With mounting evidence that both are equipped to win the Serie A title, Napoli and Juventus go head-to-head on Friday evening in a match that promises to have huge ramifications in the battle for the Scudetto. The Bianconeri have finished first in each of the last six seasons, but currently trail their table-topping opponents by four points, the home side still undefeated after fourteen rounds of action.
The Stadio San Paolo will undoubtedly be packed for this clash as their passionate fanbase urges the Partenopei on in search of what would be a famous victory, and there will certainly be a plethora of talent on display. The Napoli frontline of Lorenzo Insigne, Dries Mertens and Jose Callejon has been irrepressible, while their defence – led by the imposing Kalidou Koulibaly – is much improved and Captain Marek Hamsik drives a well-balanced midfield.
Yet for all their problems in the first few months of the season and all the praise showered on Napoli’s excellent attack, it is Juve who rank as Serie A’s highest scoring team. Bolstered by the arrivals of Douglas Costa and Federico Bernardeschi, Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain are once again in fine form, the Argentinian duo already netting a combined tally of 24 goals in all competitions.
However, this is a game that is more likely to be decided by the work of the men on the touchline rather than those on the field. Italian football has long been held up as the vanguard of tactical thinking, with few better practitioners of that school than Max Allegri and Maurizio Sarri who – despite both being raised in Tuscany – approach the game in very different ways.
“Sarri football” may have taken some time to instil in this Napoli side, but fans across Europe have quickly recognised just how entertaining his team now is. Indeed, when Pep Guardiola labels them “perhaps the best side I've faced in my career,” people tend to take notice. Leading Serie A in terms of possession, pass completion rate, total number of passes and shots per game, their attacking prowess is matched only by their aesthetic beauty.
Free-flowing, intricate passing, lightning fast counter attacks, Napoli really do have it all. Yet Sarri is not the well dressed, debonair character one might usually expect to find in charge of such a team. Wearing a club tracksuit, glasses and usually with a cigarette in one hand, he looks and sounds much more like an angry PE teacher than a Coach responsible for the style currently gaining Napoli widespread admiration.
“The truth is, I am a proper Tuscan and I tend to swear a lot,” the 58-year-old told Chi magazine last year, his gruff character in stark contrast with the immaculately tailored Allegri. But the differences don’t stop at their respective wardrobes. Sarri deploys his 4-3-3 system irrespective of the opponent and has used five players in all 14 league games to date, the Juve boss is constantly shifting both his formation and his starting lineup.
Only Dybala has featured in every Serie A outing for the Bianconeri, and three of his appearances came from the bench, while the side has alternated between three and four-man defences at various points. Allegri has utilised no fewer than four different systems thus far, and he will undoubtedly try out others before the end of the campaign, constantly trusting the tactical intelligence of his players to make them work.
Of course, like Sarri he is not afraid to lose his temper when his instructions are not executed perfectly, with explosions like the one above becoming alarmingly regular as Juve made an error-prone start to 2017/18. He even gets angry after seemingly comfortable wins. “If we play like this against Milan, we’ll get trashed,” Allegri told Mediaset Premium after a 4-1 victory over SPAL. “I hope this is the last time that I will have to throw my jacket to the ground in anger, because I’m getting too old for this…”
A finely balanced 0-0 draw with Barcelona and a controlled 3-0 win over Crotone will have seen his blood pressure return to normal as Juve recovered from a surprising loss to Sampdoria, while Napoli have coasted. Manchester City are the only side to defeat the Partenopei since mid-Septemeber, but they will be well aware that Friday’s visitors effectively ended their title hopes last season by holding them to a 1-1 stalemate at the San Paolo.
They look much more formidable this term however, and the match could not be more highly anticipated as Hamsik told Sky Italia that Juventus against Napoli “is a derby for me.” Nowhere is that sentiment felt more than between the two Tuscans on the bench as Allegri and Sarri seek an edge that will secure a result for their respective teams.
