Napoli post-match thread

The first 30 minutes were up there with the way we have played in the league this season....if it wasnt for 2 goal line clearences and a KDB effort hitting the underside of the crossbar (which only happened as he was slightly leaning back when taking the shot on) then the game would have been buried. Napoli did look shell shocked and couldnt get near the ball.

They are a very good side and at the minute are beating all before them in Seria A and came back strong in the second half.

What stood out in the second half is the change in defending when not in possession....Stones and Otamendi have come on leaps and bounds, with Stones deserving a MOTM award himself for the recent displays he is giving, he is fadt becoming a commanding prescence in that back line. And at one point got into the 5 yard box in a City attack ala Pique at Barcelona.

There will be tougher tests against the bigger teams, but we do not have anything to fear. As Pep says, we win or lose playing the same style because the players will learn each time.
 
Great performance Napoli were the best team we have faced this season. A draw will be a good result there.

Very good. I think a few ( just a few) could benefit from a rest on the bench Saturday.

They worked very hard tonight good to see. Great team spirit.
 
ono said:
I think that is true to an extent, but I also think we tried to play on the counter. We are not an exact replica of what Pep had at Barca and at Bayern. We score a lot of goals on the counter attack (even at home against the supposed lesser teams) and at 2-0 against a team who need to attack, it is a good idea, and although we might have looked to be under slight pressure, we did still create the more clear cut openings and actually Napoli's only chances to score really came from our own mistakes. So that in itself shows that our shape was good which probably highlights the fact that we were probably quite comfortable with the flow of the game. In fact, you could even argue that had Pep wanted to revert to possession and control, he would have replaced Sane (who was having a nightmare) with Bernardo, and maybe even Sterling with Gundogan before the hour mark. So I think we were more comfortable than it perhaps appeared, although to be honest I only felt marginally more threatened than I did in the Shaktar game.

I just think we have been so spoiled by the thumpings we've dished out that any win which wasn't total dominance now feels like a 'warning sign' or a let down.

Even in the first half tonight, most of our good moments came on the counter. Our build up was just easier in the first half as players were fresher and Napoli pressed with less men. They added an extra body to the press in the second half so it was more difficult. What I think we could have done is replace Walker with Danilo, and invert him (much like Delph) and allow him to be a pivot alongside Dinho just to enable us to pass the press. But as I said, I think we like to invite the press to an extent because it gives us an opportunity to create attacks which are 3 vs 3 or 4 vs 4. Pep has obviously worked with pacey wingers in the past, but Sterling and Sane are much faster without the ball than the likes of Ribery and Robben, and as such are massively crucial to how we attempt to play when in strong positions in big games. We will see it again I'm sure.
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Spot on, we were trying to suck them on to us so we could hit them on the break. Best to remember that Ederson barely had a save to make in the second half. Control.
 
SWP's back said:
Great win and a mature performance. I think people forget quotes hiw good Napoli are but it does go to show we should probably have killed it off in the first 30 minutes. Very unlucky hitting the underside of the bar and having another scrambled off the line.
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Not if you read the mail, a top team would have tucked Napoli away second half apparently. He was kind enough to note at the end that "anyway, they won." in the most backhanded complimentary tone you could convey in the written word.

Inches saved them from being totally deflated as you note. Going in 4 down i think would have just taken the fight out of them. At that score your really very concerned with not getting smashed and having the confidence your squad had as a whole destroyed in one match. I am not going into rawk territory "what if's" here, it literally was inches.

We stayed at it and were still very dangerous in the second half after we backed off a bit. They pressed us hard, we took it and looked as dangerous as them as we hit on the counter.

Napoli are a fine side but i think we can beat them away also, just play the same game really but get Gundo on earlier for whoever is tiring/not having a good day and start him closer to Fernandihno before he feels his way up the pitch. I do think they would crush almost any prem team besides us ofc at the moment. No way would Phil Jones and Smalling be able to cope with that kind of press; in the first half, let alone when your starting to blow a bit.
 
ballbag said:
I thought the ref was terrible from where I was sat, but I'm gonna give it another watch on the box now.
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I thought the officials were crap too....but I've not had a chance to watch it again.
Ref gave them so many soft fouls and seemed to fall for all their acting. Missed lots of shirt pulling too
 
Delighted with that. They're probably the worst team we could play against (other than Barcelona) as they play such a similar system to us.

We've overcome a test against the best form team in Europe at the minute and arguably should have scored four or five.

This team is special.
 
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