Fiorentina vs Napoli: Back to the scene of demise for Koulibaly and co

WITH Napoli preparing to take on Fiorentina once again this weekend, Napoli’s players and supporters will undoubtedly find their minds drifting back to the April 2018 meeting between the two sides. The Partenopei arrived at the Stadio Artemio Franchi fresh from a 1-0 win over Juventus in Turin, a towering header from Kalidou Koulibaly not only giving his side all three points, but putting them firmly in control of the Serie A title race.

It would later transpire that on the flight home following that victory, the team celebrated as if they had already accomplished their mission, forgetting that they needed to take care of business in the final four fixtures to snatch the Scudetto away from the Old Lady. Fiorentina brought them back down to earth, Koulibaly sent off after just eight minutes before La Viola ran out 3-0 winners to effectively end Napoli’s hopes of silverware.

With their dreams shattered, the club hoped to build on what had been a superb campaign, replacing Maurizio Sarri with Carlo Ancelotti and seeking to take that difficult final step. Yet with another clash against Fiorentina looming, not only has there been another coaching change, but Napoli go into the weekend in the bottom half of the table, closer to last place SPAL (a 12-point gap) than the leaders who sit 24 points ahead of them.

The early red card totally ruined #Napoli. Down to 10 men they can’t press, can’t outnumber FIO in midfield & don’t really have a plan B #FiorentinaNapoli

— Adam Digby (@Adz77) April 29, 2018

The reasons for their collapse are somehow diverse and complex yet simple and avoidable, much of their dysfunction stemming from the man at the helm. Owner Aurelio De Laurentiis deserves huge credit for his work in transforming Napoli from a lower league club into a title contender, but he must also shoulder much of the blame for turning a team with Scudetto ambitions into a side mired in mid-table mediocrity.

He bought the club when they were declared bankrupt in 2004, guiding them back to the top flight from the third tier and invested wisely in order to construct the wonderful squad that was at Sarri’s disposal during 2017/18. When that campaign ended however, it was his decision to appoint Ancelotti, something which at the time appeared to be a masterstroke but instead it proved to be the start of their demise.

The situation was exacerbated by the protracted situation at Chelsea, meaning Ancelotti was appointed before Sarri had actually left. Whether that caused conflicts for the players remains unclear, but they certainly started the 2018/19 season as if it had, a previously solid team conceding goals at an alarming rate.

Losing Jorginho hurt and many wondered how Napoli would replace the man who had completed more passes than any player in Europe over the previous five years, yet Ancelotti literally chose not to bother. Abandoning the three-man midfield that had been so crucial to his predecessor’s approach, the new boss instead used Fabian Ruiz and Allan to anchor his 4-4-2 formation, a system that suited neither man.

Napoli coach Gennaro Gattuso has suggested that the people of Naples "need to go on some kind of pilgrimage" to his namesake and the city's patron saint, San Gennaro, to stop his team conceding "absurd goals." [@STRISCIA] pic.twitter.com/wU8q6b6U3X

— MUNDIAL (@MundialMag) January 14, 2020

Most games, they looked as if they longed for another player to be sat between them, in others they simply left a huge hole where Jorginho should have been and allowed the opposition to stroll right through it on their way to goal. It is no surprise that Gennaro Gattuso reverted to a 4-3-3 framework almost immediately, adding Piotr Zielinski to the mix after bemoaning “gaping holes” in midfield.

“I think we are working on our old system,” Zielinski told Radio Kiss Kiss this week. “It’s our natural formation, and it’s where I feel most comfortable.” It hasn’t cured everything, but the Polish international also went on to add that “Gattuso is recharging us, and this is what we need to start again. We aren’t looking for alibis, the team is aware that above all, the blame for the results is ours for what we’ve produced so far.”

The coach clearly had work to do, particularly after De Laurentiis threatened to sue his own squad earlier in the campaign. Following a string of poor performances, the owner ordered the players into a ritiro, an old Italian tradition of forcing them to live at the training ground, shutting out their families and the press in a bid to remove any distractions and ensure they are fully focussed on the next match.

But when Ancelotti laughed off the suggestion and went home, the players followed and De Laurentiis was irate, telling reporters that he would instigate legal action against anyone who disobeyed him. Ultimately, that led to the breakdown of his relationship with the coach and expedited the change, Gattuso left to perform a rescue mission on a team that should never have been allowed to slip so far from their previous heights.

In truth, it all comes back to that game against Fiorentina. If they had been concentrating on that game instead of looking beyond it and dreaming of the Scudetto, it is highly likely they would have ended the season lifting the Serie A trophy. Instead, everything fell apart and La Viola’s arrival at the San Paolo this weekend is just another reminder of what might have been.