Napoli, a scudetto-worthy defense (despite injuries). But the attack is struggling

Naples, 5 May 2025 - One of the main unwritten rules of football says that championships are won with defences: a rule that has often been confirmed in practice and is also widely valid for this season. According to the standings, the league leaders and the best defence of the tournament coincide in the figure of Napoli, good at keeping the course straight despite the many injuries that are still crippling the choices of Antonio Conte right in that area of ​​the field.  

The best defense (despite injuries)

  When we talk about the Salento technician, we often associate him, at least in Serie A, to an almost proverbial fortune in the episodes in every possible sense. In fact, the many narrow victories, or even of pure 'short face', among other things often the result of very positive circumstances, seem to confirm this thesis, which embraces and unites all the previous adventures on Italian benches of Tale. Talking about this to the Napoli and narrowing the view to the first half of the season, the coach had in turn mentioned the concept of 'luck' precisely with reference to the Italian infirmary, incredibly empty in the first part of the tournament: with the hope that the situation would remain like this. Instead, starting from mid-December, everything changed, with a series of injuries that began to take away several key players for more or less long periods: all well before the farewell, this time decided by the market, of Khvisha Kvaratskhelia. From then until today, speaking only of defense, they end up in the pits several times Alessandro Good morning e Juan Jesus, who by the way have already finished their season, but they also make a few trips to the infirmary Mathias Olivera, Leonardo Spinazzola e Pasquale Mazzocchi, without forgetting the same Alex Meret. In short, behind the waltz of injuries has shaken the nights of Tale, but he did not ruin the defensive structure built by his fort despite the changes in formation, 4-3-3 al 3-5-2 before 4-4-2 almost a compromise launched in recent weeks. The Napoli remains the best rearguard of the tournament, with just 25 goals conceded despite many critical issues, with the excellence remaining in the defense on set pieces. Of course, as per Tale thought, much has been granted to the show, but in the parts of Fuorigrotta the times when the fans themselves were content with lively football even at the cost of not adding trophies to the trophy cabinet are long gone: with him the Salento coach has also brought that typical mentality of other clubs linked to the ineluctable importance of victory, practically at any cost. "Nobody remembers who comes in second: history is written by the winner": these are the words pronounced by Tale after the victory, still hard-fought and narrow (but also without conceding a goal, like the 3 previous ones), to the Street of the Sea di Lecce, to say the least fundamental (if not decisive) in the economy of the fight for the Scudetto. And to think that until some time ago one of the Napoli the most remembered and praised was the one in the hands of Maurizio Sarri: no laurels and trophies, but a lot of spectacle and, in fact, the planting of a seed that would later also benefit Luciano Spalletti to find the first scudetto of the era Aurelio De Laurentiis. The according to, leaving aside superstition and mathematics, it doesn't seem far away despite an offensive phase worthy of much higher areas of the table.

The attack's numbers (and Lukaku's)

  To date, the loot in the goal area of Napoli recital 55 goals, not far from the negative record for a team winning the title: in 2011 il Milan tricolore made 'only' 65. So, in the last three games of the championship, either the Azzurri score at least 10 goal, or they write a record that makes you think, just like the decline in offensive turnover of Romelu Lukaku. The goals scored in the championship by the Belgian, a true praetorian of Tale, I am 12: numbers very far from those signed in the two-year period atInter always lived with the Salento coach on the bench (34 goal since 2020 e 30 since 2021). The years go by and it's up to the good and strong players to reinvent themselves. It happens that like this Lukaku honed his skills as an assistman, becoming the best in the championship with 10 winning passes found so far: Raoul Bellanova e Christian Pulisic they have caught up with him in this special ranking, but only the second has the 'double double' on the scoresheet which also involves goals scored. The history of the union Conte-Lukaku but it is much broader, speaking of well 130 games totals: numbers practically almost worthy of a (sporting) wedding. In this enormous period of time, Big Rome was involved in goals or assists in 103 occasions: numbers, again, worthy of a very solid bond and which justify the financial outlay carried out in the summer by the Neapolitan club to please their new coach. Which, however, did not happen at all in the winter. Not only the sale of kvaratskhelia, which may not have any impact on the economy of the fight for the Scudetto but will present its bill at the end of the season, if at the end Tale decided to leave by appealing to a move by the company that he said was not in line with global growth already threatened by the infrastructure and youth sector chapters: in January, therefore, with Good morning still out (due to the first injury), the coach asked for a defensive support of experience and solidity, receiving nothing instead. Speaking of reserves, let's go ahead with Juan Jesus e Rafa Marin: the first often pays the price on the injuries front, while the second is not very convincing to the point of being overtaken in the hierarchies behind by a Olive adapted to the center. In short, Tale he may be lucky, but not everything in this season to remember has gone in the right direction. From the market to injuries: not all the proverbial episodes have married with the line of the Salento coach, who however has been able to make a virtue of necessity. And if it is true that history is written only by those who win, in this novel destined to become a best seller there is no shortage of typos: nothing however that could have affected the final result, the only thing that matters for Tale (and it's not just a play on words).

Read also - Rome Internationals, the scoreboard and Sinner's pairings