Goals and Highlights: Napoli 5-1 Juventus in Serie A 2023

Loser: Paul Pogba

 

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It’s clear that something is wrong with Paul Pogba.

Expected to take on a leadership role after the departure of Andrea Pirlo and his receipt of the No. 10 shirt, Pogba has looked shaky all season long. Saturday was probably his worst performance of the year.

The young Frenchman constantly lost possession, and his usual ability to dance around a challenger deserted him. Even worse was his play in the attacking third, where he was constantly making the wrong play. He passed when he should have shot, he shot when he could have passed, and late in the game he barged around Alvaro Morata to get his head to a cross when his teammate was in a much better and more natural position to take the shot.

It’s obvious that in the absence of experienced hands such as Claudio Marchisio and Sami Khedira, Pogba is putting far too much pressure on himself. It will be interesting to see how his game will change when those two return, which won’t be long coming. Massimiliano Allegri expects to have a full squad to choose from after the international break, which will relieve a lot of the pressure on his 22-year-old star.

Until then, though, Pogba will need to start trusting his teammates and settling himself down to avoid more performances like this one.

Winner: Lorenzo Insigne

 

This could be tamped down a little bit depending on the severity of the injury that forced him off the field, but Lorenzo Insigne looked every bit the player that Napoli was hoping he would be for the first 39 minutes of the game.

He was constantly a menace on the left, and the one-two he played with Higuain to score the opener was a thing of beauty.

It’s a huge turnaround for the 24-year-old, who just over a year ago was booed off the field during the first leg of the Champions League playoff against Athletic Bilbao.

Insigne’s actions tend to be magnified in the eyes of fans because he’s the only native Neapolitan in the squad and in the conversation for the national team. His rocky relationship with Rafael Benitez certainly didn’t help matters over the last few years.

But now the young winger is finally in full flight, and fans of the Azzurri should hope that the injury is not serious enough to keep him out of Antonio Conte’s team two weeks from now. With the last stage of Euro 2016 qualifying coming up, he is exactly the kind of player Italy needs to breathe life into a flagging attack.

Loser: Hernanes

 

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Hernanes wasn’t all that bad a signing considering how last-minute it was.

In order to prove that, though, he’s going to have to do better than this.

The Brazilian was clearly uncomfortable in Andrea Pirlo’s old regista role. He constantly made mistakes with his distribution and committed a ton of fouls in midfield. Yes, he was signed to play higher up the pitch, but he’s adaptable enough that this shouldn’t be an issue for him.

It was his unfathomably lazy pass that let Higuain in to score what proved to be the winner. With Khedira and Marchisio approaching returns from injury, Hernanes looks like he’s going to have a real fight for playing time, especially if this is what the end product is going to be.

Winner: Roberto Pereyra

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Not many Juve players looked good Saturday, but Roberto Pereyra was one of them.

Following a good performance in midweek against Frosinone, Pereyra was again incisive, driving the ball into the attacking third and proving to be the only Juve player on the field capable of taking on a man and winning.

WhoScored.com clocked him with one key pass, six dribbles, one of three crosses completed and 90 percent passing accuracy.

So much talk this summer revolved around buying a trequartista for Allegri’s 4-3-1-2 system, but the man for the job may have been on the roster all along. Pereyra is certainly proving himself worthy, and if he continues to play at a high level like this, he should be a lock for the job behind the strikers.

Loser: Massimiliano Allegri

 

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It’s time to start asking Allegri some serious questions.

While he certainly has some alibi for the season’s tough start due to injuries and the massive team shakeup, he’s now had close to three months with this team, including the beginning of training camp, and there is absolutely no chemistry forming anywhere.

He has been missing key pieces, particularly Marchisio, who in the absence of Pirlo is probably more important to this team than anyone gives him credit for.

But in his absence Allegri has constantly shuffled the midfield about, not giving any one combination the time to start getting a feel for one another and develop the kind of relationship that made the vaunted “MVP” midfield of Marchisio, Arturo Vidal and Pirlo—plus Pogba a year later—the most dangerous unit of its kind in Europe.

His in-game decisions have been no better either. His decision to insert Alvaro Morata into the game was a no-brainer, but his choice to replace Paulo Dybala rather than Simone Zaza when the former was having the better game left some people scratching their heads. Even Dybala looked perplexed when his number came up on the board.

Of course, there’s no shame in losing at the San Paolo, and full judgment should be reserved for when he has his full roster playing for him. But right now Allegri seems unable to instill the kind of killer attitude—the grinta—that Antonio Conte did four years ago when he was presented with a team that was far worse off than the one Allegri had coming into the season.

Once his team is at full strength, Allegri needs to show he too can inspire that kind of play—or else his tenure will be a lot shorter than people thought at the end of last season.