Lazio vs. Napoli: 5 Things We Learned About the Race for Third Place

People always speak of the decline of Serie A, but those who watch it regularly and get to witness games like these know that those people don't know what they're talking about.

The quality at the top may have dropped off a bit from the days when Italy and Juventus ruled world football, but the league is super-competitive from top to bottom.

Just look at the race for third place. Juventus and AC Milan may have locked up first and second place, but Lazio, Udinese and Napoli all still have a shot at taking the final spot in next year's Champions League.

This Saturday, Napoli faced off against Lazio in an excellent exhibition of the quality of Italian football. Both teams needed a win to continue their charge to third place, but in the end, Lazio emerged victorious, while Napoli emerged empty-handed.

In truth, the scoreline was rather harsh on Napoli; they dominated possession, 58 percent to 42 percent, but ended up conceding three goals and scoring only one.

Why did this happen, and what does it mean for each team? Read ahead to find out.

Walter Mazzari's Tactics Were Poor for Napoli

For the first time this season, Napoli shifted from their customary 3-2-4-1 to play a 4-3-2-1 "Christmas tree" formation, the formation made famous by Carlo Ancelotti at AC Milan.

It's not a bad formation and certainly has proven effective with many teams. But as with any formation, it needs the right players, and Napoli, quite simply, did not have the right players.

Mazzari elected to start Hugo Campagnero, Napoli's best center-back, as a right-back, while the aging Aronica was asked to play as a left-back. Marek Hamsik was played in a very unfamiliar left holding midfielder role for Napoli, far away from the team's focal point, Edinson Cavani.

The result? Napoli's defenders, unused to playing in four-defender formation, were torn apart by Lazio's attackers and allowed Lazio to take 15 shots to Napoli's four.

In particular, Paolo Cannavaro and Miguel Britos looked fragile in the center of defense, with the latter poorly conceding the penalty that put the game out of reach for Napoli.

On offense, despite their dominance over possession, Napoli hardly fed Cavani enough for him to take over the game as he customarily does.

Hamsik had by far the most touches in the game with 102, but he was forced to either make short passes or put in long balls for Cavani to chase.

The reasoning for Mazzari's change was obvious. With Camilo Zuniga suspended and Christian Maggio injured, Napoli were missing their two best wing-backs.

Nevertheless, Mazzari should've taken the risk of playing two of his less favored players as wing-backs for this game rather than changing his tactics drastically for a game of this magnitude.

The change destabilized the balance of his team and cost Napoli the game.

Antonio Candreva Is Back

Antonio Candreva's goal was fortuitous for Lazio; there's no denying that. Most Serie A goalkeepers would get down quick enough to prevent a shot like Candreva's from passing under them.

But that shouldn't take away from a top-quality performance from Candreva, the Italian youngster who many had once projected to be Italy's next big superstar.

Once upon a time, when Candreva was still just 23 years old and in his first spell with Juventus, Candreva was earmarked to be the next Del Piero or Francesco Totti of the Italian national team—that dynamic player that brought creativity to an otherwise rigid and physical team.

But, as with Giovinco and several other players before him, Candreva made a couple of appearances for the Italian national team, had his time in the sun and then faded into obscurity with loan spells at Parma and Cesena.

However, luckily for Candreva, his loan spell with Lazio has given him a second chance to prove his quality and worth as a player. And this time, it seems he's grabbing it with both hands.

Against Napoli, Candreva led all players in the game with four shots, two on target, and completed a whopping six successful dribbles. To give you an idea of how good that is, the next closest player was Marek Hamsik, with two.

Candreva also led the game in crosses with nine, five of which found a target in the box. Compare that to Ezequiel Lavezzi, who put the second-most crosses into the box with six, finding a target just once.

In short, Candreva was all over the place, running the show as a right midfielder for Lazio in a 4-2-3-1. If he can build on breakthrough performances like these, he may one day live up to the hype so many people granted him when he first burst onto the scene with Livorno.

Napoli Seriously Lack Depth

When Napoli's first-choice players are available, they are a team to fear.

Their attacking triumvirate is terrifying enough, but Gokhan Inler and Walter Gargano bring in the steel in midfield, while Zuniga and Maggio provide Napoli's offense with top-notch service and width.

And even though Aronica is past it, his inadequacies are covered by the quality of Paolo Cannavaro and Hugo Campagnaro.

This is a team that has dispatched the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea and both Milan sides this season.

But when injuries begin to pile up, Napoli's weaknesses begin to show. This is because Napoli are a side with no depth.

On defense, Miguel Britos has shown himself to be a second-class defender, while Federico Fernandez and Ignacio Fideleff are still unproven and inexperienced.

On offense, there is also a lack of depth. Andrea Dossena is (rightly) not trusted by Mazzari to play in his team's biggest games, and beyond him, there are no recognizable wing-backs in the squad to back up Zuniga and Maggio.

Up front is probably the only position where Napoli have adequate depth, but it's not enough. This summer, if Napoli can hold onto at least two of their three biggest players, their focus must be on quality, not quantity.

Napoli's squad is bigger than many of the world's best teams presently, but only a few get regular playing time and are trusted by their manager.

This summer, with a couple good signings, Mazzari needs to begin ushering in players he can trust and selling or discarding the ones he can't, like Aronica, Britos, Grava and others.

Lazio Are Impressively Deep

On the other hand, Lazio's depth is quite impressive.

Sure, the team has its key players like any other team in the world, but it's also able to compensate for their absence.

Consider Tommaso Rocchi's performance for Lazio. Despite his limited playing time for Lazio this season and his advanced age (34), Rocchi was an excellent lone striker, setting up two goals in the absence of Miroslav Klose, the team's first-choice striker and top goalscorer.

Or consider Alvaro Gonzalez's performance in place of Hernanes. Arguably Lazio's best player, Hernanes had a poor game vs Napoli, yet Gonzalez's performance, alongside his teammates, ensured that Lazio hardly missed a beat.

With Gonzalez, Lazio were able to take the lead and seal the game in Hernanes' absence.

The list of examples goes on. Look at Modibo Diakite, who completely silenced Cavani despite being Lazio's third or fourth center-back.

Depth gets the job done in world football, especially in league matches. Both sides came in with injury problems, but Lazio's players coped considerably better than Napoli's.

Lazio Are Favorites for Third

Before you call me out for being "Captain Obvious" on this one, think about it.

Under a month ago, everyone thought Napoli would grab third place. Lazio were struggling, Napoli had won five straight games and Udinese were in indifferent form.

Even going into this game, Napoli were the team in better form. They'd suffered a tough loss to league leaders Juventus but had been undefeated in nine games prior.

Lazio, on the other hand, had lost three of their last four games.

But now, Lazio have a six-point lead on Napoli in the race for third place. Udinese are only three points behind but have a rough end-of-the-season schedule.

With seven games to go in the season, I really don't expect any of these three teams to make a strong finish to the season and break away from the other two. They've all been inconsistent all season long; it's why they find themselves in this scenario in the first place.

What it will probably come down to is which team can win the games it's supposed to win. With that in mind, I believe Lazio will capitalize on the six-point lead it possesses over Napoli and the easier schedule it has as compared with Udinese.

These advantages will allow Lazio to return to the Champions League next season.