Europa League - SSC Napoli vs. RB Leipzig - Rd of 32

Napoli: Reina; Maggio, Tonelli, Koulibaly, Hysaj; Rog, Diawara, Hamsik; Ounas, Callejon, Zielinski

Napoli bench: Sepe, Rafael, Mario Rui, Albiol, Jorginho, Allan, Insigne

RB Leipzig: Gulacsi; Laimer, Orban, Upamecano, Klostermann; Sabitzer, Kampl, Keita, Bruma; Poulsen, Werner

RB Leipzig bench: Mvogo, Bernardo, Konate, Forsberg, Laimer, Demme, Augustin

Ref: Dias (POR)

 

Interesting team, though I really hoped Senese would start and hysaj and k2 was rested

 

Seasons over if we don't win this game lol

 

just take k2 out already.

even the players who are meant to impress sarri look like they dont care lol

 

there we go

 

Ounas reminds me of young Insignie. Rog had an assist but he is the worst one today. His defensive positioning is disaster, always too late to cover.

 

diawara is just shit lol. rog and ounas have been the worst two napoli players today, ironic they created the goal

 

That pass was like an assist for Red Bull.

 

diawara with his second assist today - what a talent.
anyways I will give him my best for sending us out this useless cup.

edit: if other fans wonder why napoli suck in CL its because diawara was playing ahead of jorginho

 

hysaj callejon k2 and maggio was much worse than ounas, ounas cant create when hes backed up by a grandad and he showed that he's our best player whe taking on defenders directly

 

he is also not sticking to the script. giving the ball away often for no reason. no mobility compared to callejon (who I dont like to praise) lol.

sarri took him out after 60 minutes despite him showing glimpse of quality ...

 

He's a young player from another league. I've seen players lile Schick and pjaca who people wanted here not stick to their team script and not be on the same wavelength as their teammates. Ounas wants to make an impression, he has the most potential in our squad (cant speak about lenadrinho). Anywau you can't justify sarris subs considering hes made many changes that in retrospective look impulsive and lacking of common sense.

 

I'm not justifying anything. Im just stating sarri took him out early, hence he must not have been be very impressed.

I never said I agreed with it in fact I would have loved for Ounas to get the full 90, I just said if you take the goal and assist away from ounas and rog they both were kind of terrible today.

ounas brings other aspects to the team that callejon doesnt but he lacks some things that are fundamental for wingers in Sarri's system, timing and workrate.

doesnt matter anyway they (rog and ounas) both pale in comparison to whatever diawara was doing out there. He belongs in a different system where he can get more cover.

 

I have to disagree, I think sarri took him out to get more defensive cover (I have no idea why). I've seen ounas substituted alot later for poorer performances, so that must have been a tactical decision. I thought he was doing ok most of the time when counter attacking, and I definitely see the potential in the way he plays. Some aspects of him actually do remind me of a younger insigne

 

who gives a shit at this point if we were out of the top 4 then id be pissed off.

 

I like him too, I just dont think sarri does.
ounas pass success was the lowest on the team today with 68%. maggio 69 and rog 75 were the second and third lowest. He got subbed after he scored a great goal in a meaningless game and the fact sarri openly has called him an anarchist, its reasonable to suspect sarri isnt overly happy with ounas.

yes some aspects are like insigne's I agree but imo a young insigne was a different class, had x-factor and ridiculous speed on the first meters, from what I've seen ounas just doesnt explode the same way - imo insigne's huge potential could be seen from space and I'm not even convinced he's lived up to it yet.
A young insigne wouldnt cost 10 million in today's market.

 

Now we know why Sarri rarely subs.

Only Zielinski is a good sub and maybe Mario Rui. We really lack depth.

 

This was bad, but let's try not to destroy the young kiddo for screwing it all up yesterday. It wasn't just his fault, because we need another Hamsik. He hasn't been as great as he used to be this season regarding going forward so far, but he gives out game the depth and the calm that a great team requires, in my humble opinion. The goal that we scored yesterday started with his pass first class pass to the other side of the pitch, if I wasn't too drunk and high to remember it correctly, and I also remember him giving the pass from a situation when he was being cornered by the opposition quite quickly and effectively. Zielinski was trying to make the difference individually, but unfortunately he wasn't up to the task yesterday, and neither were his teammates.

The problem is that Sarri has been being overpraised. We tend to forget that just a little while ago he was a provincial coach, and so were many of the players that he has bought throughout his employment under the Napoli flag. I think it's clearly visible that he has been struggling with changing the mentality of the team, especially the bench guys. Mazzari could not win the league, but he could give the competition a good fight on more than just one front, he could give anyone a good fight on three different fronts and win on at least one.
Sarri has been toying with the devil, for Juve still are Juve, they can score a goal from nothing and then defend flawlessly for 85 minutes, which they demonstrated in the first match that we played against each other this season. If we do not manage to break their greatness, which will not at all be easy, but near to impossible, we could finish this season with nothing but empty hands and a lot of international shame. If that unfortunate prognosis comes to pass, it would be disastrous, for then we would gain nothing more from this season than hopes for the future, which is not that much, as it will be difficult to keep the squad as it is, especially with a coach that cannot rotate at all and most of the players have already stared seeing playing for us as nothing more than a shitty job. And don't blame me for saying that this is exclusively Sarri the Wizard's fault, for I distinctly remember a whole lot of quality hanging above the heads of our bench players, but now you can easily recognize that they no longer have faith in anything, ANYTHING that has ANYTHING to do with a good football career.

That brings into perspective the fact that he cannot rotate, which consequently means that our players from the bench are nowhere near the level of motivation they need in order to compete at this level.

Just tell me, who would rotate like this in a game in which we just cannot afford to let in too many goals, especially when our next opponent is SPAL. I mean SPAL, just to stress the point. We should have shown them what we are capable of yesterday, then score one goal on their pitch and it would be done. But no, Sarri has a lot to learn and that's fine. But I exaggerate a bit, for nobody could have foreseen Diawara's blunders, but it all stems from the lack of motivation of the entirety of our unfortunate bench.

 

Insigne had a ton of hype, being local and coming through the ranks thats why. Ounas is in a situation where he has to prove himself, same with Rog. Unfortunately they didn't get the same treatment zielinski did when he got here, because sarri knew him and trusted him more. Ounas should be sent out on loan, any young player in fact who is not getting minutes should be. Rog's progress has stalled, and the same with Ounas. They continue to be C players, and they'll disappear.

 

Let's just hope that Mazzari will save the day, he can help us by beating Juve with Torino, as well as by giving advice to Sarri, as the coach who could do more than one thing quite well with us to the the coach who can do only one thing, but indeed, he can do it very well.

However, I hope Sarri will be able to ignore the fact that he's been running the risk of nor winning anything at all this year, and now that outcome is probably more real than winning the league, as I find it difficult to believe that our immaturity will be enough to beat the solidity of Juventus.

What are your thoughts, bros? Don't you think that what we have done is just plain stupid? Have we grown conceited, or were we just naive? If we cannot trust ourselves to beat SPAL with the bench out there, we do not deserve to win the Italian title, because if we do, than it will not be progress, but the very opposite.

Sarri has a lot to learn, but he needs to start seeing that the fault is also in him, not in the players only, and I would dare say that Sarri is almost exclusively responsible.

 

Actually I think Sarri has done the right thing, a game against Spal is worth the same as a game against Juventus. We win either one and we get 3 points, we lose either one and we get 0 points.

Every single game even against the lower teams is important. It's just unfortunate that we have no real backups. There is a dip in quality from our starting 11 to the bench and it's clear for everyone to see.