Mazzocchi’s nightmare debut sums up Napoli’s crumbling title defence
Pasquale Mazzocchi spent a lifetime building up to this moment. One of six kids born to his parents in Barra, a suburb of Naples, he could easily have gone down a dangerous path. “In some neighbourhoods on the edge of the city, when you struggle to make it to the end of the month [financially], with a big family, unfortunately you might do the wrong thing,” the defender told La Repubblica in 2022. “Young people tend to go this way.”
Football offered him a different direction, a road that would take him far from home. By nine years old, he had started working for a fruit stand after school to save up for boots. At 11, he joined Benevento’s academy system, moving an hour’s drive from home and seeing his parents just once a month. His next club was Hellas Verona, 440 miles away to the north.
Mazzocchi played his first senior game on loan at Bellaria Igea Marina, in Rimini, and over the next decade would represent six more clubs, climbing from the fourth tier up to Serie A and even an Italy call-up in 2022. His last stop was the closest to home by far, Salernitana, just 30 miles down the coast
from Barra.
Still, this was not yet a homecoming. Mazzocchi even became a villain in the eyes of some former neighbours 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 game were flooded with comments from people telling him: “A true Neapolitan wouldn’t have played.”
That performance, however, might also helped him to make the final step. Mazzocchi was said to have caught the eye of Napoli’s owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, who was struck by his story as well as his tenacious presence on the pitch. There were echoes of his own club’s captain, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, another Italian full-back who rose from the lower leagues to Serie A and the national team.
On Friday, Napoli announced that they had signed Mazzocchi from Salernitana on a permanent transfer. “Finally, I’ve realised my dream of wearing this shirt,” he said at his unveiling, grabbing the club badge to show off for the cameras. “I’ll see you all at the Maradona.”
Napoli’s next home game, by chance, is against Salernitana. But first, they had an away trip to Torino. Mazzocchi was named on the bench but introduced at half-time with his team trailing 1-0 to a goal from Antonio Sanabria.
His debut lasted four minutes. That was how long it took him to slide into a challenge with Valentino Lazaro with studs raised dangerously high – connecting with his opponent above the knee. The referee, Maurizio Mariani, initially showed Mazzocchi a yellow card, but changed that 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 well-taken strike from Nikola Vlasic on the edge of the D. Alessandro Buongiorno completed a 3-0 rout when he headed home from a corner.
This was a landmark win for Torino, their biggest win 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 manager of Torino in 2021, steering them to consecutive 10th-place finishes. They occupy that same position at the midway point of this campaign, but it is rare to see them piling up the goals like they did on Sunday.
Juric was rewarded for his decision to start with two strikers – something he resisted earlier in the campaign. Duván Zapata and Sanabria combined directly for the opener, the Colombian’s heel flick sending his partner through on goal. They each could have had another at 2-0, when Sanabria hit a post and Zapata’s rebound was blocked by the goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini at close range.
“We’re having fun,” said Juric at full time, “It feels like we’re much more dangerous than we were before.” But even he was quick to acknowledge that: “Today I don’t know how much [of the result] comes down to things we did well and how much was them doing badly.”
Napoli are in freefall, down to ninth and already 22 points worse off than they were at the corresponding stage last year. The appointment of Walter Mazzarri to replace Rudi Garcia in November – a familiar face intended to steady the ship and navigate them safely to the end of this season – has backfired horribly, instead causing them to sink even faster than before.
Since winning his first game, an impressive 2-1 result away at Atalanta, Mazzarri has taken charge of nine matches and lost six of them. Napoli beat a modest Braga team – despite giving up twice as many shots as they took – to qualify for the Champions League knockout phase but that is about the only positive note. They were dumped out of the Coppa Italia with a 4-0 defeat to Frosinone.
Astonishingly, a team that led Serie A with 77 goals last season has now failed to find the net in four consecutive matches. Their leading scorer, Victor Osimhen, will be away now for several weeks at the Africa Cup of Nations, as will starting midfielder AndréFrank Zambo Anguissa.
Napoli’s sporting director, Mauro Meluso, insisted at full time that the club still had “maximum faith” in Mazzarri and that there had been no discussions about replacing him. There were conflicting reports in Neapolitan media claiming, and then denying, that the manager had tried to resign. The presence of Antonio Conte watching in the stands served further grist to the rumour mill.
The reality is that Napoli’s troubles run much deeper than Mazzarri in any case. It is De Laurentiis who must carry the can for the rapid unravelling of a winning side – for undervaluing the work of both the former manager Luciano Spalletti and sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli, for bungling their succession, for failing to adequately replace Kim Min-jae at centre-back and so many more mistakes besides.
To sign Mazzocchi so swiftly in this transfer window reflects a sense of urgency to turn things around. Napoli are also reported to be close to a deal to add Lazar Samardzic from Udinese and have been linked with other players besides. None are likely to endure as disastrous a debut as the Italian did. Equally, though, it is hard to imagine how any January signing could paper over the cracks of a failing campaign.