In his latest piece for Football Italia, Adam Summerton, looks into Napoli’s incredible start to the season and the figures behind Luciano Spalletti’s success.
When I’m preparing for any commentary, I will always seek out press conference quotes from the two coaches involved – and of all the leagues and competitions I cover, Italian coaches, in general, give the most interesting insights – particularly on the tactical side of the game. This from Luciano Spalletti after Napoli’s Champions League win over Ajax on MD4 particularly intrigued me.
“Systems no longest exist in football, it’s all about the spaces left by the opposition. You must be quick to spot them and know the right moment to strike, have the courage to start the move, even when pressed.”
Luciano Spalletti
I thought this was a great insight into the eye-catching approach bringing Napoli so much early-season success. Top of Serie A after nine games and they have qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League with two games to spare for the first time in their history. They scored 39 goals in their first 13 games in all competitions and conceded only 11.
I almost can’t believe I’m writing these things about a club that lost four of their most senior players over the summer. Kalidou Koulibaly, Dries Mertens, Lorenzo Insigne and Fabian Ruiz all gone. I, like many other people, feared they could be vulnerable to losing their place in Italy’s top-four, and that the progress made by Spalletti in his first season could ebb away. How wrong I was. What’s happening in Naples right now has the potential to be truly special. This is style with substance – attractive, goal-laden football, but with a degree of balance.
I can remember thinking similar things about Sarri’s Napoli side that went close to the Scudetto in his 3rd season. But he’d spent so much time honing and fine-tuning that team. Spalletti is performing a minor miracle to have this Napoli side playing this well this quickly after a summer of fairly significant change. New arrivals like Kim and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia are performing important roles, and many of the other summer signings are also making important contributions.
So how is this happening? The first thing to point out is the importance of good recruitment – and we all know that Spalletti, despite never winning a Scudetto (yet), is one of the most well-respected, and savvy coaches in Italy. But when you look into some of the numbers around this fantastic start, you begin to see some interesting things, particularly when you relate them to the Spalletti quote I referenced.
What’s clear is that – in simple terms – Napoli let the ball do the work. According to transfermarkt.co.uk, they have the second-highest possession in Serie A this season at 61.3%, only behind Fiorentina (62.2%). That I kind of expected – but I found this next statistic quite surprising. Napoli don’t have a single player in the top 25 for distance covered per game in Serie A. Their player with the highest figure is André Anguissa in 26th place – he covers, on average, 10.617 km per game – Di Lorenzo is next highest at 10.551 – the league’s most committed runner, Sergei Milinkovic-Savic covers, on average, 11.801 km per-game. I also took a look at the average number of dribbles per game – only one Napoli player is in the league’s top 32 – that’s Kvaratskhelia, who only averages 1.1 dribbles per game.
Next, I looked at the average number of passes per game in Serie A, and this is particularly striking. There are five Napoli players in the top 16 (via whoscored.com) no other club had more than two players in the top sixteen. Top of the list is Kim who averages 69.8 passes per game, second is Amir Rrahmani, who averages 69.6 – but also in that top 16 you have Stanis Lobotka (54.9), Mario Rui (54) and Anguissa (53.4). This is a team that is efficient in its movements, exploits space and works smart – one that at the end of a long season may well have more staying power than most.
Something else I found interesting is how so much of their threat comes from the full-backs and wide areas. Napoli (according to OPTA) have scored seven goals from crosses this season, that was more than any other Serie A side after nine games. They’re efficient in that respect too, as they only ranked 13th for the number of crosses (including corners) attempted (144). Also according to OPTA, Di Lorenzo has created more open play chances than any other defender in Serie A this season (14) while Mario Rui has created the second-highest number of chances by a defender in general (20).
It’s natural that someone as exciting and eye-catching as Kvaratskhelia will get more of the headlines and the praise than the team’s full-backs. Seven goals and five assists in all competitions after 13 games is a superb start, that’s more goal contributions than any other Serie A player – but a real unsung hero in this team, in my opinion, is Stanislav Lobotka.
This is a player who has gone from afterthought to stalwart, and he is – quite literally – at the centre of everything. He has an average pass success percentage of 94.9% – that, for a central midfielder is superb. A player who so rarely gives the ball away but also stops the opposition with his clever positioning and tackling. Spalletti had this to say about Lobotka back in August after a goalscoring performance against Hellas Verona.
“He (Lobtoka) looked like Iniesta today, he played an exceptional game – he gives the team the chance to play in open space.”
Luciano Spalletti
Lobotka, Zielinski and Anguissa all complement each other so well and offer such a wonderful variety of skill sets in that three-man midfield. The midfield is purring, and so much about Napoli’s team – both individually and collectively, is to be admired. The results they’re achieving are eye-catching too. Only the Serie A champions Milan (64) have gained more points than Napoli (63) since the beginning of 2022 in Serie A, but it’s Napoli who have the best attack in that time, scoring 61 goals, an average of 2.18 per game.
Their threats are multiple too, with 12 players having scored Serie A goals after just 9 games of this season, and there was no drop in output despite first-choice striker Victor Osimhen being out injured from September 7 until October 12.
All of this leads you to wonder whether there could be a party in Naples this summer to rival the one that saw that famous banner put on a cemetery wall in the days after their first Scudetto in 1987. ‘You don’t know what you missed’ it read. Only one further Scudetto has followed since, in 1990, and so often hopes have been raised and subsequently dashed. Nine games in last season they were also top of Serie A, yet finished seven points behind the eventual champions, Milan.
Nothing can be taken for granted, but whether you believe what Spalletti has struck upon can be defined as a ‘system’, or something else, he is making a city dream and entertaining all of Europe.
Very good analysis. I’d like to add, however, that Napoli’s biggest improvement definitely comes from the supreme reinforcement they’ve added up front with Raspadori and Simeone. Let’s be honest here: Mertens was often out of shape and lacking precision and Petagna was as useless as a sack of potatoes. They now have two fellas that are hungry for goals and are so different from one another, which allows Napoli to completely change the way they build up play (Raspadori drops down to support a lot more) to put the opposing defenders off guard. Over are the days of sterile ball confiscation.
Asking Napoli fans and FI, how has Raspordi looked?
Maybe other sides watch Italian sides carefully in Europe and they are easy pickings, it used to be an Italian tactic to out smart other teams tactics, and because of the changes maybe other sides can’t detect the sudden change and style of play now.
All my posts are not published. Screw this hack site
Been saying that about Lobotka. Along with Anguissa their midfield is excellent and then you add in the couple exceptional players they have in offense and defense and they have the potential to go all the way.
A sin you didn’t mention Raspadori and Simeone. But how about the biggest non transfer they didn’t make??? Meret has been exceptional in goal. It really worked out Napoli ended up keeping him. And he was rewarded with a contract renewal.
I like that Napoli has some very key players that are Italian – Meret, DiLO, Politano, Rasp…
The secret? when you looked at their coach, actually it’s no secret.
Spalletti with Roma, Inter, etc always start strong… but they will slowly vanished in the end LOL
@Serie A legend. Raspordi doesn’t play for Napoli. Never heard of him.