Rudi Garcia was outcoached by Vincenzo Italiano as Napoli suffered a 1-3 defeat to Fiorentina on Sunday, the Parternopei’s third defeat at home this season. Here are four takeaways selected by Forza Napoli Press.
Outcoached
Rudi Garcia was simply out-coached and out-classed by Vincenzo Italiano on Sunday. With only two days of rest after Fiorentina’s Conference League match on Thursday, the ex-Spezia coach made seven changes to the squad he fielded against Ferencváros. Italiano boldly rested his top goalscorer Nico Gonzalez, playing Jonathan Ikone on the right wing instead. Nonetheless, Italiano made the necessary tactical adjustments to disrupt Napoli’s rhythm.
Between the midfielders and defenders pressing high and the forwards dropping, Fiorentina clogged up the middle of the park. Combined with La Viola’s physicality in the midfield, Napoli struggled to string together a sequence of passes. Rather, the home side buckled under the pressure and made uncharacteristic mistakes, including regularly playing the ball straight out to touch. Early and often, Lucas Martinez Quarta pushed up to join the attack or to defend as a holding midfielder, further stifling Napoli’s attack.
Meanwhile, Garcia made no changes to the squad he fielded midweek against Real Madrid. The Frenchman was likely hoping to replicate that performance in the Champions League, but his players looked sluggish, despite having two additional days of rest. André-Frank Zambo Anguissa, who has started in all but opening match of the season, was forced to come off due to a muscular injury. With Napoli already trailing by a goal, Garcia inserted an attack-minded player in Giacomo Raspadori and switched to a 4-2-3-1 formation. That tactical decision backfired, giving Fiorentina even more control of the midfield. Thus, Garcia reverted back to the 4-3-3, replacing Matteo Politano with Jens Cajuste in the 57th minute and pushing Raspadori to the right wing. However, Politano was one of Napoli’s attacking threats, while neither Raspdori nor Cajuste were particularly impressive or impactful.
Garcia’s substitutes in the 76th minute didn’t help his cause. He replaced the reigning Capocannoniere with Giovanni Simeone and Napoli’s second-most creative player with Jesper Lindstrøm. At the same time, Garcia replaced Stanislav Lobotka with Gianluca Gaetano, who appears to have overtaken Eljif Elmas in the depth charts. The unexpected changes, followed by Kvaratskhelia and Lindstrøm swapping wings, all felt improvised and a frankly a little desperate. Ultimately, neither the tactical nor the personnel changes worked.
Saveless
Josip Brekalo opened the scoring only seven minutes into the match, after Martínez Quarta’s effort struck the upright. The Croatian’s left-footed strike from a very narrow angle squeezed between the legs of Alex Meret, who finally made the mistake that many Napoli fans had been anticipating. Meret’s weaknesses from seasons prior to last seem to have re-emerged, from poor ball distribution to a weak goal conceded (but disallowed) against Lecce. Brekalo’s strike was the first of only three Fiorentina shots on target in the match. All three found the back of the goal, though there was little Meret could do on the other two. Napoli have now conceded 13 goals in 10 matches across all competitions and rank 8th in Serie A in goals conceded.
Few Positives
It’s difficult to find positives from such a deflating performance, but there were a few. Natan was impressive for the fourth consecutive match. The Brazilian made numerous important slide tackles, including a risky one on M’bala Nzola in the area. Meanwhile, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia did everything in his power to boost his teammates. Aside from a second-half strike that veered out for a throw-in, the Georgian often played through the double team and could have easily tallied two assists if the finishing from his teammates – Raspadori and Gaetano in particular – was better.
But above all, the biggest positive was Victor Osimhen. After breaking his social media silence with a post defending the the people of Napoli, Victor finally stepped up to the penalty spot. Since missing a penalty kick against Bologna, and the social media fiasco that ensued, Osimhen passed up opportunities from the spot against Udinese and Lecce. The Nigerian also didn’t celebrate after scoring goals against Udinese and Lecce. Not only did Osimhen take the penalty kick against Fiorentina, he also celebrated the goal, much to the delight of the tifosi in attendance.
Young Star in the Making
On the contrary, there were numerous positives for Fiorentina fans to take away from this result. With the victory, La Viola moved ahead of Napoli and level with Juventus for third position in the table. They did it despite making numerous changes to the squad and playing on short rest in an extremely hostile environment.
Perhaps the biggest positive for Fiorentina was the play of Michael Kayode. The 19-year-old defended the reigning Serie A MVP like a seasoned veteran. Kayode was extremely composed on the ball, often playing himself out of difficult situations. Aside from a risky throw-in that very nearly led to a Napoli goal, the U19 Euro winner hardly made a misstep, assuring Fiorentina fans that he’s more than capable of filling in for Dodô, who will be out for a while as he recovers from a torn ACL.
