Blaming decisive Higuain for goalless performances against Juve is unfair
Despite his stunning seasonal stats, someone has been blaming Gonzalo Higuain for his goalless performance against the Old Lady. Scorer of 24 league goals (26 in all competitions), saying that Higuain is not a decisive player when big games come, sounds inappropriate and exaggerated.
Someone still reminisces about the penalty the former Real Madrid fluffed against Lazio last season, preventing Napoli to qualify for Champions League, or the goal he missed against Germany in the 2014 World Cup final. All these ‘experts’ should also remember that since Higuain joined the Partenopei he’s been the main character of most of Napoli important games, rather than a bit player.
During his first season at the San Paolo he scored against Marseille, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal in Champions League. Still not enough to make it through the last 16 stage, despite Napoli racked up 12 points in the group stage, just as much as the German and the English club.
In the same year he also scored against Milan, Inter and five times in two games against Lazio in Serie A. He also netted one goal in the Champions League play-off against Athletic Bilbao last term, punished Wolfsburg in Europa League and found the net of the goal against Roma, Fiorentina, Lazio and Milan.
Not enough? He could become the first player in 57 seven years to score more than 33 league goals after Angelillo. Higuain has already plundered against Inter, Fiorentina Lazio and Juventus this season and only the best defense of the league (Juve have conceded just one in the last ten games) managed to nullify his threat on Saturday evening.
But, for some reasons we can’t explain, it seems that a scoreless evening it’s enough to put into doubts his qualities or his effectiveness in big matches.
Translated by Lorenzo Bettoni @lorebetto, adapted from a piece by Andrea Distaso
