Napoli Are Back in Form but Are Rafael Benitez's Team Genuine Title Contenders?

Napoli’s resurgence began with a breakfast bar. Well, that is one theory, anyway. In a post on his personal website before the international break, Rafa Benitez noted how starting the day together was helping to strengthen the bonds within his squad:

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Playing two games every three days, seeing the players having breakfast together in the new multifunctional room before the training session, it all helps to cohesion of the team. Little things that help.

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He could be on to something. Footballers, just like people in almost any other profession, tend to produce their best work when they are enjoying themselves. As Roberto Mancini put it during his Inter unveiling at the weekend, everything just seems easier with a smile on your face (quotes in Italian, via Panorama.it). And it is always easier to keep grinning when you have good friends alongside you.

Equally, though, footballing success is not built on happiness alone. If Napoli have manoeuvred themselves from 10th in the Serie A table up to third in the space of seven games, it is also because this squad is blessed with far more talent than it was showing in the early part of the campaign. The likes of Gonzalo Higuain, Jose Callejon and Marek Hamsik were never meant to scrap in mid-table.

What Napoli’s supporters want to know now is whether it is reasonable to set their sights even higher. A place among the top three has always been the minimum target. But could the Partenopei go one better and force their way into a title race in which Juventus and Roma had appeared to be the only real runners?

Recent form gives grounds for encouragement. Napoli are the only Serie A team not to have lost a league game in the last two months. Their most recent pair of fixtures yielded a victory over Roma and another away to last season’s fourth-placed finishers, Fiorentina. 

Callejon’s performances have been a revelation, the forward scoring eight times in 11 appearances and earning himself a richly-deserved first call up to the Spanish national team. But Higuain’s recent return to form is perhaps an even more significant development.

The Argentina striker seemed to lose focus after a Champions League playoff defeat to Athletic Bilbao, failing to score in any of his team’s first seven Serie A games. After losing a World Cup final barely six weeks earlier, his despondency was easy enough to understand. But for Napoli, it was also a very large problem. Not even a player as gifted as Callejon could carry the goalscoring burden on his own.

A lack of ruthlessness during Higuain’s dry run had a clear impact on Napoli's results. Against Chievo, they took an incredible 33 shots, according to WhoScored.com, but they failed to score and consequently lost 1-0. Their opponents' goalkeeper, Francesco Bardi, deserved plenty of credit, having made a jaw-dropping penalty stop to deny Higuain but a more confident attack would have made so many chances tell in the end.

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In contrast, Napoli have scored 10 times in four league games since Higuain broke his duck. Six of those goals have come from the Argentinian himself. Only once have his team failed to win in this period, drawing 1-1 away to Atalanta after Higuain saw another spot-kick saved.

Almost as encouraging as the revival up front has been Napoli’s drastically improved performances at the back. The club shipped 39 goals last season—roughly 50 percent more than either Roma or Juventus—and had been criticised by their own fans for not doing more to upgrade the defence during the summer transfer window.

But Kalidou Koulibaly, a 23-year-old French centre-back acquired from Genk for €7m, per transfermarkt.it (in Italian), has emerged over the last month-and-a-half as a commanding presence at the back—dominant in the air at 6'5" but also deceptively quick and more comfortable than you might expect when the ball is on the floor.

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Koulibaly’s 3.5 tackles per game are the eighth-most of any player in Serie A, according to WhoScored, while his 2.5 interceptions per game are also the most among Napoli players. His efforts have played a major role in helping the team to three consecutive clean sheets in all competitions, something they had never before achieved under Benitez.

If these recent improvements at both ends of the pitch can be maintained, then Napoli could indeed have a say in the title race yet. Their poor start has cost them, and a seven-point gap to leaders Juventus looks daunting in light of the champions’ 102-point haul last year. But it is unrealistic to expect the Old Lady could maintain such a record-setting pace for two full campaigns in a row. 

The big question for Napoli is the same one that seems to follow all of Benitez’s teams: Are they capable of winning consistently? Last season Napoli beat Juventus, Roma (twice), Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal and Marseille in one-off games. They also dropped points against seven of Serie A’s bottom eight teams.

These are the kinds of slips that Juventus and Roma simply do not make. Napoli have shown over the last few weeks they have the quality to challenge for the title and winning it this season is not beyond them yet. But the only way to demonstrate they are truly capable of being a contender would be to keep on gaining positive results over an extended period of time, against the bad teams, as well as the good ones. 

Rendering the picture more complicated for Napoli are injuries to Lorenzo Insigne and Dries Mertens—leaving a hole on the left side of attack. Benitez's success in both covering for their absences and perhaps reinforcing the team in the January transfer window will go a long way to determining how this team fares going forward. 

But most of all what Napoli need to do is pace themselves. League seasons are the footballing equivalent of a marathon and so far this team has proven only that it knows how to sprint.