FORGET Arsenal, Man City or Real Madrid.
There’s a new sheriff in town and they have become the perennial entertainers in their domestic league and the Champions League.
Luciano Spalletti’s Napoli have blitzed all before them in devastating fashion to go 13 games unbeaten in both competitions with a brand of free-flowing, heavy-metal football that Jurgen Klopp would be proud of.
The German manager got a flavour of what they offer at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona last month, as Liverpool were humbled 4-1 – with three goals coming in a first half massacre.
And the Naples giant’s’ amazing start is even more of a surprise, given they had a summer of upheaval.
All change
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The Camorra would have been watching with bated breath at what the upcoming season promised.
Especially after losing legends like Dries Mertens, who plundered 148 goals for the club, Italian international Lorenzo Insigne and star midfielder Fabian Ruiz.
Serie A’s best centre back of recent years, Kalidou Koulibaly also left for the bright lights of the Premier League and Chelsea. You could forgive Napoli’s faithful for feeling pessimistic.
Some £72million was made from player sales, with just £61million of that reinvested into the team.
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The most expensive signing came in the form of South Korean defender Kim Min-Jae for £16million, who had the unenviable job of filling Koulibally’s giant boots.
Cameroon midfielder Frank Anguissa was added from Fulham for £13million.
Steady Uruguayan full-back Mathias Olivera was snapped up from Getafe for £9million.
There was also a nod to the future, with Georgian talent Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, 21, and Giacomo Raspadori, 22, added for creativity and firepower.
What happened next no one could have seen.
Start as you mean to go on
The season’s opener gave a taste of what was to come, as Verona can testify.
Spalletti’s side smashed five away from home – with the old guard of Victor Osimhen, Piotr Zielinski and Stanislav Lobotka all running riot.
It was helter-skelter football, played at a 100mph. But it worked.
What has followed has been goal blitz after goal blitz. In their first 13 matches, they’ve scored three goals or more in a game eight times.
In Serie A they sit pretty at the top of the pile with seven wins and two draws from their nine games. They are the league’s top scorers with an impressive 22 strikes.
While in the Champions League, they’ve won four from four – scoring 17 goals along the way. That too is the highest goal tally of any of their rivals.
At the turn of the month, Europe took note after they demolished Ajax 6-1 at the Johan Cruyff Arena.
Fabio Capello, who was watching the game as a pundit for Italian TV, was impressed.
“Napoli just gave a football lesson at the Johan Cruyff Arena,” he told former Alessandro Costacurta on Sky Sport Italia.
“A lesson to the Dutch, who taught the rest of us how to play!”
Even the press in Holland couldn’t help summon up the spirits of the two clubs’ favourite sons, Diego Maradona and Cruyff.
“Napoli’s spectacular game in Amsterdam would certainly have enchanted Maradona, Cruyff would have without doubt been very disturbed by Ajax’s performance, which became the laughing stock of Europe,” De Telegraaf wrote.
A nod to the gaffer
Napoli’s free-flowing attacking football has been guided by Italian tactician Spalletti.
Before a world of false nine’s, the 63-year-old famously played a system without a striker at Roma – getting the best out of Francesco Totti who prospered in a free role.
Man Utd’s legendary boss Sir Alex Ferguson was a fan, and even utilised Wayne Rooney in a similar role after being inspired by Spalletti’s tactic.
But, he is yet to win the Scudetto in his 28 years in the game. Two Russian Premier League titles with Zenit Saint Petersburg during a five-year spell haven’t silenced the doubters.
Buy of the season
Comparisons to Maradona from Napoli’s tifosi aren’t handed out quickly.
However, in Georgian midfielder Khvicha Kvaratskhelia they’ve found a new talisman who is already a contender for buy of the season.
Snapped up for just £9million from Dinamo Batumi, who had him for a short spell after he was allowed to suspend his contract with Russian side Rubin Kazan, he won Italy’s player of the month in August.
The 6ft winger scored his first Champions League goal in that Ajax massacre and has five in nine Serie A matches this season.
With an air of unpredictability, blistering pace and skill – Kvaratskhelia has been given the label the ‘Georgian Maradona’.
While, Spalletti has already waxed lyrical about his talent.
He said: “He is able to control any ball and make it clean, he has this very shy way of doing things, he never wants to be the centre of attention, but when he plays football, he is so confident.”
Italy hero Alessandro Del Piero added: “Watch out for Kvaratskhelia. He is unpredictable and talented, he seems to be made to play in Europe.”
With 17th placed Bologna up next, Napoli fans will no doubt expect another goal glut on Sunday. And they will, no doubt, live up to their new tag as ‘Europe’s Entertainers’.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
