Ancelotti shuffling to find winning Napoli hand

Four months have passed since Carlo Ancelotti arrived in Napoli after Maurizio Sarri's departure for Chelsea with the promise of finding the missing piece in the jigsaw to end the southern Italian side's near three-decade wait for the Scudetto.

The former AC Milan and Chelsea coach's arrival was hailed by club owner Aurelio De Laurentiis as the start of a new era at San Paolo Stadium.

Under Sarri, Napoli came so close to toppling Juventus last season with a record 91 points.

Ancelotti -- with a cabinet full of trophies won in five top European leagues -- promised not "a revolution" but to add the finishing touches to give the team the final push.

But seven games into the Serie A campaign, Ancelotti's side are already six points behind Juventus who are looking even stronger then ever with Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Champions League -- which Ancelotti had promised would not play second fiddle to their Scudetto ambitions as it had done under Sarri -- has also gotten off to an uninspiring start with a goalless draw at Red Star Belgrade.

Three-time Champions League winner Ancelotti's side host Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool on Wednesday in the San Paolo needing a win from a tough Group C which also includes Paris Saint-Germain.

Last weekend's 3-1 defeat to Juventus in Turin saw Napoli's hopes of a third title and first since Diego Maradona's days back in 1990 take a knock.

"A defeat can happen, just as Juventus can lose to Napoli, we have to keep improving but I'm convinced we'll be competitive right until the end," insisted Ancelotti.

There were no celebrations or fireworks in Naples as last April when a 1-0 win in Turin put Napoli within striking distance of the coveted crown.

"That night we were all convinced that the Scudetto would finally be ours. We felt invincible," Slovak captain Marek Hamsik recalled.

- 'Deserve to play' -
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