July 19, (THEWILL) – There is still just over a month to go before the Serie A season will commence for the 2021/2022 campaign and it will please Napoli’s new manager, Luciano Spalletti, that his side is hungry for goals and feel no qualms piling on the scores after Victor Osimhen and co put 12 goals past Bassa Anaunia in their first pre-season match.
It was also a sensational goal-scoring display for the Nigerian international, as he accounted for one-third of all goals scored, with the four goals he scored in the space of only the 45 minutes that he was on the pitch.
THEWILL had hoped that Osimhen was going to prove his mettle with a ton of goals to stay in the reckoning of Spalletti, with the exit of Gennaro Gattuso, who brought him from Lille at a hefty €70 million and supported him in the early stuttering periods until he began firing on all cylinders at the end of last season.
By leading the goal-scoring without playing full time, the 22-year-old did just that to brilliantly begin for his good in the coming season. The assessment of the manager, who thinks well of Osimhen, will be favourably open to making sure to consider the Super Eagles forward for first team draft as he continues in this vein and remains prolific in crafting out and executing scoring chances as they come.
Osimhen has shown the knack for scoring goals and his talent is not in doubt. The aspect of his play that requires improvement is a clinical dispatch of a much higher percentage of the chances that open up to him. A 45% conversion rate from last season is a little under average and at the level that Napoli is aspiring, it does not suffice for a centre forward.
That is why THEWILL believes that as encouraging as putting in four goals against Anaunia might be, especially for his chances to come to reckoning with Spalletti ahead of the season that begins in August, Osimhen will be better served getting his shooting, poise in front of fearsome defenders and calm in front of goal right before the season begins.
Matches like this where the top flight players in a squad like Napoli run rings around a little known team like Anaunia for training purposes, to get the form in, the tactics practiced, the formation straightened out, the body prepared and the mind focused.
Each of the three times Napoli has played Anaunia, they have shipped 37 goals and not conceded a single one. They began with an 8-0 drubbing in July 2015, topped that with a 17-0 outclassing two years later before the 12-nil that followed on Sunday. It clearly shows that goals against the side are nothing to harp on and comments by Spalletti about Osimhen prior to the match exactly mirror the position of THEWILL.
The Italian manager described him as a complete striker but one with the space for improvement. Spalletti said: “He will certainly be a foothold for us and a strength of this team. He is a complete striker, he knows how to score and he knows how to fight for his teammates.”
“It is clear that he also has aspects to improve and this is where we need to work, but it has already given great availability.”
It is of extreme importance that the coach is already favourably disposed to Osimhen at this stage and the signs are there that it can only get better for Osimhen, who will now benefit from the different technical input that Spalletti will bring to his game. That will be to Nigeria’s benefit as well when the January 9 – February 6 African Cup of Nations brings Osimhen back to the Super Eagles’ fold.
Before then, the forward will have the best chance of getting his striking boots in tune for the start of the season with a sound and proper friendly against former UEFA Champions League winners and Bavarian giants Bayern Munich. All his preparations for the season will make plenty of sense if he can use that fixture to put a clinical performance on display.
With a game like that and if he can turn out a deadly striker’s game, he will have a base to build on when the season begins at home on August 22 against Venezia and continue in that form against Serie A heavyweights Juventus in September to give Spalletti reasons to keep his spot in the first team open for when he returns from the Nation’s Cup next year.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
