Serie A Preview: Juventus Host a Napoli in Crisis

This Saturday Juventus will entertain Napoli, a club that is in crisis after a great spell in their first half of the season. The home side comes into the game fresh from a defeat to Chelsea after their midweek outing despite showcasing some fine play at times.

In their last tie, Napoli came from behind to heap misery on the Bianconeri as the Azzurri turned 0-1 to a 2-1 victory at the Stadio San Paolo. This time the game will be played at the Stadio Olimpico in Turin as Serie A gives us another one of its most classic fixtures.

SSC Napoli

After a successful start to the season, Napoli has started to fall down the standings and is currently residing in 10th place. Only a few weeks ago a Champions League spot looked to be in the cards, but now even a UEFA cup place seems too far a reach.

The club is officially in crisis after collecting five defeats in their last seven outings, the walls of the former indestructible fort of Stadio San Paolo have now crumbled.

Last week, Napoli once again lost in front of the home crowd as Genoa managed to clinch a slim victory. Try as they may on the pitch, the results are simply not coming and the Naples club is having extreme difficulties in breaking into the 40s, point wise.

Whether this is a result of their lousy activities in the winter transfer market, or the reported late party nights in Naples, is still not clear.

Representatives of the Napoli Ultras sat down with the players and club directors during midweek at the Castelvolturno training ground to discuss the poor results on the pitch in order to do some soul-searching.

The players are currently placed in ritiro until the game against Juventus on Saturday night—at the demand of the Ultras.

Not only that, but the Ultras are also the ones supervising the ritiro.

Edy Reja comes without the injured Genaro Iezzo, Matteo Gianello, Luca Grava, Marcelo Zalayeta, and Walter Gargano. Daniele Mannini will sit out his year-long suspension after turning up late to a doping test.

Napoli are in dire need of points as they have crashed down to a low 10^th place after spending the first month on top of the Serie A table. Is it time for the turnaround?

Probable starting XI: Navarro; Santacroce, Cannavaro, Contini; Maggio, Blasi, Gargano, Hamsik, Datolo; Denis, Lavezzi

Juventus

After some less than convincing performances, Juventus finally managed to enhance their game in last week’s victory over Palermo. The Bianconeri squeezed two past Marco Amelia at the Stadio Barbera in Sicily, thanks to a solo effort by Momo Sissoko and a come-back goal by David Trezeguet.

Claudio Ranieri’s return to the Stamford Bridge didn’t, however, go quite as planned,as an early Didier Drogba goal sealed the scoreline to Chelsea’s favor. Despite showcasing some impressive spells during the second half, where the Juventus players were the better team, the equalizer escaped them.

Club icon Alessandro Del Piero has since then fired the Blues a warning over their intention to beat them in Turin.

Juventus still lack some players coming into the clash, but things are looking miles better than they have been these last couple of months. Only Jonathan Zebina, Dario Knezevic, Paolo De Ceglie, Cristiano Zanetti, Mauro Camoranesi, and Jorge Andrade are out for the tie against Napoli.

Although it might seem like an easy three points considering the state in which Napoli is at the moment, these clashes are never to be underestimated—especially since the Partenopei won the last time these two faced off.

Probable starting XI: Buffon; Grygera, Mellberg, Chiellini, Molinaro; Marchionni, Sissoko, Tiago, Giovinco; Trezeguet, Iaquinta