Spalletti and the secrets of an almost perfect team – Corriere.it

In the long, in the short, in the strait, in the open field or with the defense deployed. Naples is a poem, alternate dribbling with pressing, look for width and take advantage of Osimhen’s power. Beautiful and impossible. As in Sarri’s time, but without empty passes and taking advantage of the depth of the squad. An almost perfect team and perfection certified by impressive numbers: 15 victories, only one defeat and two distant draws over time, when the mechanisms were not yet perfected. Spalletti offers the planet pallanaro the best version of himself.

In the Maradona stadium, Napoli exalts its beauty. After the defeat against Inter and redemption at Marassi, against Sampdoria, where he had struggled more than necessary against an opponent in crisis and outnumbered, in the clash at the top with the second he rediscovers the magic of his almost arithmetic game. Mechanisms studied and memorized, combined with a practicality often unknown to lovers of beauty. Napoli always play to win with two full-backs attacking deep, Zielinsky who embellishes the midfield often becoming the extra man in the last thirty meters, while Anguissa covers and restarts. The direction of Lobotka was fundamental, to which Spalletti gave meaning and dimension as he had done with Brozovic at Inter. the Slovak himself, with a decisive break, to ignite the action of the first goal for Juventus in the championship challenge which turned into a slaughter.

Napoli does everything well and at great speed: pressing, doubling, overlapping, insertions that sooner or later stretch the opponents. The elusive Osimhen gives complete meaning to the team’s work and is part of the great tradition of De Laurentiis’ centre-forwards, which began with Cavani and continued with Higuain. Kvaraktkhelia a perfect glue, magical and impregnable on the wing, the added value, the opponent breaks it. Sounds easy, it’s not.

But not only with the game that explains the dominance of the leaders. Also with
the maturity of Shoulders’ disciples.
Last year, after losing to Inter at the San Siro, just like now, the team had lost pace and confidence. This time the answer was five goals against second-placed Juve. Napoli combines quality with an extraordinary ferocity and the maturity of being able to read the matches. Against the bianconeri he closed the first half badly, conceding Di Maria and risking being overtaken. But in the second half, instead of getting scared, he crushed his opponents with ferocity, passion and authority. It has the great advantage of never disunitynot even when the wind blows against it, just look at how many games he has won in comeback away from home: 7 in the league which become 9 with the Champions League.

Naples now dreams. If he wins the derby with Salernitana, he can score 50 points and if he manages to repeat himself in the second leg, he can reach 100, a record for a city that in the summer, after the failure to renew Insigne and the sale of Koulibaly, seemed to have fallen into depression . It’s been six months, it feels like an eternity.