Against Spal we have seen Napoli with the coach in mind and that so far we have not seen against stronger formations
A champion game
Let’s not be fooled by the end result, or the ease with which it matured. The match with Spal was very interesting from a tactical point of view, for a simple reason: he told us how Gattuso’s Napoli became, and therefore a bit like it will be against opponents who do not have great qualities, and therefore cannot cultivate great offensive ambitions. It was one of those champion races that show what the offensive strategies are, or rather the variations, that the Italian team is trying in training to make its game less predictable.
We have seen some against Spal. Also due to the training choices: compared to the game against Verona, Gattuso inserted Hysaj on the right instead of Di Lorenzo, Mario Rui on the left (instead of Hysaj), then Fabián, Lobotka and Elmas in midfield; forward, Mertens and Callejón took over Milik and Politano. They seem elementary changes, role by role, and in fact it is so. But some of these substitutions have slightly changed the game of Napoli in the offensive phase. For example: Callejón, compared to Politano, touches a smaller number of balls (just 44 against Spal) and is much less within the field. Yesterday, therefore, Napoli found itself building much more on the left wing (39% of the offensive actions originated from it) than the right wing (30%).
The Whoscred pitch showing the distribution of the Napoli game on the horizontal axis.
Another change: the rotation of three out of three men in the midfield produced different movements and staggering, because the game dynamics that characterize Elmas, for example, are different. The Macedonian, compared to Zielinski, moves much more forward, between the lines of defense and midfield of the opponents, and so often Naples has found itself setting the offensive maneuver deployed with a 4-2-3-1 rather than with a 4-3-3 pure. Below, the graphics of the average positions (from the Lega Serie A website) clearly show this dynamic.
Napoli, in fact, attacked with a 2-4-4 very open-minded, with Elmas and Mertens very close in the central area.
The importance of building from below
Gattuso has been working on these variants for some games. Against Spal, the use of the double pivot during construction it was more frequent than in other tenders, and served to create an additional line of passage behind Spal’s pressure lines. Di Biagio’s team, lined up with a rather scholastic 4-4-2, was invited to press in the opposing half of the field through the usual accentuated possession from the goalkeeper’s support to the central defenders; the rotations of the Ferraresi generated spaces for the central posts, and it is in those spaces that Elmas received many balls from Lobotka and Fabián Ruiz. A classic 4-2-3-1 situation, clearly visible in this frame.
Gattuso’s Napoli builds the action from behind, as usual. The four defenders cover the width of the pitch, while two midfielders offer close pass lines. Elmas is out of frame, and in fact occupies the position of central midfielder, very close to Mertens.
As can be seen in this still image, Napoli continues to create play without raising the defensive sides too much. Even in games where the blues are forced by their opponents to keep a high center of gravity (yesterday the blues were stationed at 55 meters in the active phase, and 49 meters in the passive phase), Gattuso continues to impose a certain balance on his team. Continue not to find out too much, or at least not to always bring many men forward. And then in the first possession the line of four remains firm, and there are even two midfielders ready to receive the ball and set the game.
The data confirm this trend: Lobotka is not the man on the field with the highest number of balls played (111), but Fabián Ruiz (114); Elmas is fifth (94) after full-backs Mario Rui (99) and Hysaj (95). Of course, at other times of the game, Lobotka acted as the only one pivot in front of the defense, but it is evident – even after the game in Verona, in which Demme’s position has been more fluid than in the past – how Gattuso’s work is focusing on improving the ball’s exit from the defense.
In football, everything connects
Forward, things went smoothly natural: the quality of Fabián Ruiz and the other offensive players made the difference, and made it from the very first actions. The Spaniard served two assists, the first truly brilliant in his apparent simplicity, while the rest of the dangerous maneuvers is due to the great skills in the Strait of Mertens and Insigne, which generated a good number of occasions (at the end of the game, Napoli put 17 conclusions together towards Letica’s door, 6 of which in the mirror). The presence of the Belgian in the center forward slot, especially in games like these, allows Gattuso and Napoli to have more variety in the offensive phase.
The 39 balls touched by Mertens during Napoli-Spal. To underline how the blue team, according to this graphic, attacks from left to right; therefore, there are 10 plays of Mertens in the defensive half.
As can be seen in its map just above, Mertens does not have a fixed position, indeed it is very present on both sides of the field. On the occasion of the goal after three minutes, he reads very well the space behind the opposing defense and fits perfectly, with the right times to evade an offside done badly. The passage of Fabián Ruiz cuts out all the players of the Spal, but in reality the action must be appreciated from the beginning: it is Mertens himself who organizes the game starting from the defense, further embellishing an action built in a very sophisticated way by the blues.
In football, everything connects. Or in any case it is easy for everything to connect: Gattuso’s work on the exit phase with the ball from the defense gave Napoli the tools to exacerbate the construction from below; in this way the blues have created a space to hit the Spal; the quality of the players made an action started in their third of the pitch more fluid and more effective – and also more beautiful to look at; finally, it made it possible to exploit that space. So the goal came.
Napoli absorb the good play of Spal making many men back in the defensive phase; Insigne intercepts the ball for the first time, then it is Elmas who definitively regains possession; at that point, the technique and safety of Mertens and Lobotka create the conditions to open the field, to take full advantage of the transition led by Callejón. Quality calls quality: on the other side of the pitch, Fabián Ruiz and Mertens understand each other perfectly and have fairy feet. The ball ends up in the net after a splendid in-depth assist and a very delicate shot underneath.
Napoli is a safe team, perfectly aware of its qualities, of its possibilities. It is no coincidence that the Azzurri have won five consecutive league games at the turn of the lockdown, and it is no coincidence that they have won the Italian Cup. Gattuso has found the best set-up for this team, and it is a speech that applies to the so-called “owners” but also to all the other members of the team. Against Spal, for example, Lobotka seemed perfectly at ease as a Centromedian, a role played in a less dynamic but more cerebral and creative way than Demme. The same goes for Elmas, who in a more defensive version of Gattuso’s system – the one seen in Milan against Inter – was used as a high exterior, while yesterday he was a hybrid player, halfway between midfielder and attacking midfielder.
Conclusions
The second phase of the Gattuso-project has obviously started. And it is a project that, game after game, proves to be very ambitious. The Napoli imagined by the Calabrian coach is a team with a strong identity, based on ball possession and balance in the various phases of the game. But he has a negotiable approach to games. That is, he is able to play in a short and closed and compact way against high quality opponents, as well as to offer a more carefree, more aggressive, even more risky football in some situations, in theoretically easier matches. Against Spal, in fact, the Azzurri suffered a goal on restart action, with Hysaj left alone on the right wing against two opposing players. Could it ever have happened in a match like the ones played against Juventus or Inter in the Italian Cup?
The answer – which is obviously not – explains where Gattuso started from to build his Naples. Explain how your opponents’ goals are now – or better than certi opponents, that is, lower quality teams – come as a result of random actions, or born because Napoli chose to go out of balance. A strategy that is implemented less against stronger teams, which have more talented players, because at this moment the blues cannot yet afford it. They are trying to figure out how to do it, and this is the big question mark about Gattuso’s blue future. The fact that the coach is working on this, is trying to make the offensive phase more varied, at the cost of taking some (calculated) more risk, highlights how the Calabrian technician understood, perhaps first of all, where and how his team can grow.