Match Analyst Pengue: "With De Bruyne, Others Improve Too! Vergara? Let's Not Be Tied to Roles"

Sasà Pengue, a match analyst, spoke on Radio Tutto Napoli, the leading thematic radio station for Napoli, available all day on their website, smartphone app, smart TV, and Dab Campania. He stated, "De Bruyne is a player who finds himself very comfortable in those zones; he receives the ball and then moves it into his comfort areas. He has changed the tempo of Napoli's circulation. In the first half, we saw an Allegri team that allowed the opponent to build play and maintained a very balanced position when out of possession. Against Genoa, it worked, but conceding 35-40 minutes in this manner against more skilled teams can become risky. De Bruyne, on the other hand, sees things that others don't and has created a very interesting attacking chain with Vergara, McTominay, and Lobotka. The latter has been able to play much further forward, and all of this is possible when you bring tempo to the ball."

What does Napoli need to improve in build-up from the back?
"As of today, there's a problem, at least based on what was seen against Genoa. If you build with six or seven players but lack pre-established dynamics, you risk finding yourselves in difficulty. Politano, due to his characteristics, also tends to overload that area, thus facilitating the opponent's pressing. If you can escape, you can exploit transitions and counter-attacks very well, but you must do it in an organized manner. In the first half, this wasn't seen much. Often, the play ended up trying to find Hojlund with a difficult ball to manage, and the player left the game with negative assessments, even though, in my opinion, it wasn't his fault: he simply wasn't supplied correctly."

Can Vergara perform better as a withdrawn striker, a mezzala, or a winger?
"For me, he played very well starting from the outside, but we need to detach ourselves from initial positioning. Roles are now situational. Vergara went to occupy the necessary spaces, and his interpretation was important. With Di Lorenzo providing width, he could cut inside and create numerical superiority centrally. When you play with a high defensive line and bring five or six men into the final third of the pitch, rigidly talking about a withdrawn striker, mezzala, or winger loses its meaning. In De Bruyne's goal, for example, Vergara occupies the half-space and provides the assist. We need to look at the relationships between the players rather than their individual positions."