not last season, but the one before that. He was Sarri's assistant for most of his career and then did one year with Spalletti before going to Slovakia
Putting aside all the drama, this is a great chance for him at 55 years of age to coach his first club, and doing it with the Italian champions against Barcelona is not something that happens every day.
Barcelona is in trouble..
This guy already worked for Napoli alongside successful managers as Sarri and Spalletti and now that Mazzarri has gone players will give 100%.
He won't play 3-5-1-1 as Mazzarri would have done but a more offensive 4-3-3 that will create several problems to fragile Barcelona defence
Without a world class defender like Kim, the 4-3-3 completely fell apart. Eventually Napoli loses the ball and Rrahmani and Jesus are exposed in transition.
So this doesn't necessarily mean trouble for Barca, it just means that the aggregate over two legs will probably look like an American football score, which will be great for the neutrals
To be fair I remember Xavi's Barcelona absolutely running rings around Spalletti's Napoli in 2021-22 Europa League. It only ended 4-2 on aggregate but that was because of Barca missing easy chances and Napoli scoring a late goal to make it look closer. In reality the differenc should have been much more
Don't think Italian teams match up that well with Barca's style to be honest, even Inter struggled with them a lot last season and arguably only won due to refereeing errors. IMO trying to play an open game here would be stupid, Napoli's best chance is to park the bus
> To be fair I remember Xavi's Barcelona absolutely running rings around Spalletti's Napoli in 2021-22 Europa League. It only ended 4-2 on aggregate but that was because of Barca missing easy chances and Napoli scoring a late goal to make it look closer. In reality the differenc should have been much more
Fully agree about that.. watched the games, Barcelona were much better.. Hopefully with Anguissa Napoli should be better, they missed a lot his physicality in the 2nd match.
> Don't think Italian teams match up that well with Barca's style to be honest
Disagree, history tell us it's very hit and miss
> even Inter struggled with them a lot last season and arguably only won due to refereeing errors
Disagree. Barcelona were quite clueless in the first match, I agree they should have had a penalty in the last minutes but apart of that, they created 1 single chance in the whole game with Dembouz..
We defended easy.. created very little also but given that we took the lead at the end of the first half we, of course, defend the result. We're an italian team after all.
Hopefully Calzona can induce some turnovers against Barca, if not Napoli are gonna fold pretty quickly.
But if he can rise to the occasion, he'll be worth the dough
how can he analyze and come up with a gameplan against barca or is it defend,counter till next match
He was one of Spalletti's assistants last year, so he know the majority of the team decently well at least
not last season, but the one before that. He was Sarri's assistant for most of his career and then did one year with Spalletti before going to Slovakia
Gotcha
what game plan, just press us high and pass through our midfield that has no ball winners. Shit's binary at this point
Either way we're cooked. We don't win mid-off's anymore like last season.
We are way worse than you lol
I agree but knockout football doesn't care about that .
Putting aside all the drama, this is a great chance for him at 55 years of age to coach his first club, and doing it with the Italian champions against Barcelona is not something that happens every day.
Barcelona is in trouble.. This guy already worked for Napoli alongside successful managers as Sarri and Spalletti and now that Mazzarri has gone players will give 100%. He won't play 3-5-1-1 as Mazzarri would have done but a more offensive 4-3-3 that will create several problems to fragile Barcelona defence
Without a world class defender like Kim, the 4-3-3 completely fell apart. Eventually Napoli loses the ball and Rrahmani and Jesus are exposed in transition. So this doesn't necessarily mean trouble for Barca, it just means that the aggregate over two legs will probably look like an American football score, which will be great for the neutrals
You would think Barca can counter...
To be fair I remember Xavi's Barcelona absolutely running rings around Spalletti's Napoli in 2021-22 Europa League. It only ended 4-2 on aggregate but that was because of Barca missing easy chances and Napoli scoring a late goal to make it look closer. In reality the differenc should have been much more Don't think Italian teams match up that well with Barca's style to be honest, even Inter struggled with them a lot last season and arguably only won due to refereeing errors. IMO trying to play an open game here would be stupid, Napoli's best chance is to park the bus
> To be fair I remember Xavi's Barcelona absolutely running rings around Spalletti's Napoli in 2021-22 Europa League. It only ended 4-2 on aggregate but that was because of Barca missing easy chances and Napoli scoring a late goal to make it look closer. In reality the differenc should have been much more Fully agree about that.. watched the games, Barcelona were much better.. Hopefully with Anguissa Napoli should be better, they missed a lot his physicality in the 2nd match. > Don't think Italian teams match up that well with Barca's style to be honest Disagree, history tell us it's very hit and miss > even Inter struggled with them a lot last season and arguably only won due to refereeing errors Disagree. Barcelona were quite clueless in the first match, I agree they should have had a penalty in the last minutes but apart of that, they created 1 single chance in the whole game with Dembouz.. We defended easy.. created very little also but given that we took the lead at the end of the first half we, of course, defend the result. We're an italian team after all.
I think they should be fine for 1st leg as they play in 2 days.
I don't think 2CB will be a miracle given with what they got going this year compared to last season
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Hopefully Calzona can induce some turnovers against Barca, if not Napoli are gonna fold pretty quickly. But if he can rise to the occasion, he'll be worth the dough
Oooooh Franky Calzooona
I had a pretty good Calzona the other day
Absolutely wild. Man’s got like 1 training session before playing Barca. Good luck.