Antonio Conte faces a challenge to reignite Napoli’s spark
Napoli have pulled off a huge coup in their move to land Antonio Conte after a truly frustrating Serie A season, but the Italian has a tall task at hand to revolutionise the Partenopei.
Aurelio de Laurentiis’ club have gone from being champions last season to finishing as low as tenth in Serie A this season in what has been a harrowing fall from grace. Multiple things went wrong at the Maradona during the 2023/24 campaign, leaving the club’s fans to boo their own players and make their voices heard in a rather vociferous manner towards the end of the season.
The club’s move for the legendary Conte though, seems to have brought about a wave of enthusiasm amongst the Partenopei faithfuls. They seem to look forward to a completely fresh project, which will be headed by someone who always brings with him the promise for silverware, a specific identity, and a change of culture. Napoli need a change and for some, nothing can be better than using Conte as a message of intent to the rest of Europe.
Amidst all the excitement, there is also a sense of cautious understanding that the task is a tall one. After all, Napoli faced multiple issues during the campaign and many will have to be fixed by the incoming Italian. If not, Conte’s project could fall apart and potentially end prematurely, considering how difficult it can be to deal with the club CEO Aurelio de Laurentiis and historically, many managers have had fractured relationships with him.
With that in mind, we look at the issues that Conte has to fix quickly when he joins the ex-Serie A champions.
Keep Kvaratskhelia and Di Lorenzo
In recent weeks, Giovanni di Lorenzo‘s agent made it rather public that the defender wants to depart the Azzurri after De Laurentiis informed the entire dressing room that they were up for sale. The actions of the CEO didn’t sit right with the club captain, who seems keen on departing and there is interest from other Serie A sides even though Conte is keen on keeping him.
Kvaratskhelia meanwhile has been concretely linked with Paris Saint-Germain and even the Georgian’s agent has made that interest public, as Napoli scramble to tie him down to a new deal.
It has emerged that Conte sees both Di Lorenzo and Kvaratskhelia as a very important part of the project. In a way, both of them suit Conte’s system too. The Georgian has played upfront in a 3-5-2 this season (even making the FotMob Team of the Season) and even if Conte uses a 3-4-3, Kvaratskhelia fits in like a glove on the left flank.
Di Lorenzo might not be as young as he used to be, but he has matured quite a bit as an adaptable and versatile footballer on the right side of the defence. Apart from being capable at wing-back, he can play right-back and also as a right sided centre-back in a back-three. For a side that is still very much a back four team, a player like Di Lorenzo will be vital because of how versatile he is.
Impose his tactical identity
One key dilemma that always comes with appointing a manager like Conte is the formation that he brings with him. That was seen prominently at Chelsea, who were predominantly playing in a back four for years before Conte’s arrival. The Italian changed the system almost overnight mid-season and while it worked wonders, that may not happen everywhere.
The issue for Napoli is quite simply the fact that they aren’t a back three side and becoming one will require squad changes, outgoings and incomings. They will also go from being a team that likes to dominate possession to being an outfit that is happy to sacrifice possession to play on the transitions. The advanced stages of the Conte projects lead to his teams being very impressive in possession in a 4-2-4 setup (like his Inter team was), but that is the second stage in the development.
Having said that, Conte does have an advantage at Napoli that he didn’t have in his Tottenham job. He is starting the season from scratch and would have an entire transfer window and an entire pre-season to drill in his ideas, system and make the players physically fit for his approach.
That could be a complex task at Napoli, where De Laurentiis often seems to be at odds with the demands of the managers. Conte has been promised a significant budget and a control over transfers but the same has been promised to other previous Napoli managers as well before their projects fell apart. Considering how Conte’s approach will be starkly different to what Napoli had over the last two seasons, huge changes are needed and the very point of bringing him in should be to give him the control he needs to bring players of his type.
Make them physically robust
One of Napoli’s main problems in the 2023/24 season was the number of injuries their key players faced, forcing their managers to adapt and improvise and that was one reason why they couldn’t really impose their systems into the side.
But Conte, as it is very evident in recent years, is big on fitness and his approach requires sprinting and covering large distances on the pitch. The footage from Tottenham’s pre-season in 2022 says everything about how demanding Conte can be and his entire staff works towards making players physically capable of playing that system. It worked superby at Inter.
Arguably, the Napoli side needs that after a season when the managers struggled due to the number of injuries in the side. If the same happens for Conte, he would be left in a situation where Napoli would not seem like a Conte team at all.
Replace Victor Osimhen
The topic of Victor Osimhen is likely to dominate the Italian press for the next few weeks. While Chelsea seem to have backed away from signing the Nigerian, he seems keen on a move to Arsenal as well. But no offers have come forward from the Gunners.
The certainty of Osimhen leaving does exist but when that happens is a question that could define how Napoli operate in the transfer window, the players they themselves sign, and when they sign them.
Gianluca di Marzio reported this week that Conte is keen on bringing Lukaku to Napoli and has already spoken to him about a move. At the same time, it was reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport that new Blues boss Enzo Maresca doesn’t want Victor Osimhen at the club in a swap deal with the Partenopei.
Girona’s Artem Dovbyk is seen as a potential replacement, apart from Lukaku. Other names linked with the club are those of Jonathan David and Santiago Giménez. If one looks at how vital Osimhen was in the Scudetto winning season and how his high workrate approach suits Conte, Napoli would need to replace the Nigerian perfectly for the Italian.
Conte has always had prolific strikers in his system – from Lukaku, Diego Costa and Harry Kane to Carlos Tevez and Fernando Llorente, he prefers centre-forwards who are physically robust and are more than just goals. Signing a player of that ilk will be vital for Conte’s approach to hit the prime.
Shore up the defence
This season, Napoli let in 1.3 goals per game and let in a total of 48 goals, ranking them below Fiorentina and Genoa.
That was a major drop-off from their title winning season, when they let in 0.7 goals per game and let in only 28 goals. Back then, they had the best defence in the league.
The defence, in isolation, wasn’t the basic problem but the entire system was and the constant changes in systems was an issue in itself. But Kim Min-Jae’s presence in the 2022/23 campaign was vital and he proved to be a real net positive for Luciano Spalletti’s possession-based system because of his ball-carrying, 1v1 ability and recovery pace.
Napoli couldn’t quite adapt in a muddled setup without the South Korean. Now, it falls to Conte as to how he solves the issue. Does he replace Kim in a like-for-like way or does he replace him while focusing primarily on the system? Or does he do both? It comes down to him.
Udinese’s Nehuén Pérez has been linked with Napoli since January and so has Feyenoord’s Dávid Hancko. And arguably, Napoli do need another dominant centre-back and Conte always wants one in general. Signing one has to be a priority.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
You can follow every Napoli game on FotMob – with deep stats, xG, and players ratings. Download the free app here.