Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Fiorentina vs. Napoli: Match Analysis

Italy is often thought of as the great defensive country. Many of the great defensive tactics and systems were developed in Italy: catenaccio in the 1960s, with Herrera’s “Grande Inter” teams; compactness and pressing, with Sacchi’s two-time European Champion Milan teams. In the 1990s Italy gained a reputation, both within Serie A and on the international stage, as a league of great defenders and defenses.

Defense and Italy are nearly synonymous. But many times we forget that Italy has produced great offenses. Sacchi’s Milan were equally adept going forward as they were in defense, scoring five goals on Real on the way to their first European Championship. Maradona, Zidane, and the Brazilian Ronaldo all plied their trade in Italy. While the Italians may be known for defending, they can turn a great offensive performance in. While Serie A may be known for its defensive showdowns, the league can produce some great offensive matches as well.

The matchup between Fiorentina and Napoli was a perfect example. Both teams were aggressive and attacked throughout the match, creating an end-to-end, wide open game. It was fascinating 6 goal thriller, with both teams exhibiting fascinating tactics.

Lineups


Napoli Dominate the First Half
Napoli controlled the match throughout the first half, while Fiorentina looked unsettled and uneasy despite being the home side. Maurizio Sarri’s team was able to boss Fiorentina around with a combination of high intensity defense and strong positional play when in possession.

During Fiorentina’s build up Napoli put on a high, intense, man-orientated press. They were so man-orientated that sometimes the press resembled more man marking than a zonal system. To cover for the risk of high man-orientation, as well as their high defensive line (often playing in Fiorentina’s half), Napoli played with a ridiculous amount of intensity, putting enough pressure on the ball to ensure that Fiorentina wouldn’t have enough time to find the open space behind Napoli’s press.
Napoli's man orientated press
Napoli’s press was effective in destabilizing Fiorentina’s build up play throughout the match, especially in the first half. Sarri’s team were able to take advantage of Fiorentina’s insistence on slow, deep build up through passing and combinations, shutting the Viola’s attack down. Later in the match, Fiorentina was able to beat the press by playing more direct, taking advantage of Napoli’s high line.

When Fiorentina were able to push past Napoli’s press and into the middle of the field, Sarri’s men dropped into a 4-5-1, with both wingers dropping into the midfield. While playing this formation statically would rob Napoli of access to the ball, Sarri adapted it to provide greater pressure on and access to the ball. The midfield 5 chain acted as a pendulum, swinging whenever the ball shifted to one side. When Fiorentina played the ball to the right wing, the ball side winger (Insigne) stepped onto the first line, alongside Mertens (Napoli’s striker), to pressure the ball and force it back to the centerbacks. The rest of the midfield shifted over, with the nearest central midfielder becoming a wide midfielder and so on. When the ball moved back, Insigne would return to the midfield line. The same would happen on the other side, with Callejon stepping up. This created an asymmetric 4-4-2 that provided good defensive access and put strong pressure on the ball.



A similar action happened when Fiorentina moved the ball into midfield. With a three-man central midfield, one of Napoli’s central midfielders could step up and pressure the ball without leaving space behind. The other two central midfielders simply shifted into the open space, creating a 4-4-1-1. This allowed Napoli to pressure Fiorentina anytime they brought the ball into the center of the field, forcing it out to the backline.

During the extended periods when Napoli played with a 4-4-2, if Fiorentina held the ball on the wing, then the central midfield was often staggered. With Fiorentina often focusing their attacks down Callejon’s side, and thus with Zielinski shifted outside, Diawara and Hamsik occupied the center. They would stagger their movements, with one dropping deeper whenever the other stepped up to pressure a man. Mostly this was to cut off potential passing options into the center, but it sometimes worked to lure Fiorentina into bad passes and then catch a quick counter attack.

While Napoli’s press disrupted Fiorentina and forced turnovers, Napoli’s deeper defense simply stopped their offense from working. Fiorentina was stalled without any options to progress on the ground, and were reluctant to try to pass over Napoli. Napoli were able to dictate where Fiorentina could play the ball, forcing them out of the center and the wings. This left Fiorentina to shift the ball between their two center backs, hopelessly looking for passing options.

Napoli’s offense also played a key role in controlling the match. Strong positional play has featured in Napoli’s attack throughout Sarri’s year and a half in charge, and this game was no different.

Both Insigne and Callejon played inside of the wings, in the half spaces, acting as inverted wingers in a similar way that Hazard and Pedro (or Willian) have in Chelsea’s successful 3-4-3 formation. This created numerous opportunities for combinations when Napoli had the ball.

It also allowed Napoli to overload either side of the field. With the fullbacks pushing high to provide width, and multiple players both deep and high in the halfspace, Napoli were able to overload Fiorentina and manipulate their opponents to open up space. When they found open space Napoli often used aggressive vertical passes to break Fiorentina’s lines and create chances.

Napoli’s buildup was varied in speed. At times they used long, vertical passes to quickly hit Fiorentina.

Other times they were much more patient, stringing together passes and slowly looking to open Fiorentina up.

Both ways exposed Fiorentina’s defensive inadequacies. Throughout the first half Napoli was able to open their opponents up fairly easily, but only scored one. A combination of a few offside players, some timing that was just off, and poor finishing held Napoli back from scoring more.

Fiorentina Fights Back
It was clear from the start of the second half that Fiorentina was not going to lie down. They put on their own man-orientated press, and began to play higher up the field. Fiorentina then matched Napoli in intensity, and it paid off. The visitors seemed unsettled, and after 6 minutes and a fortuitous deflection on a free kick, Fiorentina was level.

Napoli settled back into the game, and then retook the lead in the 68th minute. But less than 60 seconds later they had given away another goal. Bernadeschi, with his second of the day, scored a whopper from 40 yards out, and although Reina should have done better it is tough to criticize Napoli for the goal out of context. In context it was unacceptable. Twice Napoli had taken the lead, and twice they had given it away.

Fiorentina then took the lead on a beauty of a goal from Mauro Zarate with less than 10 minutes left in the game. At that point Sarri threw caution to the wind, and Napoli pushed forward with everything they had. Just when it looked like Fiorentina might hold out, Napoli won a penalty. With the second to last kick of the match, Napoli pulled level, at 3 all.

Conclusion
From the standpoint of a neutral, this game was thrilling. 6 goals, end to end and wide open, the two teams both played with reckless abandon. It was a reminder that Serie A is still one of the most entertaining leagues in the world.

Undoubetdly Napoli and Sarri will be incredibly frustrated with the result. They dominated the match, were the better team throughout, and yet had to claw back a draw. The game played into a greater trend of Napoli’s season: that they can grab a lead, but not hold on to it. Napoli haven’t been able to shut games down. It isn’t that they can’t; it’s that they won’t. Sarri doesn’t want to shut games down, but rather keep them open and a little chaotic. While this creates fantastic games for the neutral, it often leads to Napoli letting leads slip out of their grasp. All the more frustrating for Sarri will be the three goals Fiorentina scored. The first was a deflected free kick; the second a 40-yard whopper; the third a volley on the edge of the box, off a beautifully floated cross. All three are nearly impossible to defend, or lucky, or some combination of the two. Napoli dominated the match and yet gave away three goals on low quality chances. This should have been three, desperately needed, points for Napoli, and yet they walked away with a draw. Sarri and Napoli clearly have some thinking and self-searching to do.
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