It was June 18, 2006. Miami Heat, the NBA team from Florida, had just won a close game against the Dallas Mavericks to win their third straight game in the NBA finals to race to a 3-2 lead in the 7-match series. The Heat’s achievement was all the more impressive because they had bounced back from being 0-2 down earlier in the series and looking at a possible washout. Now the last two matches of the series were to be held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, the home of the Mavericks.
Miami needed 1 win to clinch a first ever NBA championship, while Dallas needed 2 victories to achieve the same.
At the end of the fifth game, which put the Heat 3-2 up, Miami’s head coach Pat Riley entered the dressing room. He looked angry. “We ain’t practising today,” Riley had said, recalled Shaquille O’Neal, who was then playing for the Heat.
“We’re leaving here tomorrow and you better bring 1 suit,” Riley said. “When you get to the airport tomorrow (at) 12 o’clock (and) I’m checking. If you ain’t got 1 suit your ass ain’t coming on the plane.”
“So we got to the airport and (Riley’s) actually checking people’s bags. We actually had to bring 1 suit,” said O’Neal.
Riley believed that nobody on the Heat entourage would need more than 1 suit because there would be no seventh game. He wanted his team to wrap up the championship by winning the sixth game and that’s what happened. The Heat won a close encounter 95-92, secured the series 4-2 and clinched their maiden NBA title.
“It was our time,” said Riley after the win. “I really believe it was our time.”
IS IT NAPOLI’S TIME?
Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti seems to be in a similar frame of mind this season. Since 2012/13, when Walter Mazzarri led Napoli to a second-place finish behind Juventus, the Partenopei have finished as runners-up in the Scudetto race 3 more times. This season, they could be on course to go one better. Almost 3 months and 11 matches into the Serie A season, Napoli are the only unbeaten side in Italy. And with 1 match left to play in the UEFA Champions League group stages, they have already qualified for the knockout stages, running rampant against teams such as Liverpool (a 4-1 victory in Italy) and Ajax (a 6-1 win in the Netherlands).
Spalletti himself has unfinished business where the Italian championship is concerned, finishing in second place 4 times with AS Roma during his 2 stints there as coach. That kind of run can break a lesser man.
“I can assure you, I will be here tomorrow morning with the training plan ready. If you think I won’t be right back at work tomorrow, you’ve lost,” said Spalletti after Napoli had lost to AC Milan in March this year, a result that eventually helped the Rossoneri win the Scudetto in May.
Napoli have not won the Scudetto in 32 years, since the days of Diego Maradona in Naples. Spalletti is in his 29th year of football management, but is yet to win the Italian national title. Will their respective title droughts end in 2023? Napoli seem to have assembled the requisite tools to do so.
A DAUNTING SUMMER REBUILD
The 63-year-old Spalletti did have a fair bit of work to do this summer, during which Napoli veterans such as Kalidou Koulibaly, Lorenzo Insigne, Dries Mertens and Fabián Ruiz either left the club for new adventures or were shipped out. The Italian, who had come out of a 2-year sabbatical in 2021 to take charge of Napoli, had warned in July this year that it would be “extremely difficult” for the Partenopei to finish inside the top 4 positions this season.
However, stellar work by Napoli sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli has seen the Azzurri become a stronger outfit this year. Napoli invested much of the money earned or saved through moving on older stars by investing in younger, hungrier and relatively unknown prospects, to spectacular effect.
We try every year to improve and our intent was to give the coach alternatives with different characteristics. The philosophy of putting this team together was that everyone can play with everyone else.
Cristiano Giuntoli, Napoli sporting director
This season’s Napoli have stronger back-ups for some of their most important players, unlike in the recent past. They don’t have 2 world-class players for each position, and won’t for a long time, but the Azzurri do have a stronger squad. With club owner Aurelio De Laurentiis determined to win trophies, they are likely to only get stronger.
“Now we are not focused on the transfer market. Napoli do not plan to do anything in the winter (transfer market). We want to keep this lineup,” DAZN recently quoted Giuntoli as saying.
“We try every year to improve and our intent was to give the coach alternatives with different characteristics. The philosophy of putting this team together was that everyone can play with everyone else,” Guintoli recently told Sky Sport Italia.
On the evidence of the new season’s showing, the 50-year-old Giuntoli seems to have succeeded gloriously.
HOW AND WHERE HAVE NAPOLI IMPROVED?
Let’s look at the areas where the Partenopei have become more robust, starting with the strongest and ending with their most vulnerable area.
ATTACK: NEW BLOOD IN
The most important area Napoli have become stronger is in offence, where the Azzurri had to replace club legends Lorenzo Insigne and Dries Mertens. While club captain Insigne joined MLS club Toronto FC, Mertens, who is Napoli’s all-time top scorer, joined Turkey’s Galatasaray.
Napoli replaced Insigne with Khvicha Khvaratskhelia for €10 million Euros, around €5 million less than Insigne’s annual salary at Toronto FC. Today, Khvaratskhelia is arguably the best player in Italy, contributing 8 goals and 10 assists to Napoli’s unbeaten start and bewildering opposition defenders with his turns of pace and trickery on the ball.
Napoli also signed Giovanni Simeone from Hellas Verona, a forward perhaps not in the class of Victor Osimhen, Napoli’s first-choice centre forward, but someone with a strong physical presence and a consistent record of scoring goals. Simeone’s aerial ability and counter-pressing also add immensely to Napoli’s threat as an attacking force.
The last player to be signed in attack was Giacomo Raspadori, who is similar to Mertens in his ability to find space for himself and his teammates when pressed by defenders. The 22-year-old’s ease on the ball makes his link-up play a joy to watch, and has helped him become a regular in Italy squads under coach Roberto Mancini. “He could be the future of the national team,” Mancini said after picking Raspadori in the Italy squad for Euro 2020.
Verdict: A Revitalized Forward Line
Napoli’s trio of signings in attack has reinvigorated their offence, with the partnership of Osimhen and Khvaratskhelia in particular spooking Serie A defenders across the breath of Italy.
Raspadori and Simeone, on the other hand, bring different characteristics to the forward line-up and the duo filled in effectively when Osimhen was out injured for 1 month earlier this season.
On the right wing, Spalletti alternates between the familiar faces of Matteo Politano and Hirving Lozano, and both add pace and tireless running to the team whenever on the pitch.
DEFENCE
K2 Checks Out, Kim Checks In
At the back, Napoli had to replace Kalidou Koulibaly, one of the finest central defenders in Europe and a man nicknamed ‘K2’ after the world’s second highest peak as a tribute to his intimidating physical presence on the field.
Some Napoli fans accused the club management of scrimping when Koulibaly, who joined Chelsea for €40 million euros, was replaced by South Korean centre-back Kim Min-jae for €18 million euros, but Kim has proved to be one of the steals of the summer. The 25-year-old, with only one season of playing experience in Europe under his belt, has almost instantly formed a steely partnership at the back with Amir Rrahmani. The 6-foot-3 Kim also has pace to go with the anticipation that helps him nip opposition attacks in the bud, something which Koulibaly had lost with the onset of Father Time.
Spalletti also has at his disposal Leo Østigård, whose physical presence and aerial dominance are likely to prove assets when he does get a steady run in the team. The 22-year-old Østigård is already a regular for Norway at centre-back and has impressed in his countries’ Nations League matches in a group including Sweden, Serbia and Slovenia.
Verdict: A Solid Unit With 1 Weak Spot
The Partenopei, who usually play a 4-3-3 formation, seem to have quality across the back four, with the only feeble spot coming at right-back.
Captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo has been one of the most dependable performers in Serie A for the past few seasons in terms of both fitness and excellence on the right flank, but Napoli do not have adequate cover for the 29-year-old. Twenty-two-year-old Alessandro Zanoli is the only natural replacement in the Napoli squad for the Azzurri captain. Zanoli is only in his second season in Serie A and it remains to be seen if he can be an effective alternative to Di Lorenzo, whose muscular presence gives an edge to his team whenever he’s on the pitch.
Apart from at right-back, however, Napoli seem to have adequate cover for the other defensive positions.
They have in Juan Jesus a proven Serie A defender who can fill in for Kim or Rrahmani at centre-back when necessary. Jesus has previously played under Spalletti during the latter’s second stint at AS Roma in 2016-17. The Brazilian can also play at left-back if necessary.
At left-back, Napoli have discovered a capable back-up for Mário Rui in Uruguayan Mathías Olivera. The 24-year-old Olivera does not have the defensive solidity of Rui but is pacier, which Spalletti made use of when selecting him over Rui in the crucial clash against Roma in Serie A recently. Olivera vindicated his coach’s faith in him by helping create 2 of Napoli’s best chances in the game, leading a counter-attack from the Napoli box on both occasions. The chances did not end up as goals, but they showed Spalletti’s call had been right.
MIDFIELD
Reinforcements In The Summer
Spalletti’s first-choice midfield of Piotr Zieliński, Stanislav Lobotka and André-Frank Zambo Anguissa has emerged as the best in Italy. Lobotka, in particular, has flourished in the middle of the field since the departure of Fabián Ruiz to Paris Saint-Germain in August. While Napoli do not have adequate cover for Zieliński and Lobotka, the duo that choreographs the Azzurri by moving the ball with precision and pace, the club wasted little time this summer in tying down the third lynchpin of their midfield, Anguissa, to a permanent contract.
The 26-year-old Anguissa, who had been signed on loan from Fulham in the 2021/22 season, joined Napoli on a permanent transfer worth €15 million. The Cameroonian is a formidable physical presence in the Napoli midfield, his anticipation helping him both warp opposition attacks as well as helping lead counter-attacks into the opposition half.
“You win games when you have the right players and serious professionals, (and) he is the right person for this dressing room,” Spalletti told DAZN last season about Anguissa.
After retaining Anguissa’s services, Napoli also signed his probable back-up in Tanguy Ndombele. The talented Frenchman has struggled to live up to expectations ever since his €62 million transfer to Tottenham Hotspur, but retains the flair to decide any match on his day. He also has a habit of going to the ground too easily on contact with the opposition, which is more likely to disrupt his team’s momentum than aid it.
“He has quality, he can see beyond the first pass,” said Spalletti shortly after Ndombele’s first match for Napoli. But the coach also had a word of caution. “He has the ability to always verticalize, but he must be able to do a lot of kilometres in a game,” he said.
Verdict: Lack Of Quality Back-ups A Concern
The Azzurri are a bit vulnerable in midfield, with lack of quality back-ups for Zielinski and Lobotka. While German Diego Demme impressed in a deep midfield role with RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga before joining Napoli in 2020, he hasn’t really sparkled since his arrival in Italy.
Alongside Ndombele, North Macedonian Elif Elmas is the other player available to Spalletti with proven experience at the top level. Elmas has struggled to break into the first team this season, despite Spalletti calling him a “phenomenon” last season who can play in any position when necessary.
Napoli’s 2 other options in midfield are Gianluca Gaetano and Karim Zedatka, who are both 22 years old with just a handful of top flight football experience between them.
GOALKEEPER
Verdict: Napoli’s Risky Gamble
Alex Meret has regained his place in the Napoli starting line-up this season following the departure of Colombian David Ospina in the summer after failing to agree to a contract renewal. Spalletti had preferred Ospina over Meret between the sticks last season, but the 25-year-old Italian has proved to be a dependable presence in goal for Napoli so far this season (despite his mistakes costing the Partenopei 2 goals against Liverpool on Tuesday).
Meret’s primary back-up is the 35-year-old Salvatore Sirigu, a fine goalkeeper in his prime but clearly a waning force in the past couple of years. Sirigu was signed as a free agent from Genoa in the summer, after Genoa’s relegation from Serie A last season and an ordinary campaign between the sticks from the veteran. Napoli’s decision to take a chance on the old stager may cost the team at some point, unless Spalletti can rouse the Sirigu of his youth and extract the excellence he was once capable of.
PARALLELS WITH SPALLETTI’S ROMA
In some ways, the Napoli of today resemble a Spalletti team of an earlier vintage – the AS Roma sides of the mid 2000s. That Roma side was also known for playing the best football in Italy and were the only team that consistently challenged Internazionale for the Scudetto in the aftermath of the 2006 Calciopoli match-fixing scandal.
The scandal saw Juventus relegated to the Italian second division for 2 years and AC Milan and SS Lazio, among others, docked points.
Spalletti’s Napoli, especially this season, also play electrifying football that has thrilled observers. “I watch Serie A games, but also other clubs in Europe and I can say that no team plays better football than Napoli in Italy and abroad,” former Netherlands defender Ruud Krol recently said.
Krol, a vital cog of the iconic Dutch team of the 1970s that perfected the concept of Total Football, told Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, “ They were exciting to watch in the past, but now there is something special. A winning attitude that I had never seen in the past.”
Krol, who usually played as a left-back or sweeper, also played 4 years for Napoli in the 1980s.
During Spalletti’s first spell at Roma, an injury crisis forced the Italian to use Francesco Totti as a false nine up front in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Roma’s captain rose to the occasion, dropping back into midfield when necessary to hold the ball and spray passes to teammates around the field with his singular vision, while also winning the Capocannoniere title by scoring the most goals in Serie A in 2006-07.
Spalletti’s Roma starting 11 had an average age of 27.81, slightly over the average age of today’s Napoli starting 11 of 26.54. The Napoli of 2022 have the fearless ambition that comes with youth, but are not restive, just like those Roma sides.
When Spalletti’s Napoli had thrashed Ajax 6-1 at the Amsterdam Arena in the Netherlands in a Champions League group stage fixture last month, the coach advised caution.
“I am very happy, honestly, but we need to win the next one, because if we then lose our focus or lose the right way to think about things, then we’re in trouble,” he said.
“Win the next one.”
Or, as Pat Riley would put it: “Pack one suit”.