Napoli 2020/21 Season Preview: Strengths, Weaknesses, Key Man & Prediction

Going into last season's Coppa Italia quarter-finals, Napoli and Lazio could hardly have been in more contrasting form.

Gennaro Gattuso - having replaced Carlo Ancelotti in mid-December - had lost four of his five Serie A matches as Napoli manager while the Partenopei had sunk into the bottom half of the table prior to the cup tie. Lazio, on the other hand, arrived at the Stadio San Paolo on the back of 11 consecutive league victories, including a 1-0 win against their hosts ten days earlier.

Napoli teetered on the brink of an insurmountable crisis during the nadir of Ancelotti's tenure earlier in the season. With the threat of a legal battle between the club's owner and players entangled within uproar from the fans potent ingredients for a toxic environment.

However, Gattuso - admittedly after a dreadful start - began to reestablish some stability, beginning with the game against Lazio.

Napoli prevailed with a narrow 1-0 win in a truly bonkers clash which saw a goal scored, a penalty awarded then missed followed by two red cards in the opening 25 minutes. Gli Azzurri followed up this surprise win with another eyebrow-raising victory five days later, this time against Juventus.

The southern Italian side rose steadily back up the standings and continued their cup exploits. Before securing a seventh place finish, Napoli won their sixth Coppa Italia - a victory made all the sweeter as they not only defeated Juventus (always something to celebrate) but bested their former manager Maurizio Sarri.

Strengths

Limiting Opposition Chances

While Ancelotti's side weren't bad by any means, and were perhaps rather unfortunate to be as low as seventh when the current Everton boss parted ways with the club, Gattuso did improve the side defensively.

Napoli were conceding a league-low nine shots per game under the 42-year-old, and finished the campaign with the best expected goals against tally in Serie A according to Football Reference. The men clad in blue were able to deny their opposition a bevvy of chances thanks to an aggressive high press - no side in Italy's top flight applied more pressures in the attacking third than Napoli last season.

Napoli's defensive prowess was also prevalent in their dealing with set pieces. No Serie A club could better the measly five goals they conceded from dead ball situations.

Weaknesses

Goalkeeping

While the Neapolitans may have topped the underlying defensive metrics, the 50 strikes they shipped only ranked them as the seventh-best side for goals conceded. This differential was largely down to the underwhelming displays from the club's goalkeepers.

Those 50 goals Napoli conceded came from just 129 shots on target, leaving the team's custodians with the second lowest average save rate in the division.

Last season, former Arsenal number one David Ospina shared the goalkeeping duties with 23-year-old Alex Meret. Neither particularly covered themselves in glory but Meret endured the considerably worse campaign, with only one Serie A keeper recording a lower save percentage last term.

Key Man

Upon arrival, Gattuso reinstated many of the aspects of play that defined Sarri's Napoli side which ran Juventus so close to the 2018 Serie A title. A return to the 4-3-3 formation brought club captain and childhood fan Lorenzo Insigne further forward.

Gattuso recognised that winning over his number 24 would be crucial to reinvigorating the team as a whole after Ancelotti dropped him to the bench in his final game at the helm.

Having scored the winner against Roma in July, Insigne immediately charged towards the touchline for a meaty chest bump with his new coach. After the game, Insigne heralded Gattuso's impact, detailing how he had gotten Napoli on 'the right track' and 'made me feel important'.

Prediction

The £63m arrival of former Lille striker Victor Osimhen is a proactive - if risky - attempt to address Napoli's lack of an outright goal-getter - Arkadiusz Milik was the club's top scorer in the league with 11 last season.

However, the potential loss of defensive stalwart Kalidou Koulibaly would leave a gaping hole in the club's defence, even considering the addition of Amir Rrahmani who impressed in Hellas Verona's backline last term.

If the club continue to follow the trajectory Gattuso hauled them onto, Napoli will surely improve upon seventh place but the competition is fierce and ever-expanding for those lucrative Champions League berths.

Prediction: Fifth place finish