Fiorentina 1-1 Napoli: the away side’s lopsided defensive shape works rather well
The starting line-ups
The closest thing to a ‘glamour tie’ in the first round of Serie A finished all square – 1-1 both in terms of goals and red cards.
Fiorentina’s only debutant in Sinisa Mihajlovic’s first game in charge was Gaetano D’Agostino, the central playmaker who is effectively taking Stevan Jovetic’s place in Fiorentina’s 4-2-3-1 from last season. Otherwise, it was a distinctly Prandelli-esque team, with no major changes.
Walter Mazzarri sent Napoli out in a curious 3-4-1-2ish shape – more on that later. Their main point of interest was the debut of Edinson Cavani after his arrival from Palermo in the summer.
Napoli went ahead after just six minutes – Cavani headed a near post Andrea Dossena cross off the bar and down onto (or over) the line. The replays were inconclusive, but the goal was given and Cavani had a dream start to his Napoli career.
The first 15 minutes were frantic, with a few poor challenges and a bit of tension between the two sides, but when the game settled down, the two shapes became clear. Fiorentina were playing a fairly traditional 4-2-3-1 system, with Riccardo Montolivo joining the attacks, and Cristiano Zanetti looking after Marek Hamsik.
Napoli lopsided defensively
Napoli’s system, however, was much more intruiging, and could reasonably be argued as a 3-4-1-2, a 4-3-1-2, a 3-4-2-1 or a 4-3-2-1, with decreasing accuracy as you go along that list.
The diagram above and the screenshot below probably demonstrate it better than in words, but here’s a go. They seemed to play with two basic centre-backs, Paolo Cannavaro and the left-sided Salvatore Aronica. To their right was Hugo Campagnaro, who formed a back three, but also tended to move up the pitch and become involved in basic build-up play.
Those three tended to play to the right of the pitch, which allowed an attacking left-back, or perhaps left wing-back, Dossena, to bomb up and down the line – sometimes dropping in to form a back four, but also getting forward to good effect, as seen by his assist on the goal. On the right was Christian Maggio, whose starting position was more advanced than Dossena’s, and he tended to track back slightly less – and when he did, often Napoli ended up with a back five. In the centre were Manuele Blasi and Walter Gargano – the Uruguyan playing further up the pitch, tracking Montolivo closely.
Napoli played with two centre-backs (blue), a right-sided defender (yellow), a left-wing-back (green), two holding midfielders (pink), a defensive-minded right-sided midfielder (red), a right-sided central playmaker (purple) and a forward dropping to the left (black). Cavani, the striker, is out of shot.
That hopefully explains why the system could be “3-4-…” or 4-3…”, but we also had an issue with the three attacking players. Hamsik played behind the front two, but slightly to the right, whilst the two nominal forwards took it in turns to drop to the left, with Ezequiel Lavezzi doing it slightly more than Edinson Cavani. So it looked like a “…2-1″ when not in possession, and more like a “…1-2″ when Napoli did win the ball.
The question is, why were Napoli set out like this? Will it be their standard system, or were they simply reacting to Fiorentina’s shape? There’s a good case for saying it is the latter – whilst Fiorentina’s formation is a basic 4-2-3-1, there are elements of lopsidedness to it – mainly stemming from the fact their two wide players are very different in nature. On the left, Juan Vargas is a converted left-back, shoved forward because of his attacking instincts and his dangerous shot, whilst Marco Marchionni is a classic right-winger – a dribbler, a crosser, but not particularly keen to track back. Hence, the difference between the two often resulted in Fiorentina’s system skewed towards the right – see their shape at home to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, for example.
Fiorentina merit equaliser
In the end, Napoli’s shape actually worked quite well. The two standard centre-backs were 2 v 1 on Alberto Gilardino, whilst Dossena dropped in to pick up Marchionni. Campagnaro moving high up the pitch meant he was close to Vargas when the ball was in Fiorentina’s half, whilst also acting as cover if Dossena got caught out high up the pitch, and the defence had to shuffle across. When Fiorentina kept the ball, Maggio dropped in at right-back and Napoli shifted to something more like a five-man defence, against, broadly, four Fiorentina attacking players.
The problem was in the full-back area – mainly in Fiorentina’s left-back zone, where Manuel Pasqual had a lot of time on the ball. But he showed why Fiorentina were working all summer to get Emiliano Insua in – he was ponderous on the ball and also made mistakes defensively, and Fiorentina didn’t exploit that area of the pitch well enough. Maybe putting Vargas to left-back, and bringing on Adem Ljajic might have been an idea, but then Fiorentina probably had the better of the game after Napoli’s opener.
The equaliser came early on in the second half, and was a beautiful goal both aesthetically and tactically. Gilardino controlled a long ball forward, before laying it off to D’Agostino, who cut across the ball and sent it into the bottom corner. Gilardino is not a natural hold-up player, but this sums up what he’ll have to do this season – with Jovetic alongside him, it was often about neat interplay, but with D’Agostino an attacking midfielder more than a withdrawn forward, Gilardino will have to wait for midfield runners.
Gilardino had the best opportunity at 1-1, but hit his shot straight at Morgan de Sanctic. Late on, the harsh dismissals of Vargas and Blasi reduced both sides to ten, and both settled for a point. That half-hearted ending didn’t fit the rest of the game, which was both entertaining and tactically fascinating.
Conclusion
Top marks to Napoli for trying something different, and the shape is probably best described as a modified 3-4-1-2 that can cope with a side playing a lone striker – as we’ve seen before, sides playing three at the back often have problems with sides playing one upfront.
The pattern of play (generally in Fiorentina’s favour) was probably down to the fact that their playmaker, Montolivo, saw more of the ball than Hamsik. Montolivo may be the main beneficiary of Jovetic’s absence, as it will mean playing D’Agostino in that role, and Fiorentina have something more like a three-man midfield, rather than the two-man midfield that often saw them overrun last season.
Fiorentina 1-1 Napoli: the away side’s lopsided defensive shape works rather well
This article really shows the Italian league is tactically fascinating and makes the Prem look hugely out-dated and dull. Good stuff.
As for Fiorentina, why not play Jovetic on the left coming inside with and without the ball and push Vargas back to left back where he can overlap him all day. Would d’Agostino and Jovetic be getting in each other’s way, in the sense that they occupy the same space? Would a more attacking left back be too much for Kröldrup and Natali (where is Gamberini?) to handle seeing as they’re not the best? I definitely see the potential in Fiorentina to play a more interesting and adventerous shape. I will follow both teams with interest this season.
Jovetic is injured and out for couple months.
More than a couple of months, I think. Vargas to left-back is certainly an option, but he didn’t do too well when playing there at the start of his Fiorentina career, hence why he’s played left-midfield since.
He will be out for at least 6 months, an awful injury. I hope he won’t become injury prone after this…
Great stuff as always… As a Milan fan I’ve been eager to see what you think about the Milan-Lecce game and what shape they will likely use with the signings of Ibrahimovic and Robinho.
Keep it up the good work
Good player has to think like a manager from now on.
(also a supporter)
Am not sure when but in the future computer simulation will be an important tool as the game turn more and more tactically
(sorry about my english)
Great to see an article on Napoli. The system Mazzarri typically instructs is usually described 3-4-1-2. I think the lopsidedness of the formation was in response to how the Fiorentina attackers played and that Napoli’s two wide players had a good game. The three man defence can be susceptible to being overrun as what happened the last time these two teams faced each other: http://www.soccerway.com/matches/2010/03/13/italy/serie-a/ssc-napoli/acf-fiorentina/817548/
Would love to see a write up on Napoli when they are at Sampdoria in a couple of weeks.
That should be a good game, hopefully will get that one done.
Great work as usual, will surely be interesting to read what your take will be on the just slightly modified Leonardo version of Milan that Allegri will try to keep control over.
I’ve seen a lot of Mazzarri’s Napoli and it is definitely a 3-4 shape from the back, either 3-4-1-2 if Lavezzi stays up or 3-4-2-1 if he drops back and plays the same line as Hamsik.
Here’s a brief tactical analysis from my match write up. The rest can be found at http://napoli.theoffside.com
Let’s take a look at why Vargas was so important to Fiorentina. With a 4-2-3-1, the two wingers pose a problem for Napoli’s defence. Who is going to mark Vargas and Marchionni? If Maggio and Dossena drop back, they spend the whole game defending and will have trouble getting forward. In that situation the formation turns into a 5-2-2-1, so Maggio and Dossena really shouldn’t mark Vargas and Marchionni. The task would then fall to Napoli’s outside defenders, Campagnaro and Aronica. Cannavaro is responsible for Gilardino in the middle, but now there is another problem: who marks d’Agostino? All of Napoli’s defenders are marking someone else. Maggio and Dossena can’t really move into the middle, so it would have to be one of Blasi or Gargano. But if one of the central midfielders drops back, it leaves the other to compete with Montolivo and Zanetti for control of the central mid. This new problem can be solved by either Lavezzi or Hamsik dropping back, and that’s what happened as Lavezzi did a lot more defending than he normally does. But having Lavezzi drop back takes away from the attack, and the result is that Napoli could not get forward or keep possession for much of the second half. Napoli’s 3-4-2-1 system was overmatched by the 4-2-3-1, and if not for the Vargas sending off Fiorentina likely would have gone on to win the match handily.
According from your link and the Hi-light
Napoli realy played well with their formation. Napoli 2forwards easily challaged 4 Fiorentina fullback since they knew that very soon they back up will show up on the left side who will crossed it back to the centre or even to the second wave support at the far post.
I didn’t watch the match but what I see clearly is Napoli built up their attack very lovely.
Napoli wide player alway went up at the nick of time to connected the ball which made Fiorentian back4 looklike a tennis audience who turn their head from left to right followed those cross.
2F+2WB Napolis switched the ball wisely through 4B+2M Fiorentina.
While
1F+3M Fiorentina was held down by 3B+2WB Napoli defense.
(sorry about my English)
Firstly id like to say great article as always, i think that cavani looks to be a good signing for napoli as their first goal was created by his classic centre forward movement. However i think that they look weak at the back , terrible, lazy defending by no 14 for fiorentinas goal.
First half Napoli had the better of play I believe. They had some decent spells of possession and their counter attacks were very driven and with purpose. Fiorentina were also good, but lacking a bit of cutting edge, Gilardino’s lack of any pace hurts the team and he doesn’t bring a great amount of technical ability to make up for it. I thought Cavani was superb, he moved wide to create space and hold the ball, his movement was really good.
A few big problems with Napoli’s 2nd half play was that I believe the wingbacks got very tired and couldn’t attack OR defend as well, Lavezzi had less options due to this so he tried to do it all himself. He was dropping back inside his own half and trying to beat 3-4 men constantly. This essentially took Hamsik out of the game and left Napoli very over-matched in midfield. Even if Blasi didn’t get sent off, I didn’t see Napoli doing too much – 2nd half the Fiorentina midfielders and wide men did good to put pressure on the 1st touch of Napoli players and create some mistakes.
It’s interesting to see that Mihajilovic didn’t keep his formation from his previous club. I think it works fine, and Viola had a decent opening show. d’Agostino gave solid performance too. A pretty good start.