AS Roma 0 Napoli 1
Conte’s formation change seems to be working. Since Conte changed formation against Atalanta a couple of weeks ago Napoli are now 3 wins out of 3 since Conte moved to 3 at the back. Conte is the master at improvising and it seems like he’s found the setup that can get Napoli back to winning ways in the league after the disaster against Bologna a few weeks ago. The speed of Hojlund, Neres and Lang caused Roma major problems on the counter-attack all game leading to the goal in typical Antonio Conte fashion on the break in a brilliant counter with Hojlund playing the ball into Neres who finished past Svilar in the Roma goal.
Roma’s attack looked blunt all game. One thing that was a constant all game was Roma’s lack of threat on the Napoli goal, whether it was Evan Ferguson in the first half or Tommaso Baldanzi in the second, they couldn’t get the ball to stick and Napoli were comfortable for the majority of the match bar a couple of moments here and there. Roma have struggled to consistently score goals this season relying on their defence but at some point there attackers are gonna have to step up.
Roma are gonna be just off challenging for the league this year. I think this game showed us that Roma are still a ways off competing for the Serie A title this year, teams like Napoli, Milan and Inter just have more in the way of firepower and for me anyway are gonna be the teams that compete for the title this year in Italy. Gasperini has still done an excellent job so far and I would suspect that Roma will still get a Champions League spot which many wouldn’t have predicted before the season.
The title race is gonna be electric this year. If Bologna win there game tonight there will be 1 point separating 1st and 5th which is crazy considering we’re in December nearing the halfway point of the season. It seems like we have a crazy title race every year in Italy now because the league is so competitive, there never seems to be one team that’s so much better than the rest which is why there is a different title winner every season, it’s up to Napoli now to try and break that trend to retain the league this season but there’s stern competition from Inter and Milan.
There is a real lack of goals in Serie A so far this season. It’s something that I’ve noticed when watching Serie A so far this season in that attacking quality in the league may be at its lowest its ever been, a lot of games between the top sides seem to have only 1 or 2 goals and this game was no different, Roma have been the kings of 1-0 games so far this season but were on the wrong end of it today. If you score the first goal in a Serie A match the likelihood is is that you’re gonna come away with the 3 points.