CorSport – Napoli’s Fab Four start to dazzle, Conte battles with the past… | OneFootball

CorSport – Napoli, the Fab Four are starting to dazzle! Conte battles with the past…

Antonio Conte’s Napoli and Igor Tudor’s Juventus kicked off the long Serie A weekend at the top of the table with 9 points after the first three matches. Today, after the last games on the schedule, they could at most be joined by Cremonese—who are set to face Hellas Verona—the only other team with a perfect record that could still join the leading duo. However, as a newly promoted side, and with all due respect and admiration for Nicola and the club, Cremonese is unlikely to be a contender for the scudetto in the long run. Meanwhile, Roma, the fourth team keeping pace, was stopped yesterday at the Olimpico by Torino: -3. Who gave Napoli an unintentional gift? Two very dear friends: Ngonge and Simeone, two freshly sold Italian champions, who respectively provided the assist and scored the goal for the 1-0 that halted Gasp’s run.

While waiting for Milan to finish their warm-up and considering Inter’s struggles (-6), it really seems that the football gods are setting up a Napoli-Juve head-to-head. Is it too soon? Yes, but the duel is starting to get interesting. It’s a taste of many past battles, but also a nod to the Juventus past of the man who is enriching Napoli’s present with tactical innovations and a winning mentality. Juventus is to Conte as the sky is to the earth: each is a part of the other’s history. But today, Napoli and Naples are to Conte as the Gulf is to Vesuvius. After the scudetto and a whirlwind of overwhelming emotions, Mr. Antonio even turned the shrewdest bookmakers on their heads: a return to Turin was barely considered, many were in the running, including big names, but all it took for him was to sit down with De Laurentiis and Manna to decide not to listen to any pre-announced offers. He wanted clarity, yes, but evidently he believed in Napoli’s future. And today, after an important transfer campaign, he’s rebuilding the team with architects, engineers, workers, and with artists who also know how to be workers (De Bruyne). In his working group, everyone does everything: that’s called true team spirit. It’s a bit like what Tudor, who until the World Cup was considered on the edge or just passing through, is successfully trying to instill in his shrewd and clinical Juve. And so, they’re top of the table and for solidity; even if both teams will have to keep proving themselves between managing the Champions League and the arrival of winter. Between new tests and inevitable difficulties. For now, though, this is the story, and it’s starting to get serious.

If Juve is the novelty, Napoli is the confirmation. It’s a certainty that Conte has reaffirmed against Sassuolo, Cagliari, and especially Fiorentina with a superb performance for 79 minutes: ferocity, balance, intensity, chances, goals, not even a shot on target conceded or even a whiff of danger. Napoli continues its accelerated course to greatness in every sense: and that means certain lapses in concentration like those at the end at the Franchi are not allowed and certainly not acceptable. An isolated incident? We’ll see. But the patience that led to the win over Cagliari in the 95th minute, without losing their heads for a single moment, suggests caution in judgment. One thing is certain: the team is increasingly confident, assured, and in control of the pitch. They defend with four and five; they raise the level of pressing; when needed, they go man-to-man. They change, grow, and improve visibly. Goals and personality can be bought on the market: the arrivals of De Bruyne and Hojlund from the Premier League continue a project that began with McTominay. But what really makes the difference is Conte’s work: on the men and the players. It was well known that he forged iron wills, but the tactical evolution is constant. A true shape-shifter. Napoli is no longer a team of struggle and suffering: they play beautiful attacking football but extremely balanced, with flashes of class and lightning bolts of intelligence. Napoli has the shape of water, as Camilleri suggested to his Montalbano: it adapts to the vessel that contains it, to the interpreters of a system that knows no numbers or limits, but rather rotations and codes; talent and class; application and strength; sacrifice and two phases played with identical ferocity. If you have four brilliant minds and a few magical feet, well, why not make the most of them? That’s how the Napoli of the Fab Four is born, giving no reference points and darting around like electrons. A true beauty where everyone is capable of doing something for the team, for the harmony of attack and defense. And at the bottom, Conte’s signature. In focus.

Carlo Gioia

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.