopper previously but during this campaign he has conceded some soft goals, and left-back Faouzi Ghoulam has been less effective going forward. Ghoulam also had a shocker against Juventus in round 11, committing defensive errors which resulted in Napoli conceding goals in the 2-1 defeat.
In midfield, Allan has not been as energetic as he was in the previous campaign and has occasionally lost his spot to Piotr Zielinski while Jorginho has recently had his place in the starting line-up taken by former Bologna starlet Amadou Diawara.
While some footballers have had problems reproducing their fine form from last season, others have had trouble remaining on the park. Lorenzo Tonelli, Nikola Maksimovic and Emanuele Giaccherini arrived in the summer with injuries and Raul Albiol has been unavailable since late September with a muscular injury. No absentees have been more noticed, however, than Arkadiusz Milik.
The absence of Milik, who has scored seven goals in nine competitive matches, has left a huge void in attack and Manolo Gabbiadini has failed to take his opportunities as he has not scored in three Serie A appearances and he received a red card against Crotone in week nine.
In addition to the form and injury concerns, Sarri has not been able to insert his new signings into his squad. Although the aforementioned Zielinski and Diawara have been granted playing opportunities in midfield, Giaccherini has rarely featured on the left-wing, Maksimovic has played just three matches in Serie A, and Marko Rog, Roberto Insigne, and Tonelli have not played at all.
Only one-third of the season has been completed so Napoli have time on their side but Sarri will need his squad to regain form in order to challenge for a Champions League spot or even the scudetto.
Perhaps finding someone who can score goals for Napoli aside from Milik is the key but they have to wait for over a month until they can find another alternative on the transfer market.
Maybe finding a prolific scorer will solve things but there are other issues that need addressing at the Partenopei, especially with Sarri’s system not producing the spectacular results like it did last season.
