What we learned from Conte’s first Serie A match in charge of Napoli | OneFootball

Antonio Conte has plenty of work to do if he is to make Napoli a competitive force this season, which became even more evident after the team’s 3-0 loss away to Hellas Verona in their first Serie A match of the 2024-25 season. Here are three talking points from Conte’s league bow with the Partenopei.

Three talking points after Conte’s first Serie A outing with Napoli

New signings, now!

Stating the obvious. Conte has said the same himself. Napoli have made just three signings so far this summer.

Alessandro Buongiorno is an excellent addition, and it was a shame he was not able to partake in Sunday’s league opener. Leonardo Spinazzola was a sensible move, and Rafa Marin is one for the future. But as it stands, that is not enough.

There have been no improvements to the midfield, despite losing Piotr Zielinski to Inter on a free transfer. Though Jens Cajuste was not a regular starter, he looks to be off as well, which means the team are down two options in the middle of the park. The club’s failure to sell Victor Osimhen is proving costly and it could become a complete disaster if they are not able to move him on. Napoli need his sale to fund their much-needed acquisitions.

Not much change so far

Tying in with the previous point, only one of Conte’s three Napoli signings featured in the 3-0 loss to Verona: Spinazzola.

In fact, there were only three personnel changes compared to the final game of last season, and two of those were players Napoli already had at their disposal. Sometimes keeping the continuity while changing coaches is a good thing, but not when the team is coming off the back of a 10th placed finish in the league, particularly when they were crowned league champions the season prior.

Of course, Conte will need time to solidify his team and implement some of his ideas, but as it stands, the team did not look too dissimilar to how they finished the 2023-24 campaign. That needs to change, quickly.

No Kvaratskhelia, no party

With Osimhen in exile, Kvaratskhelia is now the only real bright spark in the Napoli front line. He started the game brightly against Verona, was dynamic as ever coming in off the left flank and was always looking to make something happen whenever he got hold of the ball.

The Georgian tested Lorenzo Montipo well with a powerful effort just before half-time, which might have been the turning point had he not suffered a worrying blow immediately afterwards. After a seemingly inconspicuous collision with Pawel Dawidowicz, he looked mightily uncomfortable and dizzy, and had to be escorted off the pitch.

From there, Napoli’s attack lost the star quality they needed to get the first goal of the game. David Neres is reportedly just a step away from joining the team at the start of the coming week, which could eventually bring a bit more balance to Conte’s front three, but for now, losing Kvaratskhelia is a bit of an issue.

Words: Peter Young