It's not over until the fat lady sings, but right now Inter have the advantage to win the league and it's asking a lot of this team to stay the pace in case they slip. Spalletti is cautious and understandably so, but fortune favors the brave. Fiorentina taught a valuable lesson.
I disagree with everything you said here about Osi. You have unrealistic expectations and you are describing a CF that is a world class ballon d'or level. Basically Benzema. I don't understand how Osimhen gets a goal and assist and you can say he played bad. Igor didn't get injured, he was subbed out because he had cramps. Mertens can barely do a full 90 minutes in case you haven't noticed. This is why Spalletti has been selective on when he uses him. If anything Osimhen needs better wingers to play with.
Questo gol è troppo sottovalutato per quanto mi riguarda pic.twitter.com/CQHC5IRIaU— I Gigi 78 I (@Vicidominus) April 13, 2022
The team gets more points and play better when Mertens starts up front. Also Osimhen has only scored 1 goal against the traditional top 6, ever. And that was against fiorentina, when Igor had cramps and couldn't mark him - Mertens has scored more goals against the top teams in this season than Osimhen ever has, despite lack of playing time. Even if what you say is true Mertens can still play more than 20 mins every now and then. It's dictated by ADL - the better mertens does the more pressure there will be to extend his contract. We don't win with conviction when Osimhen plays. We dont play well, ever, when hes on the pitch. My critique is relevant. Just admit it, you along with some fans just don't like Mertens because he is small. Now he is too old, but 3 years ago he was too small and not good enough in the air... Mertens is not a traditional number 9 and that is your main problem with him - this is despite the fact more top teams today uses a type like mertens up front over a type like Osimhen. I will admit I don't like Osimhen as a footballer. I think he is overrated and has a terrible technique, not what I wanna see from a player positioned centrally. I want to move him to the wing, so he won't give away possession as easily
The Mertens conspiracy (that Spalletti has been instructed to limit his use) is another stupid fantasy in the long list of stupid fantasies imagined by the most idiotic sections of the Napoli fanbase. (Along with Fiorentina being instructed and paid money behind the scenes to play harder vs. us than vs. Milan or Inter). When has ADL ever bowed to Napoli fan pressure? This is a guy who sold our captain midseason when we were supposed to be fighting for the scudetto and replaced him with nobody. He doesn't give a shit about what the fans want and never did. Mertens is a good player and I like him a lot. But he cannot do it for a full 90 every game. I think that much is obvious. In an ideal world, Spalletti is playing with both Mertens and Osi together. But because of Insigne, we are completely locked into this 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 where he owns the left wing. We bought Osimhen because we needed a real center forward (That Mertens is not). You're stuck into comparing an aging 34 year old expert striker to a 23 cf who has nowhere near reached his potential.
Agree to all. But Osimhen is mkre effective than I expected. But he is a chaos player snd zi don’t like that. What is worse is thst the team only plays high balls when he is on the pitch. I don’t like Spalletti and we are only 3 points better than last year. The team has no identity. We should have hired Italiano.
Mertens is very popular and I also believe ADL wants his to play less. I know he does not care about fans but he is getting more and more unpopular and getting rid of Mertens who is unlike Insigne loved by everyone and is willing to take lower pages is difficult. In any case our biggest problem is Spalletti. He has no clear ideas or identity. I hate 4231. It is for coaches that want two destroyers amd creative players that sort things out themselves. Proper coaches play 433 or other systems where you control tHe midfield.
We are not disagreeing on anything, as we both believe they should both play. I just cannot fathom why Mertens doesn't start games up front. Osimhen has scored 1 goal in top 9 this season, that is 1 goal against the 8 best teams in the league - of course it's difficult to compete then.
In 4231 they need to both play. Zielinski is not a playmaker and should not play ahead of Mertens. Zielinski is best in a 433 but he struggles with Lobotka moving into his space. Also Insigne’s form creates less options for Zielinski on the left.
Next year will be tough. Inter and Juve are strengthening. LUKAKU-DYBALA Gosens-DEPAUL-Brozovic-Barella-Dumfries Bastoni-BREMER-Skriniar ONANA Chiesa-Vlahovic-ANTHONY Zakaria-Locatelli-POGBA/SMS Danilo-Bonnuci-DeLigt-Cuadrado Szcenzni Milan has a top defense and probably 300M to spend Leao-NEW-NEW Bennacer-Tonali-NEW Theo-Tomori-Kalulu-Calabria Maignon We are falling further and further behind.
Spalletti is questionable atm, but he is not willingly telling this team not to create a single chance for 98 minutes. I've said it before: how many more points must we lose before we realize: Mertens>Osimhen The fact of bringing mertens on to play defender in a 532 is also just insulting. We do not play good football without mertens in a false 9 position. If Insigne handed in the performances of Osimhen lately he would have been crucified
Good games by Insigne, Meret, Lozano, lobotka, rui and k2. The rest either couldn't or didnt fulfill their roles today Also Rahmani is not better than Jesus
Spalletti is a loser. He started well with Roma and Inter and always bottled it. Never liked him, not even after that great start. He is outclassed in every game. He may even end up with less points than Gattuso.
Napoli built good momentum at the start of the season and a lot of early success came because of Spalletti's tweaks to get more out of Ruiz, but as the season has dragged on, Spalletti has shown a lack of courage and has not done enough to coach players like Zielinski to be more complete. I also think he put pressure on the players. The focus became not to make mistakes. And that talk of immortality didn't inspire the players, but instead had the opposite effect. He promoted a joyless football that sucked the life out of these players.
Yeah it’s Spalletti’s problem 80m Oshimen has 1 goal vs the top 9 and Juan Jesus was his only purchase this summer.
It’s at this phase in the calendar where you see who the true champions are. He simply does not have the ideas to unlock the opponent at this stage. Against Fiorentina he was completely exposed by Italiano. Today vs. Roma (a team that is fully capable of playing like absolute dog shit) we took the foot off the gas after a PK goal. Like a stereotypical Italian coach he tried to protect a 1-0 rather than not push for more goals. I’m having flashbacks of when he took off Icardi for Santon only to have Higuain score for Juve. It’s the same ********ing thing Other than that it was an ugly ugly game. The Romans deserved the draw. And their fans celebrated like it was a win. It’s normal now for Roma to celebrate even the tiniest of achievements. Especially when they just beat a team of Norwegian fish mongers. They celebrated as if they won the super league