Napoli might have bid farewell to their Scudetto dream with the recent draw against Roma. They dropped four points below Milan and two behind Inter, which have a game in hand. Lorenzo Insigne was pictured in tears on the bench and while greeting the fans after the final whistle. The Toronto FC-bound attacker hoped for a more joyous epilogue of his Partenopei stay.
The Azzurri have mostly paid their price for their subpar home record, La Repubblica points out. They collected just 30 points in 17 matches, ranking 7th in the League in such stat. They have been defeated five times on their own turf by Atalanta, Empoli, Spezia, Milan, and Fiorentina.
As it happened in previous years, Napoli have lacked clutchness in key moments, and that could easily wind up costing them the Scudetto. They have not been in brilliant form in the last couple of months. However, they were able to nip Verona and Udinese and take advantage of Atalanta’s woes, staying in the race. Then, their issues came to a head in the loss to Fiorentina.
According to Calciomercato, Luciano Spalletti is facing scrutiny over his questionable substitutions. Moreover, Fabian Ruiz and Piotr Zielinski have been slumping for a while, and the team botched a few approaches and visibly lacked fire in some fixtures.
Napoli drove Gennaro Gattuso out of town after the previous season, but they had collected just one fewer point after 33 matches in 2020-2021. They have benefitted from underwhelming campaigns of multiple opponents, and so the Champions League qualification is not in jeopardy. The coaching staff ha a meeting with president Aurelio De Laurentiis Monday. There is no doubt Spalletti will continue to lead the team in the future, Il Mattino reports.