Sunday, January 9, 2011

What Did Napoli Teach Us?

WE DON'T HAVE A STRIKER AND DON'T HAVE THE BENCH TO COMPETE ANOTHER 18 WEEKS!!!


It is possible that injuries held us back in today's encounter in which Edinson Cavani-Marek Hamsik-Ezequiel Lavezzi all brought us into a reality check that was much needed.  Now one would have to expect Marotta to go out and get the power brokers of the club to cough up some January funds so that we can compete for the top 4 for a full season.  Serie A is strengthening with Napoli, Palermo, and Sampdoria all growing in strength and size.

Now, starting Luca Toni and Amauri could have been the most questionable move I have ever seen in all my years watching the club and even the sport in particular.  You would have to think Gigi Del Neri just felt that Pepe and Krasic would be able to get around Campagnaro and Maggio with the intent to swing a ball into the box for one of these two clumsy attackers. Ehem...that wasn't happening.

Set aside what the game would have looked like had Luca Toni's good call stood.  We learned a lot today about the club and Del Neri.

Del Neri:

1) He is human and can make errors.
2) Must have been choosing which cheese to have at dinner when he put the young Traore in for his official Serie A debut in a very threatening environment like the San Paolo.  The young frenchman has a lot of promise, but this was not the game to test and judge him.
3) Won't accept that he should be demanding a striker and after missing out on an inexpensive (FREE) Cassano he should have gone out and claimed Giuseppe Rossi who would fit the EU-Rule.

Club:
1) The need for depth at the back for certain.  Grygera was more alarming to me than Traore was.  Grygera is a veteran and has been a part of this club for some time and has seen Napoli for over 5 years now.  He was responsible for the two uncontested headers by Cavani (first and third).
2) Amauri+Iaquinta+Luca Toni+Alex Del Piero= no pace up front which makes the offense far too predictable.  Paolo Cannavaro and Gianluca Grava were looking world-class out there.  There came a point where one would think we were opposing Thiago Silva+ Alessandro Nesta.
3) Every ball to Krasic is going to get old very quickly if we continue to swing the ball to Milos when in doubt.  It is become easy to defend as you can double-team him and bring in a striker deep to cover his back leading to a triple-team.  Time to go out and get that Left-Wing that we need desperately.
4) Lack of depth at striker is going to cause us to trickle down the table.  Ciro Ferrara brought up a valuable point when he said "I had the same amount of points as this Juve when I was in charge at this point in the season".  Scary to think he said this back in November.

So what do we do now? We just got thrashed two games in a row.  Both results came by our own hand. Giovinco-Mirante-Palladino and today the poor selections made by Del Neri.

It is best that we move on, but we will never see Top 4 this season if we do not go out and acquire at least a striker.  Sorensen and Grosso can handle the back a bit better while De Ceglie is expected back within two weeks and so Grosso can have an alternate.

We don't address a striker we will fall into the Europa League again and miss out on the Champions League funding that can be added to the expected revenue earned from our own stadium next season.  Top 4 has and always will be the goal for the next two years.

      *Cavani after his first goal on his way to the hat-trick*

Remaining patient is the key at this time, but hopefully Marotta doesn't share in our patience.

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