UCLScouting report: Napoli's new cast of cult heroes

Few places do hero worship quite like Naples, but there was a point earlier this summer when Napoli fans were beginning to fear they might not have any heroes left to worship. In the space of just a couple of months the southern powerhouse of Italian football said goodbye to the stalwart who had been the centrepiece of their defence for the past eight years – Kalidou Koulibaly – and the icons ranked No.1 and No.2 on their all-time top scorer list, Dries Mertens and Lorenzo Insigne.

The trio had racked up more than 1,000 appearances and nearly 300 goals between them over the years, but moreover they represented the heart and soul of the team; Insigne was the captain and a homegrown hero who had played for the club since he was 15, while Koulibaly and Mertens had embraced the city to the extent that they had become honorary Neapolitans, so much so in Mertens’ case that the locals even rechristened him ‘Ciro’.

Influential playmaker Fabian Ruiz later followed by joining Paris Saint-Germain, seeming to herald something of a year zero for a club that has won three Coppas Italia and finished Serie A runners-up four times since returning in 2007 from six years in the lower leagues.

But any rival fans hoping for Napoli to stumble into the new season were left disappointed when Luciano Spalletti’s men flew out of the blocks with 5-2 and 4-0 victories over Verona and Monza respectively. Since then they’ve drawn 0-0 away to Fiorentina and 1-1 at home to Lecce, before a 2-1 comeback win at Lazio on Saturday that left them second in the Serie A standings.

Four of the nine goals put past Verona and Monza were scored or assisted by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, a 21-year-old winger who signed from Georgian outfit Dinamo Batumi in July and has already been given the nickname ‘Kvaradona’. Other notable arrivals include striker Giovanni Simeone – son of Atletico Madrid boss Diego – as well as centre-half Kim Min-Jae, and midfielder Tanguy Ndombele on loan from Tottenham Hotspur.

Which all means the team Jürgen Klopp and co scrutinise in their opposition analysis meeting will be almost unrecognisable from the one they faced in back-to-back Champions League group-stage campaigns during Carlo Ancelotti’s reign in Naples. The Reds lost 1-0 and 2-0 at Stadio San Paolo [renamed in Maradona’s honour after his passing in 2020] in October 2018 and September 2019 respectively, yet went on to finish above Napoli on both occasions, directly eliminating them in 2018 when Mohamed Salah scored in a decisive 1-0 victory at Anfield.

Despite Kvara-mania, Spalletti has chosen to bed most of his new arrivals in slowly, instead foregrounding players who were on the fringes last term, such as deep-lying midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, who had the highest pass completion rate in Serie A last season and has been playing ‘like [Andres] Iniesta’ this season according to his coach. Up front the biggest threat remains Nigerian forward Victor Osimhen, who started last season in blistering form until suffering the fractured cheekbone that played a big part in knocking Napoli’s title challenge off the rails.

For more detail on what the Reds can expect tonight, Liverpoolfc.com spoke to lifelong Napoli fanatic Michele Borrelli, who runs the football tourism service Get Napoli Tickets and also contributes to Far From Vesuvius, an English-language podcast chronicling the team’s fortunes and the wider experience of living in Naples.

Despite losing important players during the summer Napoli have made an impressive start to the season. How much enthusiasm has that, combined with the recent high-profile transfer activity, created for the season ahead?

Losing Koulibaly, Mertens and Insigne – three club legends – in the same transfer window has definitely not been easy for us, given how rare these outgoing transfers are for Napoli and, especially in the case of Koulibaly and Insigne, how unexpected. Fortunately, the club has been able to substitute those players with young prospects with great potential, and Napoli fans are very easily excitable! So, after an initial depression due to the outgoing transfers and the uncertainty they brought, excitement and hope is back in the city, with players like [Giacomo] Raspadori, Kim and Kvaratskhelia having already proven to be reliable professionals who can adequately substitute the departing players.

Is Kvaratskhelia worthy of the hype, from what you’ve seen so far?

Kvaratskhelia has come to Napoli with enormous shoes to fill: he plays on the left wing, so has been nominated as Insigne’s heir. It certainly is not easy to live up to a player who scored 122 goals with Napoli in all competitions, making him the second-top scorer of all time. However, we Napoli fans fall in love easily, and that is certainly happening with Kvaratskhelia. His dribbles and great technique have certainly excited the fanbase, which traditionally loves these ‘Maradona-esque’ eccentric players. It’s still early to tell whether he’ll actually deliver on the big potential he’s shown so far, but Napoli fans are already in love, and we can’t wait to see what he’s capable of. If only his surname was easier to shout at the stadium after his goals!

Napoli have a mixed record in the Champions League group stage over the years, qualifying for the last 16 three times and failing to qualify three times. What are the expectations for this particular campaign and is there a renewed sense of excitement after two seasons away from the competition?

Napoli have never been able to reach the last eight in the Champions League, that’s true, however we’ve often been knocked out by soon-to-be Champions League winners [Chelsea, Real Madrid], and the last time [2020] by a big team like Barcelona. So we’ve experienced some spectacular bad luck with draws so far – who can forget the infamous group of death with Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund, which saw us getting knocked out in third place with 12 points, a new record! It’s hard to have high expectations for this campaign, after missing qualification to the competition for two seasons and especially after selling so many big players, but Napoli fans are excited to finally be back, and the whole city is very much looking forward to this group stage. We have a special relationship with this competition and all of us can’t wait to finally experience that Champions League atmosphere we adore.

Napoli have a good record at home to Premier League opposition in recent years, beating Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal among others. Why do you think that is?

English teams mean big games, and the atmosphere is always electric for these events. I should know, I was there at the stadium for many of those. When the crowd is so excited, players can feel it, and defeat is no longer an option. I don’t think it has anything to do with the style of play of the Premier League sides, though, especially considering how the opposite is also true: we’ve never won a Champions League game in England!