Napoli are in deep disaster as they put together to host Salernitana on Saturday, with their Serie A title protection in tatters and tensions flaring behind the scenes.
A full 20 factors behind leaders Inter Milan as they attain Monza's mid-season on Saturday, Napoli are unrecognizable from the group that waltzed to a historic Scudetto final season.
Walter Mazzarri's facet have scored simply 4 instances of their final eight video games in all competitions, dropping six of these video games and falling all the best way to ninth within the Italian prime flight.
Mazzarri was employed in November to scrub up the mess left by his predecessor Rudi Garcia, however Napoli has turn out to be even worse underneath his command, with severe disciplinary issues and feuds between gamers contributing to a poisonous combine.
Final weekend's three objectives towards Torino weren't even the worst defeat of the season – that honor goes to Frosinone's 4-0 Italian Cup win – but it surely was the third recreation in a row that Napoli had at the very least one participant off the pitch despatched.
As if that wasn't unhealthy sufficient, an argument out of the blue exploded out of nowhere on Wednesday between the celebs of final season's title triumph, Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
Kvaratskhelia's agent Mamuka Jugeli gave an interview by which he prompt that Osimhen, who just lately prolonged his contract with Napoli till 2026, will play in Saudi Arabia subsequent season.
That infuriated Osimhen, who from the Nigerian coaching camp forward of the Africa Cup of Nations referred to as Jugeli a “piece of trash and a shame” in a spicy response on social media.
Osimhen's agent Roberto Calenda additionally received concerned, calling Jugeli's feedback “nasty, superficial and unacceptable”.
“Now we have simply prolonged his contract and Victor's solely want, aside from the Africa Cup of Nations, is to assist Napoli. The whole lot else is simply trash.”
Neither Osimhen nor Cameroon midfielder Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa have taken half within the necessary ritiro at Napoli's coaching heart forward of Saturday's regional derby, which could possibly be a harder match than the rankings recommend.
Salernitana was unfortunate to lose to Juventus final weekend and held off AC Milan of their earlier house recreation, and Napoli even have a midweek journey to Riyadh for the newfangled four-team Italian Tremendous Cup to consider.
Milan, in the meantime, will look to bounce again from their disappointing exit from the Italian Cup once they host Roma within the greatest match of the weekend on Sunday night.
Roma are additionally licking their wounds after being dumped out of the cup by native rivals Lazio, with each groups dropping their most real looking probability of a trophy this season.
Jose Mourinho, who’s suspended for the match towards San Siro, must do it once more with out Paulo Dybala, who needed to go away Wednesday's 1-0 derby defeat at half-time with one other thigh damage.
In the meantime, Milan coach Stefano Pioli's place is as soon as once more doubtful following his group's limp 2-1 house defeat to Atalanta, and a protracted record of absences is simply making one in every of Europe's most demanding jobs even harder.
Participant to observe: Kenan Yildiz
Turkish worldwide Yildiz is one in every of quite a lot of younger gamers that Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri has signed from the membership's 'Subsequent Gen' group, which performs in Italy's third tier.
The 18-year-old has impressed since breaking into the Juve first group this season and, with Federico Chiesa injured once more, will begin up entrance alongside Dusan Vlahovic towards Sassuolo on Tuesday.
Juve are simply two factors behind Inter, whose Tremendous Cup commitments have additional sophisticated the fixture record, which in contrast to Juve additionally contains Champions League soccer.
Key statistics
22 – Napoli have collected simply 28 factors from 19 video games, 22 fewer than final season.
7 – The variety of factors Napoli have scored out of an out there 21 since Mazzarri took cost.
Match schedule (all instances GMT)
Saturday
Genoa v Turin, Naples v Salernitana (each 1400), Verona v Empoli (1700), Monza v Inter Milan (1945)
Sunday
Lazio v Lecce (1130), Cagliari v Bologna, (1400), Fiorentina v Udinese (1700), AC Milan v Roma (1945)
Monday
Atalanta in Frosinone (1945)
Tuesday
Juventus v Sassuolo (1945)
