STADIO GRANDE TORINO (Turin) – Napoli have one of the best and most varied choices of attacking players in Serie A, yet they lacked ideas and quality in their last two games, going goalless against Genk and Torino.
Despite rotating all available forwards in the last two matches, Carlo Ancelotti couldn’t obtain more than two draws, with a misfiring set of strikers on display.
The coach went from his usual 4-4-2 system against Genk, to a new 4-3-3 at Torino, aimed at getting the best from Lorenzo Insigne and Hirving Lozano. Instead, Napoli went goalless again, and the feeling is the current Partenopei need a strong presence up front like Fernando Llorente to function at their best.
NO IDEAS, NO GOALS
Against Genk, Napoli created several chances, hitting the woodwork in a few occasions. So, of course, there is a component of luck in all of this. Yet Arkadiusz Milik seemed in bad shape, and Lozano at the moment is just getting everything wrong after a solid start to his season.
Dries Mertens was deployed with Insigne and Lozano in a front three against Torino, and despite having some potential chances against the Granata, all three were unable to properly test the keeper, sometimes not being clinical and at other times terrible in decision making.
The 4-3-3 system could still be the way forward – with Lozano in his natural position, Insigne in his preferred left wing role and both Piotr Zielinski and Fabian Ruiz helping the forwards – but the team looked much better with Llorente spearheading the attack.
WHAT’S THE BEST GAMEPLAN?
In the last few games it seemed that Napoli didn’t really know what to do when it came to going forward. Having three or four technical players combining has usually been key for the Partenopei, but at the moment a lack of brightness has been slowing these players down. Even Jose Callejon – one of the most consistent – doesn’t seem anywhere near his best.
With Milik or Llorente at the heart of the attack Napoli have looked better, whipping in crosses for the physical strength of the top two. Both weren’t very accurate against Genk and Torino, respectively, but the team looked more coherent up front.
Perhaps right now this is the way to go, whilst everyone, from Ancelotti to Mertens and Lozano, recovers some brightness and fresh attacking ideas going forward into the season.
