Benitez stumped before the Napoli defensive jigsaw puzzle

Different coach, same defense. This is probably the exasperated consensus Napoli fans have come to about their team. In fact, their defense has very much been the reason for Napoli’s recent slip out of the scudetto race. Therefore the question remains: is Rafael Benitez matching expectations in terms of improving Napoli?

The answer is two-fold. Offensively Benitez has definitely improved the team. In spite of selling Edinson Cavani, Napoli are keeping up well with their scoring statistics from last season. The Partenopei scored 73 goals last season. This year, with 22 games played, Napoli have scored 44 goals and are thus on course to match their last-year form.

Although Gonzalo Higuain is not scoring at quite the same rate Cavani was, Benitez has found a supporting cast in the form of Jose Callejon (nine goals) and Dries Mertens (five goals) to complement the Argentine. Offensively Benitez has found the right formula, but the problem remains in the new personnel he brought in defense.

Benitez tried hard to re-build a backline that was shipping too many goals. The first decision towards this goal was to switch away from Walter Mazzarri’s three-man defense to a classic back-four. The decision created a problem in itself however because Napoli have no fullbacks. Therefore the intent to solidify the defense has instead unbalanced the system by having wing-backs as opposed to more orthodox fullbacks.

Indeed Juan Carlos Zuniga quickly lost the faith of his coach and only managed four Serie A starts this season, compared to 30 last year. Benitez shipped off Pablo Armero to West Ham on loan, despite the Colombian having just joined the club six months prior. As for veteran Christian Maggio, he has struggled to play in a back-four, which had been evident when he played in Cesare Prandelli’s Azzurri system.

Benitez has attempted to address these issues by bringing in fullbacks Anthony Reveillere and Faouzi Ghoulam. He also brought in Raul Albiol from Real Madrid to bolster the central defense. Finally, he sealed Pepe Reina’s signature on loan from former club Liverpool. On the face of it, all these moves look great.

However, so many changes create problems too. Benitez attempted to re-build an entire defense from scratch. A good rearguard is about being complementary and understanding your teammates. This current defense has none of that. After all, Albiol is not only new to the team but new to the league as well.

Reina is just coming in himself and having to contend with an ever-changing back-four, in which Albiol seems to be the only regular fixture. The role of Albiol as the anchor of that defense is problematic in itself. After all Albiol had his best years at Valencia deferring to Carlos Marchena, who was the real leader of the back-four.

So a lack of familiarity and many sudden changes have all been factors to the defense failing to improve under Benitez, and Napoli slipping out of the scudetto race. It is both a combination of personnel and Benitez’s rotation policy that are also causing the defensive problems. Indeed Benitez is always reshuffling his back-line as well as the double-pivot meant to protect the defense, with Gokhan Inler not always playing alongside the same midfield partner.

Finally, Benitez took a big gamble by selling both Hugo Campagnaro and ostracizing Paolo Cannavaro – before loaning him to Sassuolo last month – as soon as he arrived in Naples. The sale of Morgan de Sanctis last summer also did not help. As critic-worthy and error-prone as all the aforementioned players were, Benitez did away with that all important triangle between the goalkeeper and the two centre-backs that forms the spine of any defense, thus always complicating his task in solidifying the Neapolitan back-line.

Perhaps a different coach, but so far the same 1.05 goals conceded per game average.

Follow Ogo Sylla on Twitter at: @RossonerOgo_3