How Napoli are coping just fine without hitman Higuain

It was a Freudian slip. Nothing more. But an amusing one nonetheless. Every time Gianluca Vialli discussed Maurizio Sarri on Sky Italia at the weekend, he accidentally called him Maurizio Sacchi. His colleague, the commentator, Fabio Caressa did the same. Napoli had impressed again on Saturday night with another ode to the beautiful game. A 3-1 win against Bologna convinced Beppe Bergomi, Sky’s co-commentator, that they can match Juventus step-for-step this season and maybe even end a 27-year wait for the Scudetto.

Sarri, however, was quick to rubbish the idea. “Beppe knows very well that this isn’t true,” he said. “The financial differences are so vast at the moment that unless Juventus colossally screw things up, they will have the sort of season PSG have in France and Bayern have in Germany. That’s the truth unfortunately.” It wasn’t resignation on Sarri’s part. Just cold hard realism. Top of the table at the time, Sarri did not expect it to last into this week. Then Inter stunned Juventus in the Derby d’Italia and for a brief, fleeting moment in Serie A there is hope that the title race will not be a black and white monologue.

Back in pole position for the first time since the champions beat them in Turin in February, it must bring a small measure of satisfaction to Napoli. Left out of the starting line up and only thrown on in the 74th minute at San Siro, Juventus couldn’t win without Gonzalo Higuain. Napoli, meanwhile, have proven they can and the irony is as sticky sweet as one of those rum babas you can find in the city’s pastry shops. The bitter disappointment felt at Higuain’s decision to betray Napoli and join their biggest rivals threatened to cast a black cloud over their season and depress everybody connected with the club. It sent a message that Higuain didn’t believe he could win with them.

How would Sarri and his players respond? There was a fear that Napoli might be psychologically traumatised by the whole affair and need time to get over it. The decision to lift a press blackout Napoli called in the spring after Mediaset broke the story that Higuain was thinking about leaving came on the condition that all press conferences would now be by invitation only. The club seemed paranoid and raging against the outside world.

Sarri, in particular, appeared visibly angry on the eve of the season. Higuain didn’t even have the courtesy to call him before going through with the move. “Hearing people from Juventus talk about him while he was still our player really got my balls in a twist,” he said. He also bristled when he heard Medhi Benatia, another of Juventus’ new signings, failed to mention Napoli as a title contender and John Elkann, the head of EXOR, the company that controls the Bianconeri, claimed the Partenopei are now much weaker without Higuain.

“We have lost a 36-goal top scorer, not just any player,” Sarri conceded. The pursuit of Mauro Icardi and Nikola Kalinic, even after Arkadiusz Milik had been added to Manolo Gabbiadini in attack, suggested the club still felt they were either short in this position - Milik is only 22 - or that they could possibly improve on Higuain’s Italian stand-in. The notion that Sarri was now Napoli’s star was predictably given short-shrift by the man himself.  “That seems a load of rubbish to me,” Sarri huffed. “It’s always been the players who make the difference. A coach can get you a point more or a point less here or there. For miracles, there’s Padre Pio.”

It was modest of Sarri because a lot of Napoli’s renaissance is down to him. Higuain had never scored more than 18 league goals in Italy before Sarri came along. Last season, he hit double that figure. We should remember Napoli were the most improved team in Serie A in 2015-16. They bettered themselves by 19 points and established a new club record points total [82], going unbeaten at home where, incidentally the only member of the top six to escape with a point were Roma. They progressed in almost every metric. For instance, while so much focus was on Higuain and the attack, the defence conceded 22 fewer goals and kept 15 clean sheets.

To me, the way Sarri had got Napoli playing was more important than Higuain for the simple reason that a lot of his goals were a consequence of it. Napoli ranked 5th in possession in Europe’s top five leagues [59.3%], 3rd in passes per game [684] and 5th in pass completion [85.8%]. They imposed themselves on their opponents and were able to create more chances than any other team in Serie A [508]. With numbers like those, it would frankly have been a surprise if one of their players didn’t score into the high 20s. Napoli were 1st in Serie A for shots [656], shots on target [243] and second for shots from outside the box [291]. As long as their style of play remained intact my feeling was they would still be a force even without Higuain. Sarri touched upon this before the start of the season.

“To replace Higuain we’re going to put faith in our style… Mertens can score more. Callejon and Hamsik too. Gabbiadini has always had a good goalscoring record whenever he has played regularly. At Ajax, Milik did better than many of his predecessors [getting more goals than Ibra and Luis Suarez] in that shirt.” Lo and behold Napoli have scored 12 goals in their opening four league games this season. It is their most prolific start to a campaign since 1957. Last year braces seemed like a very Higuain thing. Remarkably enough he struck nine of them. Now it’s clear they are just as much of a Napoli thing. Milik has got three already. Callejon has two and as for Mertens, he just so happened to kick the season off with a doppietta as well.

Milik in particular has exceeded everybody’s expectations. When Napoli sold Edi Cavani three years ago and signed Higuain as his replacement, there was little doubt that they had got their hands on as good a striker if not a better one. This time around, however, no one adjudged Milik an upgrade - Napoli would have had to sign a Suarez, a Lewandowski or an Aguero - and Sarri insists we must still be cautious. But it’s hard not to be impressed by the Pole. He has scored six goals in five appearances thus far and is currently averaging a goal every 50 minutes. Callejon in the meantime is already up to five for the season in the league. You may recall we had to wait until February for that to happen last term. Some are now even tipping him as an outside bet to become Capocannoniere.

Much like Jurgen Klopp has done at Liverpool, Sarri has asked his wide players to play narrower this season. It means they are now closer to goal and the effects of the tweak have been devastating. The adjustments he is making and the greater flexibility and variation of the team offer genuine cause for optimism.

‘Only’ €32m of the €90m Napoli received for Higuain was invested in his replacement. The rest was spent on adding depth. Napoli now have quantity and quality in equal measure. As owner Aurelio de Laurentiis put it, Sarri does not have an A and a B team but an A1 and an A2 team. Piotr Zielinski has already made a big impression and the likes of Nikola Maksimovic, Lorenzo Tonelli, Emanuele Giaccherini, and the very talented Amadou Diawara and Marko Rog all ensure Napoli are better equipped than ever to challenge on three fronts. Do they miss Higuain? Well, for what it’s worth De Laurentiis doesn’t. “After 30 seconds I forgot about him.”

Can Napoli maintain a serious challenge to Juventus, even now the Old Lady have Higuain? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below