The very conservative Neapolitan coach preferred to use Neres as a rotation player. The Brazilian appeared on the field 12 times before the new year from the bench, and in 2024 alone he scored one goal and three assists for Napoli in the elite division of Italian football.
There were no special prerequisites for the situation to change for the better for Neres in terms of getting more playing time, until health problems arose in Hvich Kvaratzhelia and Matteo Politano. It was this, it seems, that became the turning point for the Brazilian – he consistently appeared at the heart of Napoli in the last four matches, scoring a goal and an assist in them, as well as providing active help to Conte’s team, which won the maximum points in these meetings – 12.
However, one can see Neres’s breakthrough in more than just numbers. As his playing time on the pitch increased, the Brazilian finally got the chance to show Serie A his exceptional technique and physicality. David has shown that he can play almost equally usefully on both the right and the left flank of the attack, and catching up with him becomes even more of a task for most Serie A defenders. Suffice it to say that in the most recent match of the championship, Neres showed an impressive speed of 32.3 km/h.
And in that game against the Violets, which Napoli won 3-0 away from home, Neres scored a goal that the official Serie A account on the X social network called nothing but “magical.” The execution was really elegant: Neres almost from the center of the field, after beating his partner, flew into the penalty area of ”Fiorentina”, where he effectively and efficiently dealt with two defenders, and then – unexpectedly for the “violets” goalkeeper, he delivered a strong blow into the near upper corner, to stop with which the keeper practically had no chance.
A magical goal from David Neres! ✨#FiorentinaNapoli pic.twitter.com/uzjSFF6sRg
— Lega Serie A (@SerieA_EN) January 5, 2025
In Italy, there is already a lot of talk about the fact that Neres has both a clear technical and an equally obvious tactical impact on the game of Napoli. The first is directly related to the playing characteristics and skills of the Brazilian. Italian journalists have compared David with his compatriot Vinicius Junior from Real Madrid in that both of these players are “tightrope walkers”, that is, footballers who tend to take risks using speed and dribbling. In modern football, where individualism is increasingly reduced to a minimum, such performers always stand out. They are brave, daring, free-spirited, who by their nature want to swim against the current. At the same time, what is important, by the time he was almost 28 years old, David Neres had learned not to overdo it with individual actions, being able to effectively interact with teammates. Most often, the Brazilian “Napoli” legionnaire tries not to score on his own, but to find a partner with a good pass, leading him to a favorable striking position. Simply put, performances in Europe, where Neres managed to become successful at Ajax and Benfica, changed the worldview of the winger. Now he preaches not only the traditional Brazilian school, but also demonstrates the ability to find a common language with partners, to integrate into the attacking fist of his team, as many Dutch teams like to do.
Neres generally likes a fairly direct style of play. He likes rushes/runs followed by passes or shots on goal. And the Brazilian knows how to read the rhythm of the game very well. Now in Italy, he is even associated with Khvicha Kvaratchelia, a champion model for Napoli in the 2022/23 season. In the sense that, both then the Georgian and now the Brazilian, the majority of the defenders of the Serie A teams simply cannot “read”. Neres’ style of action for opponents is still something new, with which the Brazilian continues to surprise the opponents’ defense every time, as in the already mentioned match against “Fiorentina”.
But compared to Kvaratschelia, as well as Dzaccagna, Yildiz and Leau, David Neres is rather a winger of the old temper. Perhaps, right now, he is the only one in the entire Serie A – the championship, where a large amount of dribbling from one player in each of the matches is a rarity in general. Thus, Neres, so to speak, found a kind of cheat code for “unblocking” rivals in Serie A. Like the keyboard shortcuts that, let’s face it, we all occasionally used as kids to beat the hardest level in a video game, the Brazilian looks like he knows the trick by heart that will send the Italian defense into a tailspin. And that’s why he goes for it again and again.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. David Neres Regarding the tactical influence of Neres on the football of “Napoli”, it is worth noting here that the appearance of the Brazilian in the starting line-up improved the game of some of his partners. The most striking example is Romelu Lukaku. With Neres, the Belgian definitely feels noticeably more comfortable in the center of the attack, he no longer has to play exclusively with his back to the goal, because the Brazilian’s non-standard actions open up much more space in front of Lukaku, and he is happy to use these free zones.
It is also worth noting another transformation of Neres, which is happening with him in Napoli. Under the influence of Conte’s ideas, the Brazilian seems to have absorbed the “cult of self-sacrifice”, proving that he knows how to act in a balanced and efficient manner, proving useful not only in attack, but also knowing how to move competently in the defensive phase of the game, without falling out of it when acting without m cell
During his career, Neres has already lived many “football lives”, and in general, his story fully matches his character. David managed to “shoot” in Erik ten Hag’s “Ajax” in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons, when he demonstrated outstanding performance in the Eredivisie, and also scored against “Real” in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League, leaving himself in the fools Data from Carvajal. This allowed Neres to debut in the Brazilian national team, but then a serious knee injury occurred in his career, which disabled the winger for almost a year… Then there was a transfer to Shakhtar, where Roberto De Zerbi really wanted to revive Neres’ talent, but this was prevented the full-scale phase of the Russian-Ukrainian war, which began a month after the transfer of the Brazilian to the “miners” camp. Nerez eventually moved to Benfica, where he enjoyed two solid seasons as the team’s second-best dribbler behind Rafa Silva, but was still overshadowed by the incomparable Angel Di Maria. In short, Neres was a kind of fire that kindles, kindles, but never burns…
In the summer of 2024, Neres appeared in “Napoli” largely because of the fixation on his person on the part of the new sports director of the Neapolitans, Giovanni Manna. The 36-year-old specialist insisted that Brazil ts was signed at any price because he can be extremely effective, showing an incredible ease on the field, which, however, is also characteristic of him in everyday life.
It is said that Neres could have missed his first call-up to the Brazilian national team due to the banal fact that he did not save the phone number of the Seleção head coach Tite in his address book. Here is his own story about this: “At first I didn’t answer because they called from an unknown number. But after this number appeared in my WhatsApp messages and I saw who it belonged to, I immediately called back. It was Tite, he wanted to tell me that I was called.”
And Neres freely confessed how he conquered his current wife, to whom he proposed and received the dream “yes” in October 2024. The Brazilian simply stated: “I didn’t have to do much. I just sent her a private message on Instagram: “I’m David Neres, be with me.”
The Brazilian’s old fable about his relationship with ten Haag in Ajax looks quite funny: “Once he [тен Хаг] complained about my hair. I told him to worry about his hair and I would somehow take care of mine myself. He put me on the bench for the next two games.”
Who knows whether all these stories are true or not, but to them you should definitely add rumors that in the summer of 2023, David Neres categorically refused a transfer to Zenit, which was ready to pay even more money for him. than the amount that the Brazilian ended up costing “Napoli”. The winger made it clear that he was not going to move to work in a country that went to war against Ukraine without giving him the chance to work with De Dzerby and, no kidding, become a UPL star.
Source: sport.ua