October 7, 2023: the last time Union Berlin scored a goal. August 26, 2023: the last time Union Berlin earned a point. On the face of it, Napoli’s 1-1 draw at the Maradona on Wednesday – already the fifth home match in which the Partenopei dropped points this season – was a terrible result. However, it wasn’t a terrible performance, at least on two-thirds of the pitch.
Napoli dictated the play, controlled the tempo, built up well using the entirety of the pitch and generated opportunities to score, but they struggled to find the back of the goal. Of their 26 shot attempts, gli Azzurri only managed five shots on target. While the home side enjoyed 66% ball possession, Alex Meret was called upon to make more saves than Frederik Ronnow.
Napoli looked most threatening from the set piece. Both central defenders came close to scoring their first ever Champions League goals. Natan hit the upright, while Amir Rrahmani narrowly missed the target on two separate occasions. Even André-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s disallowed goal was assisted and finished by headers after Mario Rui picked out Giovanni Di Lorenzo at the second post.
Hindsight is 20/20, but Giovanni Simeone might have been a better option at striker – a true number nine for Mario Rui to target in the area. Giacomo Raspadori was relatively quiet in the match, but Rudi Garcia, who remains in the hot seat, was never not going to start the man who had scored in three consecutive matches.
The best option actually would have been Victor Osimhen, who continues to recover from a thigh muscle injury. Sitting beside his agent Roberto Calenda, one row behind Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis, Osimhen watched on solemnly as Napoli struggled to find a match winner. It was the striker’s first appearance at a Napoli match in two weeks. As reported by Italian media, after a short stop in Germany, Osimhen traveled to Nigeria, with the club’s permission, to settle some personal matters, perhaps related to accusations from his brother-in-law Osita Okolo. The club rarely allows players extended periods of absence mid-season, even if injured. This was clearly an attempt to make amends for the Tik Tok fiasco earlier this year.
In the defensive phase, Napoli continued to look vulnerable, particularly to the counterattack. This match, perhaps more than any other this season, demonstrated just how much the Partenopei miss Kim Min Jae. Natan has huge potential. In fact, according to Sofa Score Brazil, the 22-year-old is the highest-rated defender of the 2023/24 Champions League campaign. However, both Natan and Rrahmani struggled with the pace of Sheraldo Becker and David Fofana, who seemed to get to every long ball first.
Union Berlin’s goal – their first goal in any competition in over a month – was scored on the counterattack. As Matteo Politano, Di Lorenzo and others noted after the match, it’s inexplicable for a club to concede a goal from its own corner kick. Somehow, Mario Rui, who took the corner kick, and Amir Rrahmani, who was positioned at the edge of the six-yard box for the corner kick, were two of the three players racing back to defend the counter, along with Stanislav Lobotka. All three players drifted towards Becker, leaving Fofana completely unmarked on the rebound.
Napoli found themselves in a similar situation against Sassuolo last season. On that occasion, nearly the entire squad raced back after Khvicha Kvaratskhelia conceded possession from a corner kick. Is this an indication that the players are losing their motivation? Possibly, but most Napoli players remain committed to the cause. Many of them collapsed to the ground after the final whistle against Milan. Without a doubt, At least one player remains committed to Rudi Garcia.
Matteo Politano ran to the Napoli manager to celebrate after scoring his sixth goal of the season and his first of the Champions League. Everything seems to be going well for the winger at the moment. Politano made a smart run into the area, pointing to where he wanted Mario Rui to play the ball, and was the benefactor of a fortuitous deflection by Josip Juranovic. Now tied with Victor Osimhen for most goals, Politano leads all players in goal contributions and seems likely to get a call-up from Luciano Spalletti for the November international break.
Unfortunately, that was Napoli’s only goal of the evening. Like against Milan, Kvaratskhelia had a chance to win the match in the dying minutes but fired straight at the keeper. Last season, those attempts might have found the back of the goal. That’s not on Rudi Garcia, whose detractors claim that all of Napoli’s faults are on the manager’s poor tactics, while anything positive is attributable to individual moments of brilliance from the players. During the 2022/23 campaign, the Partenopei outperformed their xG by over 12 goals. That is, Luciano Spalletti also benefited from individual moments of brilliance.
However, Napoli’s defensive woes really do boil down to tactics, and that really is on Rudi Garcia. According to Italian media, De Laurentiis and Garcia were the last to leave the Maradona on Wednesday night. While Napoli did not lose on the pitch, they certainly lost off of it. A Champions League Group Stage victory is worth €2.8 million, while a draw is worth €0.9 million. The second half goal, conceded at home to a team who had lost 12 consecutive matches across all competitions, cost Napoli a staggering €1.9 million. Once again, Rudi Garcia’s team failed to string together three consecutive victories and as a result, the Frenchman remains in the hot seat.
