Team Focus: Encouraging Start to Benítez Era at Napoli

Resisting the temptations on offer in Naples’ restaurants is, by Rafa Benitez’s own admission, “torture.” “I have already received 100s of invitations to try the pasta and pizza [here], but I don’t know how [I’ll be able to accept them all],” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

The former coach of Valencia, Liverpool, Inter Milan and Chelsea is one of football’s most open characters, generous with his time and never one to shy away from engaging with the people. But work comes first and he’s been busy since his arrival in the Bay of Naples at the end of May.

“[My staff and I] get up early often because there’s a double training session,” Benitez explained to Cadena Ser. “In the evening we prepare the sessions to come, so we’re at the training ground almost all day.”

There’s been a lot to do, not least re-dimension the team and change its style. Under Edy Reja, briefly Roberto Donadoni and Walter Mazzarri, Napoli played variations of 3-5-2. Benitez, however, had other ideas. “When a new coach arrives in a team,” he revealed in an interview with Il Corriere dello Sport, “he wants to use his system and find players who understand it.” And that system is 4-2-3-1. Some were concerned that Napoli wouldn’t be suited to it.

They were losing their best player and Serie A’s top scorer, Edinson Cavani, too. Tied down until 2017 with a buy-out clause worth €63m, the club would, however, be handsomely remunerated for his loss when Paris Saint-Germain paid it.

Profitable for the last six seasons, qualifiers for the Champions League in two of the last three, Napoli had a budget, according to their owner Aurelio De Laurentiis, of €124.5m; more than enough for Benitez to restructure the team in line with how he wanted it to play.

In the end, Napoli spent €85.5m on a pair of goalkeepers, Pepe Reina and Rafael, a centre-back, Raul Albiol, a left winger, Dries Mertens, a right winger, Jose Maria Callejon, and a couple of forwards, Duvan Zapata and of course record signing Gonzalo Higuain.

Not all were big names. To focus on that is to miss the point. Rather each added quality and depth to an already strong squad, widened the options available to Benitez and facilitated the planned switch in formation he had in mind.

Benitez had a solid base to work from too. Coppa Italia winners the season before last, runners’ up in Serie A in May, the players felt they were close to something big, they were hungry and ready to follow their new coach on the promise that, looking at his past, he’d led teams to the glory they aspired to and has experience of winning things that none of his predecessors had.

The contrast with the circumstances Benitez found himself in at Inter in 2010 when the players had just won everything and no longer had any goals to reach for; when they were mourning their messiah Jose Mourinho, were overcome by exhaustion and breaking down; when the president was no longer willing to spend after realising the dream of emulating his father Angelo, couldn’t be any more stark.

In short, the conditions for Benitez to succeed are much better at San Paolo than they were at San Siro. But still there were doubts. “Despite the great respect that I have for Rafa,” wrote one of his idols, Arrigo Sacchi, “I don’t see the Azzurri reinforced.” Ultimately the reservations came down to the loss of a “total footballer” like Cavani and the shift in system.

“It’s a risk,” Benitez acknowledged, “but we’re certain that by working hard we’ll do well.” The fruits of that work have been evident in how Napoli have opened the Serie A campaign. Despite the change in faces and formation, they’ve impressed not only by hitting the ground running but with a real swagger.

“This is Real Napoli” wrote La Gazzetta’s Nicola Cecere touching on the ex-Madridistas Albiol, Callejon and Higuain’s part in a 3-0 win at home to Bologna. “What a debut, people. Benitez’s version promises to be better than the one rightly celebrated, signed by Mazzarri. The system changes, the protagonists change too, but the result remains identical.”

Except it didn’t. Bologna, remember, were the bane of Napoli last season. Twice they went to San Paolo and on both occasions they claimed victory in Serie A and the Coppa Italia. This time, however, things were different. They were comprehensively outclassed. Napoli had 56% possession. They were in complete control: in all 534 passes were made and they had 16 attempts at goal. Bologna goalkeeper Gianluca Curci came under siege. No sooner had he parried one shot away than another came in his direction.

What struck the observer was how, in contrast to under Mazzarri, Napoli’s centre-backs played the ball out from the back. Albiol attempted more passes than anyone else on the night [76]. Another 69 left the boot of his partner Miguel Britos. Few were long. Instead the defence pushed up high, playmaking as much as the team’s regista Gökhan Inler, who sprayed the ball out to Napoli’s wingers and overlapping full-backs, in particular, Juan Camilo Zuniga on the left.

Marek Hamsik occupied a role behind Higuain that has been compared to that Steven Gerrard performed playing off Fernando Torres at Liverpool. Twice on the scoresheet against Bologna, he repeated the feat in a 4-2 win away to another of Napoli’s bogey sides Chievo last weekend, becoming the first player to open the season with back-to-back braces since Alessandro Del Piero in 2002-03.

It’s been 48 years since Napoli scored as many goals in their first two outings of the season and in Verona, the impression was only further underlined that this team is different in emphasis to those of recent memory. Losers on four of their last five visits to the Bentegodi, Napoli dominated the ball even more than they did against Bologna. Claiming 68% possession, they aimed another 18 shots towards goal and attempted 710 passes (excluding crosses, goal kicks and keeper throws); the most they’ve managed in the last 5 seasons.

There’s been talk about a Rafalution. It’s a very very small sample size, but his Napoli are averaging more possession [61.9 to 54.2%], more shots [17 to 15.2] and more pass attempts [622 to 428.8] than Mazzarri’s did last season. That doesn’t mark a transition from a defensive to an offensive side. Lest we forget, Mazzarri’s Napoli were top scorers in Serie A last season. But it does demonstrate a change from a reactive set-up, formidable on the counter-attack, to a more proactive game, in which Napoli look to unlock opponents with passing and movement.

Playing on the break with or in the service of Cavani, who’d gallop up the pitch from his auxiliary full-back role  - he scored 40% of their goals last season - his replacement Higuain seems more inclined to stay up front, only coming short or pulling wide to bring others into play, which he does very well indeed. See, for instance, his assist for Napoli’s second against Chievo, his part in the build up for their third and how he scored their fourth. They seem more multi-pronged. Callejon, thus far, has been a revelation.

As a consequence, a more sustained challenge to take Juventus’ title looks probable: the rivals match up well: it’s Carlos Tevez v Higuain, Arturo Vidal v Hamsik. The disparity comes in defence. Juventus’ has been the best in Serie A for the last two years. Napoli’s still doesn’t convince following the move from a back three to a back four. At times in the first half against Chievo, it looked out of sync: Individual errors allowed them to get in, score and scare by hitting the post.

Reina doesn’t appear to have shaken off the rust he was carrying at Liverpool, Christian Maggio remains a great wing-back but questionable full-back and there’s the issue of who partners Albiol still to resolve, as Britos doesn’t inspire total confidence while captain Paolo Cannavaro appears out of favour. Had Benitez managed to get Martin Skrtel from Liverpool in the transfer window perhaps that wouldn’t be a problem. Alas he didn’t and so the defence looks suspect and pales in comparison with Juve’s.

The rest, though, even at this early stage looks promising. “We’ll try to do even better [than last year],” Benitez said. His daughters Claudia and Agata like to give him a pair of cartoon socks. Before this season, he received some bearing the image of the Tasmanian devil. “If I win, I don’t take them off anymore,” Benitez revealed. Will he still be wearing them in May? That’s the question.