Napoli Aren’t a Juggernaut Yet But Will Be a Problem

The first portion of the season ended with Napoli at the top of the table, which is a surprise considering what happened last season. They didn’t have the most challenging schedule, and the demerits of the other sides are clear. Inter have been subpar, while Juventus dropped points in very winnable games. Milan and Roma have had much bigger problems. Atalanta don’t seem like a contender. After all, they sold their best player, lost two cornerstones due to ACL tears, and have signed a plethora of new pieces.

All things considered, including expectations and their respective squads, the Azzurri and Lazio have been the most convincing sides so far. It’s not stunning to see them both up there. The big question mark is whether they are real contenders for the Scudetto, or if they’ll have to settle to fight for the top four. If the Campania side made it with ease, it’d still be a remarkable achievement after finishing 10^th.

The Conte Effect

Napoli get the credit for luring and coming to terms with Antonio Conte. His fingerprints are all over their early success. Still, it wasn’t a straightforward chase. They had their fair share of doubts and mulled a few options since he’s an expensive and cumbersome figure. Things look great when the results are coming, and the honeymoon phase is lasting. He had to raise his voice just once during the window amid some legitimate obstacles. They accelerated afterward and complied with his requests.

His biggest feat was to erase the past hellish season from the player’s memory, canceling any possible lingering effect on their psyche and restoring their confidence. They have tweaked their squad and added some studs, but the majority of their starting formation is still the title-winning one. It has been a night and day for several players compared to 2023/2024. The Azzurri often literally melted at the first sign of trouble. The few who still saved face have resumed being elite, while the others have returned to standard levels. None is underachieving.

Conte is an umbrella for the whole club in the same way José Mourinho was for Roma in his first couple of seasons there. That has its pros and cons in the long haul, but it’s all gravy following a dreadful situation. He has kept quiet even Aurelio De Laurentiis’ shenanigans and convinced him to empty his coffers. Despite some delays, they were surgical in the transfer market and landed all their primary objectives.

A Grand Summer

The Napoli boss can use the crutch of last season’s position to temper their ambitions. It’d be a massive jump on the table, but what happened last year was the outlier, not what’s going on currently. Their Scudetto didn’t come from nowhere. They made the final leap after years near the top. Still, they won’t be able to hide for long after spending nearly €150M in the summer, assembling a ‘win-now’ team and not bringing in young talents as they used to do. In terms of payroll, they are fifth in the League, pretty much on par with Milan and Roma. The gap with Inter and Juventus is there but not too large, especially with the Bianconeri (via Capology).

Even though they evolved tactically after a few fixtures, it was clearly in the works for a while. It probably happened when they sensed that they could sign Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour and gave up the chase for Mario Hermoso. Without the Spaniard or another top-notch defender, they wouldn’t have enough depth to use a three-man line all season long, even with a couple of players adapting. They still did okay with it in the early going while the newcomers got integrated, but they are much more fearsome and high-level with 4-3-3/4-2-3-1.

The Games So Far

Napoli quickly switched gears after getting shellacked by Hellas Verona without Alessandro Buongiorno. They took care of business against Bologna, Parma, with a lot of help from the opponents, Cagliari, Monza, and Como, and held their own in Turin versus Juventus, where they came away with a nil-nil tie. It’s hardly a murderers’ row, but there’s no easy match in Serie A, as their two main contenders have already learned.

The Partenopei might still be a little lacking reserve-wise. That shouldn’t be an issue in a year without the cups and if their main stars avoid serious injuries. Their starting lineup is rock-solid. Beating up on the minnows always allows teams to go places, but they need to take it up a notch mentality-wise to be a super-duper team.

The Next Step and the Upcoming Challenges

Even in matches they eventually won, at times comfortably, Napoli have routinely let the opponents control the ball and the pace for long stretches and were happy to sit back and wait their turn. It glaringly happened versus the Lariani and even more evidently against the Bianconeri. Perhaps Conte is fine with relying heavily on the counter-attacking game and trusts his defense completely. Or maybe he doesn’t think they are mature enough or physically ready yet to dominate games for 90 minutes. While a dose of humility never hurts, that’s not the attitude of a side that has the possibility of running away in the standings while their competitors juggle multiple objectives and suffer from the toll that comes with that. It’s dangerous against teams with good offenses and also cap what their own can do. The eagerness to take command at all times is Thiago Motta’s biggest achievement in his early Juventus days, and failing to win or conceding feels like an exception.

The Azzurri somewhat passed the first acid test and have a few more coming up next. After visiting Empoli, one of the early revelations, and facing Lecce, they’ll lock horns with Milan, Atalanta, and Inter in a brutal trifecta. And then Roma after the next break. It’ll be a telling run of games. Leaving the initiative to the adversaries will be extremely unsafe in those instances.