Napoli, Marino: De Bruyne vital, his quality never in doubt | OneFootball

On Stile TV, during the program “Salite sulla giostra” hosted by Raffaele Auriemma, Pierpaolo Marino, former Napoli executive, spoke.

Napoli, Marino on STILETV: “De Bruyne is important for the team, I never doubted his qualities”

These are the comments from the former Napoli executive: “De Bruyne? As a pundit, I didn’t hesitate to criticize his early performances. The player is important and no one denies De Bruyne’s great career and his outstanding technical, tactical, and athletic qualities, but those who watch the matches and give an opinion must say what they see. In the first matches, except for the games against Sporting and Genoa, De Bruyne did not live up to the high expectations he had created. He also somewhat disrupted the functioning of Napoli’s midfield, which last year brought home the Scudetto. There were doubts, and there still are, because De Bruyne must do more to meet the expectations that a player like him creates. Both for the quality of his footballing characteristics and for the value of his salary, expectations must be constant and high. If De Bruyne plays badly, we can’t say he’s good. Against Genoa, De Bruyne came on and, together with Spinazzola, they somewhat turned the match around because, with assists and plays, they immediately made a significant contribution to help Napoli unlock and win the game. But, more is expected from De Bruyne: he needs to get into form. He had an unhappy year at Manchester, where he had some disagreements with Guardiola. In the match against Genoa, he made a great contribution when he came on, but I repeat, he needs to do it again and do even more because he is capable of it if he is still as fit as we all think, because his age is starting to approach the twilight of his career and not his youth.”

“I am convinced that with Conte he will do very well, but his impact at Napoli was not positive because he created chaos within Napoli’s technical organization. Even Conte himself had to get out the chalkboard and the computer to figure out how to remodel Napoli with De Bruyne’s arrival, because Napoli’s midfield worked well, in fact, extremely well last year. Conte had to change the way that midfield played, and now he uses rotations during the match to make it possible for four midfielders to coexist without a left-sided wide player. Because when Napoli’s midfielders are four, they rotate through all the roles, and these adjustments were made by Conte to facilitate De Bruyne’s integration. If De Bruyne is not the one we saw in the last match and a half, all this upheaval—which even makes us think we’re losing McTominay—needs to be reconsidered. Lukaku’s departure, who was one of McTominay’s preferred players to link up with, influenced his performances, but the biggest change was the introduction of De Bruyne, which changed Napoli’s midfield from three to four. Napoli has improved its alternatives; today, Napoli can afford to bring on De Bruyne and Spinazzola and thus change the game with players from the bench, and despite the many injuries, they are coping very well with the demands of the league table. Napoli is in first place and is not suffering from the long-term injuries. Added to this is the explosion of Hojlund, and so Napoli is favored in a championship that is, however, very complicated because Inter, Milan, Juventus, and Roma can fight until the end. If there is one team, though, that I am convinced can pull away from the others, it is Napoli, because of the quality of the squad and because they have an added value on the bench: Conte has proven and is proving that he is capable of managing the team impeccably and from every point of view.”

Vincenzo Schiavo

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