Naples, total emergency with Monza: Natan and Lobotka stop

Naples, 25 December 2023 - The first club to officially move in the January transfer market was the Napoli, which through Aurelio De Laurentiis announced the now completed sale of Eljif Diamond al Leipzig, with the operation expected to be formalized as early as 2st January. The repair session of the Azzurri, for obvious reasons, will continue with various operations more or less scheduled for the summer, to which add those dictated by the contingencies indicated by an infirmary that is once again full and by the now well-known 'trouble' called Africa Cup of Nations.  

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The very heavy ones were not enough -17 points in the standings compared to last championship and the premature elimination from Coppa Italia (but not exactly unpublished): to complicate the plans of a Walter Mazzarri at the mercy of a ship that has been taking on water for some time there are various problems. The last one, almost as a Christmas gift suited to the dark period, was left as a legacy by the away match ofOlympic: the reference does not go to the reds remedied by Matteo Politano e Victor Osimhen, which in turn will reduce the rotations of the blue coach, but rather to the physical problems suffered by Stanislav Lobotka and especially Nathan. The Slovakian escaped with a rib fracture which will however require further evaluations in the next few days, while the Brazilian suffered an acromioclavicular dislocation in his right shoulder which will be examined in depth shortly through a specialist visit. The focus of the analysis of the case will probably be to establish whether the defender will require surgery or whether recovery will proceed conservatively: in both cases the recovery times should not be less than 2 months. In short, a big problem that will add to those already present in the short and long term future. Talking about the next match, the one that will close the 2023 against Monza, they will be out of the question politan e osimhen, expelled against the Roma: the Nigerian will then leave for the Africa Cup of Nations together with Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa. We return to the infirmary to find the long-term patient Mathias Olivera, who has however reached almost the end of the long recovery period: with him, stopped in the pits, he is there Elmas, who however will definitively take off the blue shirt starting from early January. Then there is the always precarious situation of jesper lindstrom, never convincing on the pitch and often bruised: now the Dane is struggling with lumbago and will probably be out of action even to finish a 2023 excellent in the first part and poor in the second.

Kvaratskhelia to find again

The task of trying to straighten out the situation to save what can be saved falls to one Mazzarri who probably didn't think he'd find himself managing such a complicated situation. Of course, an exemption, as admitted by the person concerned, suggests that there are some problems: perhaps more than one, in the specific case. Among them is the psychophysical state of the entire team: including those who are not stuck in the pits. Among them, paradoxically, there are first and foremost the heroes of the scudetti, those from whom an entire square expected so much in the most complicated year, that of the reconfirmation and who instead are disappointing en masse. The palm in this sense goes to Khvisha Kvaratskhelia, a year ago these days praised for numbers and plays and today on the covers more for some altercations with rival players (and coaches) than for more flattering reasons. However, the Georgian's parable deserves particular attention, because after all, already in the second half of last season something seemed to have cracked in terms of performance. At the time, among other things in a Campania capital full of jujubes, there was talk of a physiological decline, for him and for the others, after a booming start. The other mitigating factor came from the outside, with the presumed or plausible studies conducted by the opposing defenses to try to get to know and then contain a player who until a few months earlier was totally unknown. In fact, the plays of Fourth they are often the same ones, with the difference that today magical dribbling is less successful and the feet, both skilled with equal profit, almost no longer produce those elusive trajectories for defenders first and then goalkeepers. Until the beginning of autumn the Georgian, a bit like the rest of the squad (if not more so), still enjoyed the immunity resulting from the Scudetto from the side of the squad: also due to the poor feeling, both personal and as a team, with Rudi Garcia, at the time the scapegoat for a bit of everything. The cure Mazzarri it seemed to work, with kvaratskhelia curiously to score the first goal of the new era at Gewiss Stadium di Bergamo. Instead, all the signs of rebirth were shattered as the Tuscan coach continued his adventure on the bench, called upon to regenerate those already in the squad while waiting for what the market will say. It's right there on the front line kvaratskhelia, which last season probably also enjoyed a sort of greater protection from the refereeing class: today, with the Napoli slipped into a dangerous anonymity, the situation has reversed and every fall of the blue number 77 is accompanied by the recriminations of others. In this regard, the skit with Mourinho, complete with a happy ending in the midst of Christmas, is already in the history of this championship. Championship to which the Napoli he has to find a sense to try to get back to the area Champions League. To do so, in light of present and future absences, with that of osimhen above all, the ball passes to kvaratskhelia, called upon to return at least the fair copy of the player from a year ago: under penalty of the personal and collective risk of being relegated to that magic of last season which incredibly disappeared with the departures of Luciano Spalletti e Cristiano Giuntoli. The first step in this sense will be offered by a Monza in turn in difficulty and far from the team that had amazed everyone in the previous championship: on paper, but really only on paper, perhaps one of the best opponents to try to immediately forget the bad evening ofOlympic.

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