Contrasting Coaching Styles Set Up Thrilling Coppa Italia Final Between Juventus & Napoli

Whoever wins Wednesday evening’s rescheduled Coppa Italia final, there will be an interesting storyline to be written in Thursday morning’s Italian newspapers. Maurizio Sarri’s Juventus take on a Napoli side headed up by former AC Milan boss Gennaro Gattuso with the former still looking to oppose his style on a side who are used to winning by whatever means necessary and the latter performing with a new-found tenacious and gritty resolve.

It only takes a look back to the end of the 2017/18 campaign to see Sarri move on to become Chelsea boss after three seasons of highly entertaining, passing football that won the chain-smoking Coach a plethora of football hipster fans, including Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola. 

“Napoli do a lot of things, and they do them all perfectly,” the Catalan boss gushed back in 2017 before his side faced the Partenopei in the Champions League. “We need to adapt to Napoli, because they have a different way of playing to what we’re used to seeing in the Premier League
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. As both a spectator and a coach I like to watch Napoli, and when I’m at home I like to watch their matches. Moreover, I learn a lot.” 

Yet for all the praise of “Sarri-ball” itself, the Coach’s three-year spell at Napoli ultimately ended without a trophy, and without anything to show for the play that had captured the imagination of so many neutral supporters.

During that season, former Milan legend Gattuso had taken over from the struggling Vincenzo Montella at San Siro at the end of November, and after a shaky start had overseen just two league defeats in the entirety of 2018 to take the Rossoneri to a sixth-place finish. 

He would go on to miss out on Champions League qualification by just one point in the following campaign, but new owners Elliott determined that his abilities had reached a glass ceiling and removed Gattuso from his position that summer. 

Gattuso’s head-to-head record versus Sarri gives us little clue of how he may fare on Wednesday evening, with one win, one draw and one defeat in three attempts. Yet Napoli’s performance versus Inter last Saturday shows that Milan may have been too hasty in their removal of their ex-midfielder.

The 42-year-old took over at Napoli from his former boss Carlo Ancelotti after a disastrous spell for the experienced tactician, and Gattuso has succeeded in turning what looked like a team that would not give each other the time of day into a truly unified team.

The Partenopei have fully adopted their new boss’ mentality of grit and determination, but they are also demonstrating that he is not merely a one-trick motivational pony. After all the beautiful play shown by Napoli in that three-year spell with Maurizio Sarri, how paradoxical would it be if it were to be Gattuso who was the one to bring home a trophy to Naples for the first time since Rafa Benitez won the Coppa Italia in 2014?

That could well be the case on Wednesday, but it is just as likely that Juventus continue their winning habit and take the trophy for the fifth time in the last six years. If so, Sarri would win his first major trophy in Italy while yet to impose his signature playing style on his Bianconeri side. 

Whichever way round it happens, Thursday morning’s papers will make for an interesting read.