Napoli, Neres disappoints. Is the 4-3-3 also back in the balance?

Naples, 9 April 2025 - While the entire Napoli ends up in the dock for these sudden drops in the second half that have already emerged against Udinese, Roma, As an, Milan e Fiorentina and to investigate to understand the origin, whether physical or mental, there is a player who, despite himself, has earned the title of worst on the pitch in From the Ara: through his own faults and the merits of his counterpart Dan ndoye, not by chance sought by the Neapolitan club in the January market, David Neres he ends up behind the blackboard and, with him, the question of form is called into question (once again).

The decline of the 'Neres phenomenon'

The return of the flame of the 4-3-3 had in fact led to a lightning double advantage against the Milan, another match where - coincidentally - the Neapolitans ended in decline, still managing to save the victory. The same first half on Monday night, with the Azzurri always playing with the formation that had made their fortune in the first part of the season, brought the desired dividends. Game, quality, quantity, intensity and dominance in the duels in the middle of the field, with the action of the goal of Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa almost in the style of a rugby breakthrough as an emblem. Yet, even in the context of a dominated fraction, the one that would have then in fact legitimized the draw despite the extreme suffering of the recovery, there was a flaw and a pretty big one at that. Neres he doesn't break through, he doesn't run and he doesn't win any physical duels: practically a very poor copy of the tightrope walker player who had enchanted between the end of autumn and the beginning of winter, leaving the feeling that, deep down, the Napoli the substitute for the separated person at home (and then leaving) Khvisha Kvaratskhelia he already had it in his hands. In reality, the 'phenomenon Neres' was scaled down by two factors. The first was the in-depth study carried out by the opposing defenses, instead at the beginning literally at the mercy of a player of which in Italy little was known also because of the promises not exactly kept in the triple passage from Ajax, Shakhtar Donetsk e Benfica. In short, the Brazilian's career itself does not suggest continuity as his best quality: if serious injuries get involved, then the situation becomes even more complicated. This was undoubtedly the second, and most important, factor that turned off Neres, reminding everyone what happened on the left wing of the Napoli in the last few months can still present his account. The other memorandum is called Noah okafor, a player that the Neapolitan club has taken from Milan to close the gap and after having chased other profiles for a long time, with Alexander Garnacho as a trailblazer. But not only that: the 'executioner' himself ndoye liked and likes at the headquarters of Castel Volturno, which could perhaps propose the assault again, encountering a pro and a con. Respectively: the pause in hostilities, which notoriously facilitates the transfer of prized pieces, but also the increase in the price of the price tag of the same, a double track that the same Napoli knows well. Today there is much talk of the so-called 'model Bologna', in turn perhaps the son of the previous 'model Atalanta', always led by King Midas Giovanni Sartori, both based on the discovery of young and semi-unknown profiles to then enhance them and resell them making the most of them, but the pioneer in this sense was precisely Napoli di Aurelio De Laurentiis, which had built the championship two years ago on these very foundations: the emblem of the last 'miraculous' catch, after all, is precisely kvaratskhelia, paid 10 million and resold to 70 million of fixed part more 5 of bonuses. Then everything changed in terms of costs, scouting and market strategies.

Emergency in view of Empoli?

 The time for trials and discussions on the actual success of this turn of events is premature: first we have to conclude a season that could lead back to the tricolour dream, today only a stone's throw away. 3 points. On paper the matches are complicated for the Napoli are over, but will it really be like that? In reality, the next opponent, theEmpoli, it is a team that is struggling in the championship but capable, in Coppa Italia, to gradually eliminate, and always playing away from home, Turin, Fiorentina e Juventus before hitting the wall Bologna, at least in the first round of the semi-final. Of course, in the meantime the Tuscans have been hit by an incredible injury emergency that is getting worse day after day: the recent early closure of the season of Youssef Maleh e Christian kouamé it only widens an already very serious and long-lasting trend. Even with due proportions, the Napoli must make careful assessments in view of Monday night's match. The first certainty is the absence due to disqualification of Anguissa: for the same reason the captain, who is also the former player of the day, will also be missing Giovanni Di Lorenzo. We then move on to the infirmary: Alex Meret, out of consideration for the From the Ara for a flu syndrome, and in any case well replaced by Simone scuffet, seems to be on the road to recovery, while the situation will need to be analysed more calmly Alessandro Good morning, Leonardo Spinazzola e Scott McTominay, with the first two struggling with muscle problems and the second hit hard twice in the last match. Then, once again, the question of the formation could come back into play, with the 4-3-3 which had been dusted off especially to make the most of the re-entrant Neres. But this Neres risks calling everything into question, even more so if one considers the greater verve in attack brought by James Raspadori and from his entry in the tail of the race Bologna and the simultaneous greater isolation of Romelu Lukaku without a partner there in front. Ad Antonio Conte, ready to take back his place on the bench, the task of mixing up the ingredients again, between more or less certain and worrying defections and the return of the enigmatic module. Blame it on Neres, so to speak, the man who was supposed to revive the fortunes of the 4-3-3 and that to the From the Ara, instead, ended up knocked out in the long-distance confrontation with ndoye, today a regret but perhaps again a goal in the summer.

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