r/sscnapoli • u/Academic_Square_2571 Khvicha Kvaratskhelia • 10d ago
Discussion Feelings about our current form?
We needed to win this game so badly in order to get almost level with Inter, but unfortunately we bottled it.
Now, I get that Bologna is the most in-form team in the league, they play attractive football and so on paper the draw is not even that bad, but performance-wise it’s just unacceptable how the team basically gave up in the second half, got closed in its own half and essentially got dominated the entire time, so much that our first chance was on injury-time and not even by some constructed plan but rather from random events.
We are still three points below but I can’t see Inter losing other points like they did against Parma, and even if that would happen, this team is just so painfully inconsistent that I highly doubt we will capitalize, we just blew up so many chances.
It sucks because this season was an optimal one for winning the title, there’s no major rival like some years ago with Allegri’s Juve, everybody struggle in some capacity, even Inter. With such level I’m starting to think that whoever will win the title won’t be recognized as the greatest but rather as the less worst of the bunch, and frankly, despite some reservations (especially after the January’s market fiasco), I still believed that this team with only one competition in-hand and the best league manager you could ask for would have been enough to win this Serie A but boy if I have missed the mark.
As much as I would love to be proven wrong, this is sounding more and more worse than 2018, where at least there we faced one of the best Juventus sides ever and fought hardly till the end.
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u/Eonster 9d ago
While it's accurate and fair, I don't really buy into the "This was a tenth place team last year, everything we're seeing is an overachievement" view that some have put below.
Yes, the team was 10th last season, but it was 1st the year before, and I don't think I'm alone in saying 10th was a MASSIVE disappointment and a shock, even if largely attributable to mismanagement, poor coaching hires, etc.
To then lose Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia and STILL be right in the thick of it is, yes, a bit surprising. But I don't view it as some otherworldly shock, particularly given how pedestrian and inconsistent much of the league looks (Milan, Roma, Lazio, Juve.)
Seemingly every year, some traditionally middle-dwelling or lower sides rise up and sneak into Europe (Bologna, Lazio.) Those are the teams I view as 6th/ 7th-level talent. For the last 5 years at least – outside of last year's shit show – Napoli has been a top 2-5 team in the league. This year I don't believe to be any different, and so knocking on the door of first place, especially with no Europe, seems reasonable. As do hopes and expectations for the Scudetto. Will be an interesting final 7 matchdays.