On Tuesday, Napoli bowed out of the Coppa Italia in the Round of 16 for the third consecutive season, losing 0-4 to Frosinone. It was Napoli’s worst home result in the tournament in 65 years (1958), when gli Azzurri suffered a 0-4 defeat to Lazio.
With six home defeats already this season, the club (and its president), the coach and the players must all be held to account. No one knows whether Luciano Spalletti would have fulfilled his contract with Napoli had Aurelio De Laurentiis offered the Tuscan a pay increase. According to Spalletti, “sometimes, you part ways due to too much love.” The Napoli president might not have had control over Spalletti’s future (nor that of former sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli), but he certainly had a say in their replacements.
When Rudi Garcia was sacked, Napoli were fourth in the table, 10 points behind league leaders Inter. His replacement hasn’t fared much better. Since returning to Napoli, Walter Mazzarri has a record of three wins, no draws and four losses across all competitions. Until recently, Mazzarri’s impact was difficult to assess. The former Inter, Watford, Torino and Cagliari coach opened his second stint with consecutive matches against Atalanta, Real Madrid, Inter and Juventus – difficult matches for any manager, let alone for one who did not have a summer to prepare.
Despite three consecutive defeats, Napoli showed clear signs of improvement before earning important victories over Braga and Cagliari. The former secured a place in the knockout stage of the Champions League, while the latter was Napoli’s first home victory (in any competition) since late September. Though he arguably had little choice, Mazzarri fielded his best available XI in each of his first six matches in charge, contested over a three-week period. With a match against direct rivals Roma on Saturday, Mazzarri was forced to rotate against Frosinone.
Three days after a narrow victory over Cagliari, Mazzarri made nine changes to his starting XI. With the likes of Alessandro Zanoli, Diego Demme and Gianluca Gaetano playing from the first minute, Napoli made their priorities clear, and the Coppa Italia was at the bottom of the list. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been considering the Partenopei are effectively out of the title race before the midway point of the season.
One would expect the “B team” of the reigning champions to be strong enough to defeat a newly promoted club. However, Frosinone is no slouch. Sitting comfortably in the middle of the table, i ciociari have already taken points from Atalanta and Fiorentina this season. Indeed, Eusebio Di Francesco also made a number of changes – eight, to be exact – to the squad he fielded at the weekend.
However, Di Francesco had more regular starters in his squad than Mazzarri did. Di Francesco’s squad boasted 5,588 league minutes of playing time this season, compared to the 3,849 minutes of Mazzarri’s squad. Hindsight is 20/20, but Mazzarri might regret not taking a similar approach. That is, perhaps he should have made 3-5 changes in each of the matches against Cagliari and Frosinone, rather than nine changes all at once.
On the other hand, Napoli’s reserves didn’t concede many chances, let alone any goals, in the first half. Moreover, they could have gone into the break with a lead had it not been for an potentially erroneous usage of the VAR. In the 37th minute, Giovanni Simeone capitalized on an errant Caleb Okoli pass, giving Napoli a 1-0 lead. Before play resumed, match official Rosario Abisso was called to the pitch-side monitor by the VAR. After a short review, the goal was disallowed due to an alleged handball by Jesper Lindstrøm in the build up. Putting aside the question of whether a clear and obvious error was made, with an assistant referee perfectly positioned to judge whether a foul was committed, the play should not have been reviewable by the VAR. Okoli’s back pass, after he clearly regained possession, started a new action.
Nevertheless, Napoli were very poor in the second half. Frosinone increased the tempo and intensity after the break and the home side had no response. Curiously, it wasn’t until after the introduction of Stanislav Lobotka, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen that Napoli conceded foul goals.
Does that mean the reserve players were better than the regular starters? Not necessarily. The first goal came from a set piece and Napoli’s best defender in the air, Leo Østigård, was on the pitch. The second, third and fourth goals were conditioned by the circumstances. After conceding the opening goal, the home side pushed forward for the equalizer, leaving themselves exposed and susceptible to the counter-attack.
Once again, Amir Rrahmani did not jump on the first goal and Alex Meret hardly budged on the second. Of course, that’s because they were sitting on the bench, but it would appear Napoli’s defensive woes exist independently of who plays. In other words, the coach is largely responsible for Napoli’s continued defensive struggles.
Again, hindsight is 20/20, but Mazzarri’s biggest mistake was to replace Mario Rui with Giovanni Di Lorenzo. The substitution was likely pre-planned, as Mario Rui only recently returned from a long injury absence and presumably did not have 90 minutes in his legs. The left back is being eased back into the starting role, just as Victor Osimhen was eased back into the starting striker position. However, the Napoli captain, playing out of position, was solely liable for two of Frosinone’s four goals. His errant back pass assisted Giuseppe Caso in doubling Frosinone’s lead, while his foul on Francesco Gelli in the area allowed Walid Cheddira to score against his home club.
Thus, the players are accountable as well. Other than Jens Cajuste in the first half, no Napoli player was particularly impressive in the defeat. Victor Osimhen worked hard, as he always does, to get his side back into the match, but his teammates did not seem to have the same desire. In the 84th minute, the reigning Capocannoniere chased Frosinone from midfield all the way back to the keeper, only to realize his teammates hadn’t followed, allowing the visitors to play out with ease. Though inconsequential, the play was emblematic of Napoli’s performance as a whole.
The defeat to Frosinone leaves Napoli competing in two competitions. The draw of Barcelona in the Round of 16 of the Champions League no longer appears as favourable as it did a week ago. Meanwhile, the Azzurri are sandwiched between Bologna (28 points) and Roma (25 points) in the race for top four. The 2023/24 campaign has already been disappointing for Napoli. With a squad valued at over €500 million, failure to qualify for next season’s Champions League would be a complete disaster.
