Napoli and Mertens - perfect Serie A partners

I told you Dries was a proper name
 

What can you say about Dries Mertens and his recent form for Napoli. He has become the first player since 1974 in Serie A to score consecutive hat-tricks. The Belgian super striker put 4 past Joe Hart in the Torino goal last match after scoring 3 against Cagliari the week before.

As this suggests, his form is scintillating at the moment and Napoli will be hoping it will carry on. I think there's two reasons for what is happening:

1. Mertens and how/where he plays - traditionally the player has been a fast, tricky winger/attacking mid. Due to their problems in attack, Napoli have recently moved him into the central striker role which has worked brilliantly. His pace, movement and eye for goal really suit this move and where they are using him now. Also, Mertens is very clever in how he comes short for the ball to pick it up - this means he can turn and run at the defence if they haven't come out with him.

2. Midfield runners - the other thing that makes the use of Mertens as a forward and how he drops off successful is the runners Napoli get from midfield. When Mertens drops deep for the ball, theres always a couple of midfielders running beyond him into the box to stretch the defence. This means that he gets more space to play and it stops the defenders just pushing up on him.

Napolis new manager was an interesting choice

As the saying goes football is a funny old game and this seems to be a case of the coach finding a successful formula due to circumstances forcing his hand.  Would he have played Mertens there if he had a striker fit/in form? Probably not but then all teams need some luck to be successful and Napoli might just have had theirs in switching Mertens to this central role.