Walter Mazzarri's time in charge of Napoli feels a long way in Serie A's dim and distant past, but just two years ago the Tuscan tactician was leading the partenopei to some of the greatest achievements of their illustrious history. He may have never brought a domestic league title, but Napoli's Champions League victories over the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea under Mazzarri weren't far behind the feats of the legendary Diego Maradona side of the 1980s.
Mazzarri, Benitez, and the significance of Inter vs. Napoli
Two teams struggling to meet expectations in Serie A. Two coaches facing the axe should the result fail to go their way. Yes, the significance of Inter vs. Napoli runs deep
Maurizio Lagana
Alas, the fortunes of both Mazzarri and Napoli haven't been the same since. He was lured away by Inter Milan last summer; they hired former Inter Milan coach Rafael Benítez. Under Mazzarri, Inter have continued to flounder, unable to match the heights of their Champions League win under José Mourinho in 2010. A slow start to the new season has seen pressure steadily mount on Mazzarri, and defeat to his former club on Sunday would likely see him fired for the first time in his entire career.
In truth, Mazzarri's spell at Inter never looked like it was going to work out. Like their cross-town rivals AC Milan in the aftermath of their last scudetto win, Inter's botched attempts at reshaping their squad after the decline of their Champions League-winning core of 2010 left them with problems far beyond the control of the coach. There was hope the arrival of wealthy owner Erick Thohir late last year would provide them with the capital they needed to finally kickstart a new era. Instead, they've just continued making the same old mistakes.
Instead of taking the AS Roma approach, and splashing out on talented youngsters like Miralem Pjanić, Mattia Destro, and more recently Juan Iturbe, they've inexplicably continued spending money on ageing, fading stars. 29-year-old midfielder Hernanes set them back an astronomical €20 million in January, and he's yet to impress. Nemanja Vidić may have arrived on a free transfer, but when you consider what they're paying him, it makes their decision to sign him on the back of a steady decline at Manchester United all the more nonsensical.
That the coach is Mazzarri merely exacerbates the problem, as he's famously unwilling to put his faith in youth. It was only over the back end of last season that he finally gave Mauro Icardi a run in the team, with the 21-year-old going on to reward him with back-to-back braces in a brilliant streak of goalscoring. Icardi is now one of only a couple of genuinely outstanding prospects in a pretty poor team. Certainly, that isn't Mazzarri's fault, and a long-term analysis would suggest very little of the blame for Inter's decline lies with him. But at a time of rebuilding, he's not the right man for the job.
As if the drama of the axe hanging over Mazzarri -- and being wielded by his former club -- didn’t provide enough of a dream journalistic narrative heading into this weekend’s game, his opposite number could well be on the brink of departure, too. Napoli have been as lacklustre as the nerazzurri so far this season, and the man they hired as Mazzarri’s replacement, Rafael Benítez, could well exit if he loses here too, despite enjoying a promising first season in Naples.
Their transition from Mazzarri and his counter-attacking 3-5-2 to Benítez's possession-oriented 4-2-3-1 was surprisingly smooth last season, aided by a massive summer investment by president Aurelio Di Laurentiis. Gonzalo Higuaín and José Callejón arrived from Real Madrid and made an immediate impact, pretty successfully masking the departure of star striker Edinson Cavani. In January, Faouzi Ghoulam was brought in from Saint-Étienne -- a clever signing that finally offered up a long-term solution to their left-back woes -- and talented playmaker Jorginho joined from Hellas Verona.
That isn't to say everything was perfect, with summer signing Raúl Albiol unable to single-handedly resolve their age-old problems at the centre of defence. Yet, broadly speaking, the season was a success. Third place guaranteed their place in the Champions League playoffs, and they had a solid platform on which to build a team genuinely capable of challenging Roma and Juventus for the scudetto. But in the summer, things went very wrong.
Instead of addressing Napoli’s problem positions, like signing a proper right-back, a solid backup for Higuaín and a proven central defender, Di Laurentiis pretty much refused to spend anything at all. That, combined with the decision to sell their best holding midfielder, Valon Behrami, for not much more than a nominal fee made for one hugely disappointing summer. Players did arrive, but almost all of them were unproven in Serie A, and unlikely to be anything more than squad rotation players. Decent for depth, but not for toppling the two very strong teams at the top of Italian football.
From there, things have gone steadily downhill. Napoli were eliminated by Athletic Bilbao at the first stage of the Champions League -- possibly putting a dent in their spending power in the next transfer window or two -- and went on to drop points to Chievo Verona, Palermo and Udinese in Serie A. They have now managed to string a couple of wins together, though they could only beat struggling Sassuolo 1-0, and had to come from behind to down Torino.
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Certainly, not all of the blame can be put with Di Laurentiis. Benítez’s tactical stubbornness has played a part in the inconsistent form of captain and talisman Marek Hamšík, while his rigid obsession with playing two deep midfielders has also come at the cost of playmaker Jorginho, who needs support in a central trio to really excel. Perhaps even more so than Mazzarri at Inter, Benítez has failed to make the most of the players at his disposal. But had Di Laurentiis -- who has recently threatened to sell the club -- followed up on the investment of last summer, things would no doubt look a lot rosier.
As it is, an icy cold breeze seems to have swept in from the Bay of Naples. Relations between the president and the coach at Napoli appear to be at an all-time low, with the Spaniard -- whose contract expires in the summer -- said to have rejected the offer of an extension after the summer’s transfer catastrophe. That, combined with painfully turgid football, unsurprisingly hasn’t gone down well with the supporters, leaving the normally packed San Paolo a bit barren.
Their recent discontent has manifested itself with their incessant lambasting of Neapolitan boy wonder Lorenzo Insigne, who Benítez has continued to select despite a poor run of form. As such, he has become something of a scapegoat for the fans' discontent with the ownership and the management. Needless to say, in the grand scheme of things, Insigne is an innocent party in Napoli's awful run of form, and one couldn't help but feel sorry for him when he burst into tears after finally scoring his first goal of the season in the recent win over Torino. But it served as a perfect indicator of the intense strain at the San Paolo at present, with everyone involved feeling the heat.
With both Inter and Napoli under such intense scrutiny, their meeting on Sunday could hardly be more significant. A win for either side could well be the catalyst they need to finally push on and make a run up the table. A defeat, and Mazzarri or Benítez could well find themselves looking for new jobs.
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