With the World in Qatar in progress, the clubs of A league plan the resumption of the championship set for January 4th. Given the first part of the season at the limits of perfection, the Naples will be the reference for everyone. At least that’s how it should.
Yeah, because the feeling of the national press is to a Napoli already in the crosshairs of the other big names in Serie Aas if it were an easy prey to grab to “feed” the Scudetto ambitions of Milan, Juventus And Interrespectively listed in order of classification.
Milan, Juventus and Inter: the players who will return from injuries after the break for the World Cup
The reasons that would lead to an easy comeback would be the usual: World which could be fatal for Napoli (which, however, has fewer players than their direct opponents in Qatar, ed), psycho-physical condition which could decrease (while magically it is foreseen that that of the other teams should only improve, benefiting from the break, ed), but above all the recovery of important players who missed due to injury in the first part of the season.
- The Milan he has had various players out: above all Maignan And Calabriain addition to the lack of acclimatization of the Belgian The Ketelaerethe most expensive purchase of the market red and black summer.
- The Juventus will recover Pogba And Churchwhich have practically stopped since the beginning of the season, in addition to the occasional one Of Maria.
- L’Inter instead it will recover Romelu Lukakuwho was injured at the start of the season and then was plagued by physical ailments.
Rrahmani, Kvaratskhelia and Osimhen: Napoli’s strengths after the break
And Naples? Spalletti’s seems to be the only team that won’t have new internal strengths to focus on. It seems, indeed. Because someone forgets that Napoli have done without Amir Rrahmani in the last two monthsdefender who was the pillar of the blue wall, even more than Kim. Just as we tend to forget that the Neapolitans have already had to give up their two main strikers: Osimhengot injured for about a month and a half during the season, e Kvaratskeliawho missed the last few races before the lumbago break.
In fact, out of the 21 games played so far (15 league and 6 Champions League), Spalletti had his two main strikers available for just 10 gamesthat is, less than half. And we’re not talking about any two players. Kvaratskhelia with 8 goals and 10 assists is the best player of the Neapolitan season and is the most incisive ever in Serie A (6 goals and 7 assists). Osimhen is the top scorer of the championshipwith 9 goals scored (plus 2 assists), while in his season the total goals are 10 plus 3 assists. In practice – by yield – the best two strikers of Napoli and of the entire tournament.
The “KO couple”: the extraordinary numbers of the Osimhen-Kvaratskhelia tandem
Having them together means having a unique offensive potential, which no Italian team has so far demonstrated to have. As we said the “good news” for Spalletti it will be to have them back together in top condition from January. So far they played tandem in only 10 of 21 games (and not all of them from the start), and in these 10 matches Napoli have brought home success on 7 occasions, not winning matches with Florentine, Lecce (Kvara started from the bench) and the away game of Liverpool.
The numbers of the 10 games in which Osimhen And Kvaratskelia they played together are nothing short of stratospheric: 6 goals and 6 assists for the Georgian, 7 goals and 1 assist for the Nigerian. Which means that the two seek each other and find each other wonderfully.
So, after the break, and with all due respect to those hoping for a vertical collapse, rather than finding a weakened Napoli, the other Serie A teams will find a potentially even stronger formation of the one that has already tore up the championship. As always, the sentence for posterity, but in the meantime Spalletti can smile in view of January.
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Pasquale Giacometti
