Found a decent article about Lavezzi.
http://www.just-football.com/2011/03/napoli-the-joy-of-good-lavezzi/
In this week’s Serie A column David Swan assesses the understated importance of one of Napoli’s key men:
Edinson Cavani has scored an incredible 20 league goals in 28 games for Napoli this season, just under half of the total scored by the club in Serie A. Considering nobody else has managed to hit double figures so far, you would think that he is probably the most important player in Walter Mazzarri’s team. But the recent absence of Ezequiel Lavezzi from the starting XI thanks to a three game ban for spitting may well have caused a rethink in the minds of many.
That three game run has seen Napoli beat Catania, lose to Milan, and draw to Brescia last weekend. On the face of it, they are not completely disastrous results, even though they have more than likely ended the Partenopei’s chances of winning the Scudetto this year. Indeed, in the six games Lavezzi has missed all season, they have won three, lost two and drawn one – not a record that suggests an over-reliance on the Argentine. Yet the win-loss record does not do justice to the impact he has on the team.
Cavani, in particular, feels his absence. He has scored only one goal in those six games, whilst the team as a collective only managed three, a testament to how crucial Lavezzi is for creating goals for his teammates. He has 10 assists in total this campaign, the most at the club, with only Zlatan Ibrahimović and Andrea Cossu ahead of him in Serie A, but more than assists his general presence creates space for everyone else to work in. Defenders are concerned with his pace, at times doubling up, which just leaves gaps open for Cavani and the others.
One of Mazzarri’s greatest achievements this season has been getting the best out of the diminutive forward to an extent where he is now a key cog in the Napoli forward line. Previous coaches have given the impression that they did not really know Lavezzi’s best position. He has been used as a seconda punta (second striker), prima punta (best described in English as an ‘out-and-out’ striker) and as a wide player over the past few years. It does not help that he has qualities that allow him to play in all of these positions, but not enough to make him truly flourish in any one of them.
His sharp movement is ideal for getting in behind a defence as a prima punta, but his finishing can at times be poor. His pace is perfect for a wide area, but restricting him in such a way makes him easier to mark. He can drop off and find the space well as a seconda punta, but picking out a pass from deep is not always his forte. In this current Napoli side, he is playing as a strange mix of all three, with more of an emphasis on the first two, which is perhaps why fans are now starting to see the best of him. He plays behind Cavani, along with Marek Hamšik, but off to the left-hand side. It allows him to use his pace in wide areas, but Mazzarri does not tie him down to this area, instead allowing freedom to pick up the ball in other areas of the pitch and run at defenders.
His pace (and combined trickery) is his biggest asset, especially in a team that is happy to sit back and play counter-attacking football. The second leg of the Europa League tie against Villarreal contained a moment that epitomised everything you need to know about Lavezzi as a player – devastating until he has to finish a move off.
Even without Cavani for 53 minutes in that game at El Madrigal, Napoli posed a genuine threat going forward, but with Lavezzi as the main striker they did not have enough goals in the team. The chance he created all by himself, using his blistering acceleration on a counter-attack to leave himself one-on-one with Diego López, would have been perfect for Cavani. As it was, Lavezzi missed and Napoli paid the price.
Without him, Napoli does not offer that same threat on the break, and Cavani has to work that little bit harder for his chances. This might explain the team’s (and Cavani’s) lack of goals when Lavezzi is not in the side. Despite all of this, it is something of a commensal relationship between the two South Americans, and that is unlikely to change until Lavezzi becomes more clinical and adds a lot more goals to his game. But with Cavani being the main beneficiary of the Argentine’s work at the moment, and continuing to score goals at an impressive rate, he will remain the man everybody talks about when Napoli crop up in discussion.
