Content to accept a place on the bench and always capable of scoring important goals, Raspadori (Giacomo Raspadori) succeeds Correa with the chance to inherit the banner of the “Guardian General of the West.”
For Napoli, Raspadori’s sale price (€26m) appears lower than his purchase price (€28m), and a further development payment is due to Sassuolo. In practice, however, Napoli’s cost was two years of low wages plus amortisation. It is understandable that they wanted to move on quickly from a player who was difficult to position and difficult to fit into the system. Napoli cannot really be said to have lost on the deal, and Atlético are not losing by taking Raspadori at this price either.
As a forward, Raspadori’s main selling point is his finishing inside the penalty area. His contact is clean and his shots are struck hard, making his drives difficult for all but Serie A’s better goalkeepers to hold. His core strength stands out, and he often twists through a half-turn to shoot from an angle beside the six-yard box. He can take set pieces, although they offer more power than variation, and he regularly follows up loose balls around the edge of the area. His goal total may not look remarkable, but he has spent years coming off the bench and in fact scores once every 163 minutes. Most importantly, during the closing Serie A fixtures in May, the two goals he scored as a starter steadied Napoli’s title challenge. Their value cannot be measured by cold numbers alone.
Beyond his finishing, however, Raspadori is not a complete player. Outside the second-striker role, he falls short of the demands of the other attacking positions. He is not slow, but lacks explosive acceleration and can be unsteady on his feet. His strength is respectable for a 170 cm forward, yet he still loses out when matched directly against centre-backs. This is one area in which he differs from Depay and explains why, although his profile is closer to a centre-forward, he cannot lead the line as one. His dribbling cannot be relied upon — even an ageing Modrić has taken the ball from him. He can help organise attacks and occasionally produces an excellent through-ball, but overall his passing vision is narrow and, when receiving under pressure in midfield or the defensive half with his back towards the opposition goal, he struggles to turn. His crossing, by contrast, is genuinely good: the pace, curve and choice of landing point are all strong. That is one reason both Italy and many of his clubs have used him as a winger or wide midfielder.
Conte overhauled his system in 2024/25, abandoning his perennial back three for 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3. He imported an English-style winger structure into an Italian game with little tradition of true wingers and placed greater emphasis on possession than ever before. That suited Lobotka and McTominay while also releasing the power of the wide players and runners from midfield. A good coach is someone who can command different systems and tailor the game to the players available. That deserves respect.
Within this system, Conte repeatedly brought Raspadori on and dropped him into the left or right central-midfield position. His technique was only just sufficient to participate in the circulation, but he was highly effective as a disruptive presence in midfield duels. He also combined forward runs into scoring positions with diagonal crossing. In the April away match at Monza (19 April 2025, Monza vs Napoli), the game’s only goal — McTominay’s header — came from one of those diagonal crosses.
When used as a forward in the Lukaku–McTominay–Raspadori attacking pattern, Raspadori’s qualities dictate that he must be the finisher. McTominay supplies the running and passing, Lukaku serves as the reference point, and Raspadori has to stay as close to Lukaku as possible to maximise his shooting. He is also the most suitable endpoint for that pattern.
Raspadori embodies the awkward position of many incomplete players. Whether because of circumstance or ability, under different coaches, in different systems and positions, there is always some requirement they cannot meet. If they never find the position that allows their instincts to emerge, their talent can remain obscured until they become indistinguishable from everyone else. That is the reality most players have to face. Raspadori was highly regarded when he emerged and was compared with the great diminutive Italian striker Di Natale, but even his signature finishing remains some way below his predecessor’s, while their all-round games are not comparable. Beyond important goals from the bench, Raspadori has offered relatively little in high-intensity Champions League matches and has never truly established himself as a starter. Most of the teams he has played in have used a lone striker. From trying almost every attacking position at Sassuolo to dropping into midfield last season, his journey carries a sense of resignation.
Fortunately, he is a player who causes no trouble, accepts a substitute role and fulfils his duties every time he appears, giving everything even in positions that do not suit him. After ten years of watching Correa, nobody understands the importance of the twelfth man better than the supporters of #Atlético de Madrid#. Web link