Player Focus: Understated Gabbiadini Reaping Rewards from Taking More Risks
Manolo Gabbiadini is your classic Bergamasco. He’s reserved, understated. “I don’t like talking about myself.” His expression is that of a musone - a long face - making it difficult to tell what he’s really thinking. Little emotion is ever portrayed. Getting carried away simply isn’t in his nature. At least that’s the perception. Like Andrea Pirlo, from nearby Brescia, who for years was thought of as a shy and retiring type, his teammates will tell you that he smiles, laughs and cracks jokes in the dressing room.
Still, Gabbiadini is a down to earth kind of guy. “My parents taught me to keep my feet on the ground because it’s the only way not to fall,” he told Sportweek. His father is a lorry driver who’d coach kids in their village Bolgare whenever he wasn’t behind a wheel. His uncle is a mechanic. “The Monday after my debut for Atalanta I was fixing a car,” Gabbiadini revealed. He’s a blue collar footballer. The young forward sports one at new club Napoli. But there by the bay and perhaps more than any club in Italy, players are associated with wearing their hearts on their sleeve, showing no restraint, only passion and often being consumed by it.
Rather than withdraw into himself, Gabbiadini has embraced it. A huge crowd gathered at Capodichino airport to greet him following his departure from Sampdoria in the winter transfer window. “It’s difficult to describe the reception I got in Naples,” Gabbiadini explained. “You need to experience it to understand it.”
Napoli had moved sharp, beginning negotiations well before the window opened. A deal looked as good as done at the start of December. Sinisa Mihajlovic left Gabbiadini out of his team upon Napoli’s visit to Marassi. He was then Man of the Match the following week, with a rating of 8.98 from WhoScored.com, crossing for Stefano Okaka to score before getting among the goals himself in Verona. Benched again when Samp travelled to Juventus, within five minutes of coming on after the interval, he curled a delicious equaliser beyond Gianluigi Buffon and clinched his team a point.
That strike in particular quickly attained a poignant symbolism. Not only did it remind Samp of the talent they were losing but Juventus, who also had a stake in Gabbiadini, were letting it go too. The question on everyone’s lips, as Napoli bought them both out for a combined €13m, was a simple one: Would they regret it? After all, Gabbiadini was bidding farewell to Samp on quite the streak. His name had been written on the scoresheet three games in a row. With the first half of the season not yet over, his record stood at nine in 16 appearances in all competitions.
Strident progress in his game was evident. “I believe in myself more,” Gabbiadini told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “I’m more daring. I wasn’t before because I love keeping a low profile. The team comes before me and I don’t ever want to be out of line. But in the end you need players to take risks.” His average of 3.8 shots per game whilst at Sampdoria this season was more than any other player in Serie A. The number he has taken from outside the box per game across the entire campaign [1.9] places him fourth of all players to have started 10 matches or more.
Gabbiadini also used his time working under Mihajlovic, the league’s all-time top goalscorer from free-kicks [28], to develop his ability from dead-ball situations. “I can’t copy him or other players,” he admitted. “Everyone has their own methods. For me it’s important that the goalkeeper doesn’t know what to expect. The real secret is to not give your free-kicks an identity. I also change the number of players in the wall according to the distance and the angle. The spray has been a big help. Now the walls are usually the right distance.”
Only Andrea Pirlo and Antonio Candreva [14] have had more attempts from free-kicks than Gabbiadini this season [13]. Yet he has hit the target more than any other [7] and is by far the most accurate of those to have had more than five attempts from free-kicks this season [53.8%]. Of the 12 players to do so, only Miralem Pjanic [25%] has a greater conversion rate [15.4%].
“Apart from Juninho, I liked how Pierre van Hooijdonk used to take his free-kicks, in particular the one he scored for Feyenoord against Juventus. Pirlo is the best right now. I am looking to perfect his ‘maledetta’ free kick. I can pull it off every now and again, but I have to be far from goal otherwise the ball doesn’t dip in time for me.”
It was clear then that Napoli were acquiring a multi-purpose threat. Upon his arrival at their Castelvolturno training ground, Gabbiadini could boast a better minutes per goal ratio [139] than his new teammates Gonzalo Higuain [144] and Jose Callejon [157]. He tends to play on the right, but as Mario Sconcerti wrote in Il Corriere della Sera, Gabbiadini “has the best left foot in Italy.”
Only Paulo Dybala of Palermo [12] has scored more goals with that foot this campaign. He is comfortable playing as a centre-forward too and it’s precisely this sort of tactical versatility that makes Rafa Benitez a Gabbiadini admirer.
The 23-year-old has been the best signing of the January transfer window in Serie A. His impact has been relatively immediate. A late substitute against Juventus and Genoa, Gabbiadini opened his account for the Partenopei away at Chievo, finding the winner. It was the start of another run of goals in three straight league games. His performance in Trabzon last Thursday when he first put in the corner for Henrique’s ice-breaker, then set up Higuain to double Napoli’s lead, before starting and finishing the move for their third in a 4-0 win with a quite sensational pirouette was arguably the best of the season.
His minutes per goal ratio has got better at Napoli. Since joining them, it is now one every 111 minutes. He has got four in his last six games. No wonder they’re calling him Gabbiad’oro - golden Gabbiadini. A return to the Italy squad can’t be far away. Gabbiadini made his senior debut against England back in August 2012 and should be in Antonio Conte’s plans to face the Three Lions again in Turin next month. He has watched his older sister Melania, a three-time player of the year, represent her country many times. She’s the one who made him want to become a footballer in the first place.
“One day I was at the stadium. I was sat in the stands like every Saturday with my parents to see her,” Gabbiadini recalled. “It was a game like all the others. At one stage I saw her approach the goal with the ball at her feet. She then let go a hell of a shot. The ball soared, hit the bar and burst. Maybe it wasn’t a great ball. But I remember that moment perfectly.”
Emulating it would perhaps explain Gabbiadini’s evolution into a striker, though not entirely. “You won’t believe it but I wanted to become a goalkeeper,” he told Guerin Sportivo. “The day of my first training session with Bolgare, I turned up with a pair of gloves ready to make some saves. But there were already four goalkeepers and they made me go in attack. ‘You, there! Play up front!’ I’ve never gone back.”
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