Mazzocchi’s nightmare debut sums up Napoli’s crumbling title defense

Photography: Massimo Pinca/Reuters

Pasquale Mazzocchi spent his entire life building up to this moment. One of six children born to his parents in Barra, a suburb of Naples, could easily have taken a dangerous path. “In some neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city, when you have a hard time making ends meet [financially]with a large family, unfortunately you can do the wrong thing,” the defender told La Repubblica in 2022. “Young people tend to follow this path.”

Football offered him a different direction, a path that would take him far from home. At nine years old, he started working at a fruit stand after school to save for boots. At age 11 he joined the Benevento academic system, moved an hour’s drive from his house and saw his parents only once a month. His next club was Hellas Verona, 700 kilometers to the north.

Mazzocchi played his first senior game on loan at Bellaria Igea Marina, in Rimini, and over the next decade he would represent six more clubs, rising from the fourth division to Serie A and even a call-up to Italy in 2022. His last stop was the Closest to home, Salernitana, just 30 miles from Barra along the coast.

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Still, this still wasn’t a homecoming. Mazzocchi even became a villain in the eyes of some former neighbors when he captained Salernitana to a 1-1 draw at the Stadio Diego Maradona last April, denying Napoli the chance to win the league in front of their own fans. His social media accounts after the match were flooded with comments from people telling him: “A real Neapolitan wouldn’t have played.”

However, that performance could also help him take the final step. Mazzocchi is said to have caught the attention of Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis, who was impressed by his story and his tenacious presence on the field. There were echoes of his own club captain, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, another Italian full-back who rose from the lower leagues to Serie A and the national team.

The story continues

On Friday, Napoli announced that they had signed Mazzocchi from Salernitana on a permanent transfer. “I have finally made my dream of wearing this shirt come true,” he said at its inauguration, grabbing the club’s shield to show it off in front of the cameras. “I will see you all at the Maradona.”

Napoli’s next home game, coincidentally, will be against Salernitana. But first they made a trip to Turin. Mazzocchi was called to the bench, but was introduced at half-time when his team was losing 1-0 with a goal from Antonio Sanabria.

His debut lasted four minutes. That was how long it took him to launch into a challenge with Valentino Lázaro with his heels dangerously raised, connecting with his opponent above the knee. The referee, Maurizio Mariani, initially showed Mazzocchi a yellow card, but changed it to a red after reviewing the footage on a pitchside monitor.

For Napoli, things only got worse from there. Torino extended their lead in the 52nd minute with a good shot from Nikola Vlasic on the D’s edge. Alessandro Buongiorno completed a 3-0 rout when he headed home from a corner.

This was a historic victory for Torino, their biggest victory over Napoli since 1984. They had not even scored in their previous four home games against these opponents.

Ivan Juric has done a remarkably consistent job since becoming Torino manager in 2021, leading them to tenth consecutive finishes. They occupy that same position midway through this campaign, but it’s rare to see them rack up goals like they did on Sunday.

Internazionale 2-1 Verona, Frosinone 2-3 Monza, Lecce 1-1 Cagliari, Sassuolo 1-1 Fiorentina, Empoli 0-3 Milan, Torino 3-0 Napoli, Udinese 1-2 Lazio, Salernitana 1-2 Juventus, Roma 1 -1 Atalanta

Juric was rewarded for his decision to start with two forwards, something he resisted at the start of the campaign. Duván Zapata and Sanabria combined directly to score the first goal, and a backheel from the Colombian sent his teammate into the goal. Both could have had another at 2-0, when Sanabria hit a post and Zapata’s rebound was blocked by goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini at close range.

“We’re having fun,” Juric said full-time, “it seems like we’re a lot more dangerous than before.” But even he was quick to acknowledge that: “Today I don’t know how much [of the result] “It comes down to the things we did right and what they were doing wrong.”

Napoli is in free fall, to ninth place and already 22 points less than in the corresponding phase last year. The appointment of Walter Mazzarri to replace Rudi García in November, a familiar face intended to steady the ship and sail safely to the end of this season, has backfired horribly, causing them to sink even faster than before.

Since winning his first match, an impressive 2-1 result at Atalanta, Mazzarri has managed nine matches and lost six of them. Napoli beat a modest Braga team (despite conceding twice as many shots as they took) to qualify for the Champions League knockout stage, but that’s the only positive note. They were eliminated from the Coppa Italia with a 4-0 defeat against Frosinone.

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Surprisingly, a team that led Serie A with 77 goals last season has failed to score in four consecutive games. Their top scorer, Victor Osimhen, will be absent for several weeks at the African Cup of Nations, as will starting midfielder André-Frank Zambo Anguissa.

Napoli sporting director Mauro Meluso insisted throughout that the club still had “the utmost faith” in Mazzarri and that there had been no talks to replace him. There were conflicting reports in the Neapolitan media claiming, and then denying, that the director had attempted to resign. The presence of Antonio Conte watching in the stands served to fuel the rumors even more.

The reality is that, in any case, Napoli’s problems are much deeper than Mazzarri’s. It is De Laurentiis who must take the blame for the rapid collapse of a winning team: for undervaluing the work of both former coach Luciano Spalletti and sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli, for ruining their succession, for not adequately replacing Kim Min-jae at Central and many more errors besides.

Signing Mazzocchi so quickly in this transfer window reflects a sense of urgency to turn things around. Napoli are also reported to be close to a deal to bring in Lazar Samardzic from Udinese and have been linked with other players. It is likely that none will suffer a debut as disastrous as that of the Italian. However, it is equally difficult to see how any January signing could paper over the cracks of a failed campaign.