Firing Garcia at this point makes no sense. I think the next two games against Braga and Bologna require wins. He's under a lot of pressure now, but I have no reason to doubt him. De Zerbi is not trading Brighton to work under ADL. If ADL is willing to pay, we can talk Conte. IMO he would undo everything Spalletti built. We will revert to 5-3-2 with Kvara at left-back. If ADL is willing to pay, it must be for Italiano. IMO he needs a preseason and a window to sign the guys he wants, which takes even more money. I would wait until the summer for him if ADL wants to put money into the club. Maybe Motta, but I guess that will depend on his audition against us next weekend. Maybe Paulo Sousa. Gattuso anyone? We are talking about these kind of managers, realistically, if Garcia goes, and I'm not sure any of them will want the job.
No chance of that happening if Napoli made UCL final. Man City would’ve won by a larger margin, likely 3-1 or 4-1.
And who were Napoli’s opponents in those 8 games? Mostly easy lower to mid table Serie A teams. Maybe Ajax and Rangers, but Ajax were not the same as previous seasons, and Rangers was mediocre at best. All those teams, Napoli were expected to win pretty easily and comfortably.
Napoli was arguably best the team across Europe early last season. We almost broke the UCL group stage record for goals scored. Our 4-1 win over Liverpool could have been bigger. We had 3-4 more very good chances. Imagine Liverpool, one of the most successful clubs in Europe, losing 6-1 or 7-1. Ajax too could have lost by more than 1-6 and they started the game better than us. We were losing 1-0. But every team goes through a low point. Milan did with 3 really bad losses and then regrouped to beat us 4-0. Inter was playing really badly despite winning mostly. Inzaghi almost lost his job. City lost to Southampton (who ended the season dead last) in the EFL cup (denying City the historic quadruple), so Guardiola started changing things, eventually settling on 4 CBs with one a hybrid midfielder. We never made those adjustments. We got knocked out of the UCL and we basically had the league wrapped up. Spalletti showed no interest in solving the problem and made it someone else's problem.
De Zerbi ship has sailed. If and when De Zerbi moves on from Brighton, he's going to one of the bigs of England or even Spain. Going to Napoli at this point would be a step down. I believe that if Napoli slip so much that it looks like we're going to miss out on top 4, ADL will make a play for Conte. Even if hiring him means a big financial hit, missing out on CL at this point is not acceptable. Conte would be a 180 in tactical direction from what we've played since the days of Benitez. He would request 6-7 signings. ADL won't spend a penny and Conte will quit 1 month before the end of the season.
There are managers out there for cheap who are good, but we need a proper TD to sort out who might actually work. I imagine someone with Serie A experience either as a manager or as a former player. That might put someone like Almeyda, currently at AEK, in the conversation. I think Garcia is a good manager. Despite the poor results in the last two games, we always find a way to score and I see a lot of good details in how we are setup. The big problem is conceding goals. We need to tighten up defensively and I think it comes down to us becoming tougher and meaner more than anything else.
I don't know that ADL will want to pay to break someone's contract in season. There is no one available unless he wants to gamble on an ex player like Cannavaro. Too early IMO to make a call on Garcia though. Let the guy work
ADL won't make changes before Halloween. At that point some interim until Thanksgiving, put a permanent coach in in time to prepare for the transfer window. Assuming anything at all happens. I think he's not going anywhere, 2-1-1 isn't a crisis at week 4.
Very well said, I agree! The thing is though whether you have a coach that’s willing to analyze what’s going on and try to solve the problems or not as a fundamental thing that decides how good the team is. Top teams will find ways to change and adjust for the sake of the team. I’m sorry but if the coach and players do not have that flexibility and remain stubborn, you are not a top team. It’s over once teams figure you out.
What I said above is also a reason why I do NOT think very highly of coaches like Sarri, Frank de Boer, and even Spalletti.
I’m curious, what do you think of Vincenzo Montella? I always liked him and thought he was good. Or Esubio Di Francesco? I think they’d be reasonable options salary wise.
Understood. However, we can never forget Di Francesco’s Roma making the UCL semifinals and only losing to Liverpool by one goal on aggregate. I always felt Montella was pretty tactically flexible and a smart manager.
Take in if we win the next few games comfortably all this talk will disappear. Truth is, it was always going to be an extremely tough task coming in after what Spalletti did with us. Similar to Benitez heading to Inter after Mourinho.
The point is we are not going to comfortably win the next few games and even if we do we will not do well with this coach.
I'm in agreement with you but I don't think the problem is squarely on Garcia. We have 2 BIG problems that in my eyes are equal. Let's call them 1a, 1b. 1a) Rudi Garcia 1b) Our CB options
That is true but it applies to big games. Struggling against Sassuolo until they get a red card, horrible games against Genoa and Braga are just not good enough. If you make the defender point against Real I am with you.
I didn't think we were struggling against Sassuolo but Genoa was awful until the final 30 minutes when we woke up. The 2nd half against Lazio was also poor. We were clearly the better side against Braga despite Ostigard and Juan Jesus playing almost the entire game. They had 5-10 minutes where they put pressure on us at the very end but that was it really.
I was watching Sassuolo in the stadium. We had 20 good minutes and then were poor until the red card. Braga is of Serie B quality.
I don't understand why Leao is almost always left 1v1 with his RB and all this space for him to try and beat him while teams send 2-3 men over to cover Kvara.
I think that's a little harsh. I'd be surprised if Braga finish the group stage without picking up points but time will tell. I think we can both agree we've created good scoring chances early in almost every game (Only against Genoa have we not). Scoring early would help the team feel more comfortable and play a more entertaining style but that's on the players because the chances have been there