Gazzetta – Napoli, Neres has opened up new options for this team | OneFootball

Gazzetta – Napoli, Neres has created new possibilities for this team

Having completed the penances of Conte’s catechism, David Neres has picked up speed and started dribbling, at times recalling Ezequiel Lavezzi and creating new possibilities for Napoli. Two goals against Atalanta, and if he had also scored against Qarabag—with a move worthy of Shingo Tamai, an acrobatic half-bicycle kick—he would have become the cover star of the Champions League. But the Azerbaijani team’s goalkeeper, Mateusz Kochalski, denied him the sublimation of his new status as a football hero, a shadow of Argentine memories. The Brazilian dribbling maniac shares with Lavezzi the ability to always beat his man, and this was something Napoli desperately needed after Politano’s fatigue on that flank. And then, he scores and sets up goals. If Lavezzi was more of a forward and covered more ground, working in tandem with Hamsik and Cavani, the slippery Neres “only” roams from one wing to the other, depending on the needs of substitutions, but still manages to surprise. He brings wonder, because he frees himself with a backheel, pretends to go, doesn’t go, and then does, finding himself in duels with opposing goalkeepers.

In his fixed position on the wing, and thanks to injuries and fatigue, by playing, he is showing he has a great variety of moves that are useful to the limited creativity of Conte’s Napoli. Neres is a footballer with many voices inside: he seemed like a very Europeanized Brazilian, a well-groomed winger who just does his job and moves on, but, thanks to Conte’s strictness and a second year with everything still to prove, he has started to express himself and has held the field very well. He is fortunate to have Rasmus Højlund, a striker who is not selfish and very much a team player, who provides him with balls and opens up spaces, giving him many opportunities to shine. Neres has seized these chances, because he needed them to establish himself and become a starter, and he’s taken risks—these, indeed, reminiscent of Lavezzi—slipping between defenders and penalty areas, weaving between sprints and bursts, slaloms and goals or shots that surprise by hitting the crossbar.

Carlo Gioia

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