Nothing is permanent in football they say & a hero today can become a villian tomorrow, hence making football a game which is almost impossible to predict. When Rafael Benitez left Napoli to take charge of Real Madrid, an
unknown Maurizio Sarri was bizarrely announced as his replacement . Sarri had just one season Seria A experience with lowly Empoli. It did not end there, as Sarri is an ex-banker who only turned a professional manager seven years ago (1999), he had also only managed in Seria B and the lower leagues. In his first game Napoli lost to Sassuolo and subsequently drew 2-2 with Empoli and Sampdoria.
To this end, Club Legend Diego Maradona said : " I have great respect for Sarri, but we won't have a winning Napoli with him. This Napoli will struggle to finish in mid-table . I'm angry because they didn't deserve this downsizing ". " Sarri is a good person, but he's not worthy of Napoli. For him to be on the bench is a great gift". Fast forward to February 2016 and Sarri's Napoli are not only league leaders and two points clear of defending champions and second placed Juventus . Napoli also boast the best goal difference in the league with 33 while Juventus are the closest (28). Things have worked perfectly for Sarri that It took only two months for Maradona to eat his words and apologise to Sarri saying: " I was wrong about Sarri, I ask for forgiveness".
So what is it that makes Sarri thick ? First and foremost , Sarri has reorganised the Napoli defence making it the best defence in the league . There is also a switch to 4-3-2-1 or 4-3-3 from the previous formation of 4-2-3-1. The back four now move as a solid unit with the three midfielders shielding them. This has allowed Marek Hamsik to roam forward when Napoli is on the attack, while the two other midfielders stay back to defend and negate any counter attack. The defenders do not play a high line but each is so disciplined that they don't lose their shape throughout the game.
Marek Hamsik is another reason for the success recorded by the Southern Italian side . The Slovakian and Napoli captain has changed from an attacking midfielder to give an assured measured centre of the field presence in each game he plays , while exploiting the spaces left by opponents and retaining the ball when necessary . Hamsik is the new driving force in the team and he does this by driving forward when with the ball to drag opponents out of position and create space for teammates. His understanding with left wing attacker Lorenzo Insigne and league top scorer Gonzalo Higuian is second to none. The trio of Jose Callejon, Higuian and Insigne normally play a free role attack with each exchanging positions and confusing opponents. While Callejon and Insigne are more of creators, Higuian is the one that converts the chances to goals. It is tactically difficult to keep up with the movements of these attackers for a full 90 minutes and this accounts for the high number of goals the trio have scored this season.
The 4-2-3-1 of the previous season was ditched as it became so predictable and too easy to stretch out, which made it prone to be exploited by opposing managers . The new 4-3-2-1 is familiar to the one used by Arrigo Saachi in his heydays at AC.Milan. It allows the centre backs to do centre back jobs and allows the full backs to defend out of possession and bomb forward when in possession. Also the deepest midfielder is pulled closer to the middle two and this system doesn't rely so much on speed but when utilised works perfectly due to it's unconventional nature .
While the season isn't ended yet, it is important to know that a certain Maurizio Sarri is rewriting history in the Seria A and making his presence felt . For the first time in 25 years, it seems the Seria A is on it's way to Southern Italy because on current form , Napoli looks like the Champions elect already but again in football nothing is certain.
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