I agree but don't think he will improve. Players like Zapata, Pavolletti and Milik do not fit in Sarri's system.
Miliks way more technical than pavo or zapata, he needs to play with Mertens as those 2 had a wonderful understanding last season. Watch the game vs Milan if you disagree. Stupid how Sarri has forgotten Mertens can play as a winger as there was no use in subbing of our best player, against a side that had a 2 man disadvantage. Insigne doesnt click with him just as well as mertens does, he's too focused on passing back and midfield play
Depends on what the offer is, honestly, he still can be a very good player for Napoli, the time when he was scoring goals, he was damn near dominant, not sure how he got exposed as a bad player during that time. He tore his ACL, we need to give him atleast until week five before we start freaking out. He is also 23 years old and the only aerial threat we have (even though that is not our game and i ********ing despise it when Callejon and ghoulam attempt to cross the ball).
I don't like teh Sarri criticism. We were comfortably up and he did the right thing to rest Mertens. We have a game in three days. Mertens needs to start so he needs to be rested. I would play Jorginho on the weekend and Diawara on Tuesday.
Put mertens there instead of Milik and thats 3 nil. For that cushion, Im willing to take a risk and play Mertens for an extra 15 minutes in the hope of not getting burnt out ahead of a game with Hellas.
Your statement is preposterous. To lose the first game of the season is something that any team can easily shake off of their shoulders, not to mention the fact that we should be able to handle Hellas with 4 or 5 players of our usual team on the bench. Moreover, Mertens is an energetic, cunning, and passionate little fox, he can last. I don't see how anyone could have an opinion such as yours, even though I thoroughly respect it, but can't you see the magnitude of importance that the games with Nice contain within them? It's heavily perceptible, as far as I'm concerned. I would rather play Milik against Hellas, after all that he's done, or rather hasn't done, I still trust him enough to put him in against Hellas.
Am I the only one who thinks that, regarding the first half, the three best players on the pitch were most definitely Mertens, Albiol, and Hamsik? For Mertens and Albiol the same holds true for the 2nd half, but unfortunately, not for Hamsik. But still, I have seen my share of Napoli games and I know that Hamsik tends to have these moments in the second half after he has played exceptionally in the first, and often he manages to put in a great assist or a wonderful goal after the stagnation. It could seem to one who does not know me that I glorify and protect Hamsik because we're countrymen, however, that is not true, I am a fan of Napoli, not a fanboy of Hamsik. If that were true, I'd have to start cheering for Inter now that Skriniar appears to be doing so well. However, I have noticed some criticism here directed towards Hamsik and as a fan of Napoli I must say that he does not deserve it, for yesterday he played very well, so it makes me wonder and marvel at the fact how easily people would start criticizing a player whose heart is closer to Naples than that of its own citizen, Insigne(who threatened to leave because of money).
Hamsik ran out of energy after 35 minutes, started playing sloppy and was rightfully subbed off, same can be said about Insigne yet he was still on the pitch for 90 minutes while our best player got subbed off. As someone said earlier Insigne and Milik never were really good at linking up with each other which begs the question why Sarri didnt use M&M's (Mertens/Milik) and hasnt used them together since Milik came back from Injury. Insigne and Hamsik looked about a week behind in terms of physcial fitness imo. Regardless Milik shouldve scored so he is entirely to blame - he had one job.
There is no way we will not win in Nice. The gap in quality is very obvious. So the Verona game is critical. How can people here believe that Napoli could lose 3-0 or 4-1? I am pretty sure we will win 3-1 in Nice.
Marek has some dumb moments. But he has been our outstanding midfield player last season and over the last 10 years.
Footballs not that simple unfortunately. You saw yesterday with some lapses of concentration in defense we could have easily conceded from any of those chances they had. We needed a questionable penalty (looked like a fk to me) to have a slightly safer margin, so you can never count your opponent out. The gap in quality doesn't mean we will always win, if that were the case we would have never finished 3rd last season
I expect Napoli to go through by the way and itd be a travesty if they dont, but this tie is far from over
Honestly if we don't then we don't deserve it. This is a simple qualifier. Spanish and English team always go through and until Hoffenheim somdid agerman teams. No excuses. We need to focus on Verona and win it and not spend more time on Nice.
We have to go through, without a doubt. But this team still has mental frailties, albeit not as bad as it once was under benitez.
Nice were not very good... unless Balotelli carried them last season, and mixed with the fact we were a good road team under Sarri in Europe all things considered. I think we can get the job done. We perhaps should have scored more, but for the first game of the season we looked pretty good.
I don't agree, we struggled in coppa, Serie A when we got cheated, not because the team was mentally weak. i would not say the team fell apart at all, October maybe but that was because Milik got injured and Gabbiadini showed he was a mentally weak player. But we were easily the best team in Italy 2nd half of the season.
Deserve's got nothing to do with it... Unforeseeable things could happen, like we putting in 24 good shots without a single goal and letting in 2 goals from 2 shots. Football can sometimes be a bitch, often it is chance, or luck, or both, that decide the outcome of the game. We were dominant with Nice the last time, we should have done better, not because I think we cannot win again, but because of the fact that both luck and chance exist and influence all living things.
Yes Napoli should go through but it will be the fault of players like Insigne, Callejon and Milik if we dont go through for all the chances they missed in the first leg. If we didnt get a questionable penalty call, this game would have been 1-0. Sarri needs to figure something out in the final third because we will need atleast one away.
I see Sarri starting Diawara over Jorgi in the 2nd leg. I think he sees Diawara putting in more energy and commitment to defense than Jorgi. We made Saint-Max & Koziello have great runs on a couple of occasions when we backed off of them. If Diawara starts, I see Zielinski over Allan to balance out what's missing when Jorgi isn't there. A Diawara - Allan midfield would be crap in comparison. I think we'll score at least one goal and the tie will be over. We were able to create so many chances. I hope we score first .
A Diawara -Allan midfield is crap because Allan is playing. Allan now a days offers more offensively than he does defensively. I have never seen someone who is supposed to be a ball winner be so bad at winning the ball. He misses every tackle in open space, it's mind numbing how Zielinski doesnt start every game he can. The guy can actually win a tackle and he is electric offensively. Diawara and Jorginho are two different players and honestly could be out there on the pitch together along with Hamsik or Zielinski. Diawara plays a louder game than Jorginho in the sense he is constantly wants to be in the middle of the action. I fear Jorginho sometimes lacks confidence in calling for the ball out there