Rafa Benitez the new manager of Napoli

i don't think he did well tbh.
he did enough to keep his job .

CL and Coppa Italia is a good season for Napoli imo. Specially being his first season.

He can improve it from now.

I support Rafa's project 100% yet was in slight favour for Montella's Fiorentina tonight.

Yet seeing his smile right now in displaying the Coppa Italia trofeo in his hand brings a mutual smile to my face, especially after the whistles he received from Chelsea fans when raising the EL trophy bringing hurt to his eyes. That absolutely killed me.

Neapolitans and ADL are behind him and he knows it. Wonderful sight.

It must be said that Fio have missed Mario Gomez all year. Cuadrado was also out for the Coppa Italia Final.

They finished second, spent €90 million in the transfer market and I think Benitez is intelligent enough to realise that he won’t have achieved anything if Napoli don’t win the Scudetto,”

He's had to integrate a whole new system to the whole Napoli squad.

On top of that, even if he did "spend €90 million in the transfer market" there was no guarantee they would settle and click in; look at Spurs.

He's done a very good job thus far, and will get even better next season when players start to understand his methods and he can improve the squad even further.

spent €90 million in the transfer market

Net!!! They did sell a few too.

knocked out of the champions league, has signed scrubs like Michu and De Guzman. If Napoli have a bad start to the season then Rafa could be in trouble

Idiotic, absolutely idiotic

His transfer targets are sickening

Going after average at best players and generally some god awful defensive talents

Not to mention when he took over he alienated the best defenders at the club, either letting them leave or forcing them in to a back 4 which pretty much ruined their wing backs and their CB

Haven't watched the match, but Bilbao are a good side and it's not surprising they won.

Tomwin Lannister wrote:Idiotic, absolutely idiotic

His transfer targets are sickening

Going after average at best players and generally some god awful defensive talents

Not to mention when he took over he alienated the best defenders at the club, either letting them leave or forcing them in to a back 4 which pretty much ruined their wing backs and their CB

Napoli are prime for the taking now. If only Milan signed some decent players to take advantage of this situation.

Yep, problem is apart from Inter nobody seems to be building towards anything. The league is in a mess and teams are praying their best players stay at the moment

Wonder if Hamsik will leave/be sold. Looks even more inconsistent under Rafa but he's still a hero over there and selling him could very well ruin Rafa

Would not mind Hamsik for Lucas + Agger + 5m.

Napoli would do that 100% if the fans had no input.

Tomwin Lannister wrote:Idiotic, absolutely idiotic

His transfer targets are sickening

Going after average at best players and generally some god awful defensive talents

Not to mention when he took over he alienated the best defenders at the club, either letting them leave or forcing them in to a back 4 which pretty much ruined their wing backs and their CB

He went for pretty average players with Liverpool as well. One of the things I never liked about him.

I though that myth had finally died the painful death it deserved, to be honest.

I don't see how you could possibly deny he signed a number of average players while at Liverpool: Benayoun, Babel, Skrtel, Lucas, Keane, Dosena, Riera, Degen, Kyrgiakos, Maxi.

Even if you disagree with a particular name the list is overall particularly average.

N'Gog was bought as a 19 year old youngster and played in our academy before being moved up. Please don't include him there.

Skrtel, Lucas, Benayoun long paid their dues for us. Riera for his money was an important part of our strongest side under Benitez.

Babel was a youth prodigy that a lot of teams wanted and we got him.

Maxi was free when we literally didn't have a single cent to spend so we brought him in.

We needed a CB badly and only had 1.5 mill available in summer of 2009 and Kyrgiakos was the only one we could afford for that price with the level of experience we needed.

Degen another free transfer when we had no money to buy anyone else.

Keane and Dossena are the two from your list that Rafa wasted money on and they were his targets. The rest was more down to our situation.

I didn't say he wasted money. I said he brought average players on to the club.

I'll take N'Gog out.

Benayoun and Lucas in their primes weren't average, very good players. And their primes came with us.

He messed up with Keane and Dossena but his hand was forced to sign Mexi, Kyrgiakos, Degen.

Rafa TARGETED players like Dani Alves, Jovetic, Alonso, Reina, Mascherano, Torres, and yes, players like Keane (who was at the time one of the most consistent and highest all timer scorers in the PL, remember).

Many of the players you're referring to were second or third choices when our main negotiating team failed to land the main targets or we didn't have the funds because the club's owners WERE BANKRUPTING US.

I just watched the full Blibao - Napoli game and I must say that Napoli showcased some of the worst defending in recent memory. That back four would make Mexes look like Maldini. Prediction: Napoli won't make top 3 in Serie A if their defence remains the same for the upcoming season. Absolutely woeful.

Edit: Also, there's a lot being said about Benitez' choice of attacking players here, but scoring goals has never been the problem for Napoli. Hamsik, Callejon, Higuain, Mertens & Insigne is an excellent group of attacking players. Even the midfield pivot, whilst unspectacular, is usually solid. The real problem for Napoli is the defence.

yes, I agree, but their defence was meh also last year, simply Napoli had /has best attack in Serie A and when you have difference makers as Higuain,Mertens,Callejon youc can compensate some lacks.
Napoli defenders are not good as value, besides   Napoli defence was built to play with 3-5-2, Napoli fullbacks can't defend and so if they play in defence to 4 they show their liimits .
Never understood because Napoli doesn't like to buy good defenders it was so also under Mazzarri, but they gave their best with 3-5-2 and they compensated lacks thanks to Campagnaro. Mazzarri never will do offensive games, he is warranty of boring game, but his teams are solid defensively anyway.
Maggio was always scrub to defend an he is even finished. Yesterday another demonstration , it was an announced disaster if you would have made the fullback in 4. But even in 3-5-2 is useless now, he can't act as Forrest Gump anymore.

Anyway , if you play a EL play off with Britos as fullback (Britos is a BC, and he is even scrub in his role ) and with Gargano as midfield, I repeat Gargano , you have certainly done something wrong.
You have preferred to buy an offensive back up as Michu , rather improving the midfield for example, then it doesn't make sense to sell Behrami at low price if you must play with Gargano.... And I don't think it is so normal to have a similar athletic condition for the play off , Athletic ran much more, it reminded me the European Supercup lost in 2010 when we never created chances for this reason.
Very bad management by Napoli about this play off , it seemed Udinese of Pozzo.
Athletic is very good team, but I thought Napoli could pass and anyway not suffering so much , we are talking about a club who played great CL last year. Yesterday it was a real downgrade

This last game was a textbook guide on what not to do:
*Full backs were just walking back when Bilbao players were chasing the ball and moving forward
*There was no communication amongst defenders
*A Bilbao player scored unmarked from a corner with a shot hit after taking a touch to bring the ball to the ground. He could've stopped and had dinner and still had enough time to put the shot in without a defender closing him down.

Mourinho: "They don't have to think about Champions League and the focus will be completely on the title... I would say Napoli favourites."

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