Sempre Season Preview! – Napoli Breakout Players

To follow up James and his work on Arek Milik, the rest of the Sempre! podcast team has assembled their list of breakout players for this season: Raffa Rispo – Piotr Zielinski   Last season, Piotr Zielinski played in 36 of 38 Serie A matches, starting 14 of them and coming off the bench 22…

Sempre! Tactical Analysis – Sarri v Ancelotti

“You can’t control the talent. You can only provide the right information for them to achieve what they want to achieve; then it is up to them” Carlo Ancelotti writing in ‘Quiet Leadership’ The pre-season friendly against Dortmund was the best I have seen Napoli play since Sarri’s version of gli azzurri ran out of…

Summer of Sempre! Episode 5 – I’ll Take a Cavani … Shaken, Not Stirred

On this weeks show James, Raffa, and Frank chew over a weeks worth of Napoli news including ADL’s purchase of Bari, the state of the San Paolo with the new season just two weeks away, the possibility of Dries Mertens departing, Andrea Belotti’s rumoured arrived (or is he just a decoy?). Oh, and we dissect…

Sempre! Analysis: Ancelotti and Tactical Options at Napoli

I really enjoyed the twitter response to the last thing I wrote for this site: an article exploring the different formations Mister Ancelotti might employ over the season. Since then, Massimo has put this fantastic piece together about Hamsik’s role, too. Both of these pieces of writing suggest that Napoli next season is going to…

Carlo Ancelotti – A Tactical look at Napoli Through Ancelotti’s European Titles

So ragazzi, with all the madness of the World Cup, and the fever of the Fake News Cavani rumours, it can be easy to forget that Carlo Ancelotti is our manager. Myself and some of my Sempre brethren have spent quite a few hours stumbling down tactical rabbit holes working out how he might set…

Sempre! A Napoli Fan’s Ideal World Cup™

A Napoli Fan’s Ideal World Cup™ So Napoli fans, it’s the summer and there’s a World Cup on. We have a grand tradition of players starring at the tournament, remember this anyone? Edinson Cavani also celebrated his 2010 semi-final run with Uruguay by signing for us. What to do? Well, like all self-respecting Calcio fans…

Sempre! – Napoli Season Grades – Frank Sidekick

With all the excitement of Maurizio Sarri’s exit and the welcoming of Carlo Ancelotti to Napoli it is quite easy to forget that we have just finished, points wise, the best season in our history. I’ve put together a YouTube playlist of all the individual highlights of the 38 games here if you’d like to…

Reasons To Be Cheerful.

OK Partenopei, let’s not pretend: This is a depressing moment to be a Napoli fan. As gli ragazzi on Sempre! pod spent a good hour ranting about we have gone from a potential 7 point gap at the top to Juve being on course for another bloody Scudetto. In order to help vanquish the demons…

Napoli Team Appearances: An analytical breakdown

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; Henry V. IV.iii.60-62 Henry V’s address to his troops in France is one of Shakespeare’s most quoted passages and the most recent Sempre! pod brought this quote to mind in relation to Sarri’s…

Tactical Analysis: Dries Versus The World

The 3-1 victory against Bologna was a sign that Dries Mertens the goal scorer was back and his performance against Benvento further reminded the football watching public that he is capable of world class finishes (and celebrations). I’ve written about how important I think Mertens is to Sarri’s side for Sempre! before and another of…