Napoli 0-0 Liverpool: the home side not brave enough when going forward
The starting line-ups
A fairly uneventful 0-0 at the Stadio San Paolo.
Napoli played broadly their usual system, although here it frequently looked like a 3-4-3 rather than a 3-4-1-2 or a 3-4-2-1, as has been more accurate in recent games. Michele Pazienza and Walter Gargano started in midfield, whilst Hugo Campagnaro was in on the right side of defence, with Salvatore Aronica on the other side.
Liverpool were without the likes of Dirk Kuyt, Daniel Agger, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, so named a young, understrength side. Jay Spearing was the deepest midfielder in a double pivot with Christian Poulsen, whilst Jonjo Shelvey had more of a free role ahead. Ryan Babel and Milan Jovanovic swapped flanks.
Despite the young side and the hostile atmosphere, Liverpool started very well, keeping possession in the centre of the pitch with either of Spearing and Poulsen always free, and since it was generally Ezequiel Lavezzi or Marek Hamsik who eventually closed them down, this opened up space for the full-backs to move forward, and Liverpool kept possession well at the back.
Napoli started slowly but eventually got themselves into a decent passing rhythm, with a similar situation – one of their two holding players always had time on the ball, and if not then the 3 v 1 situation at the back, with David Ngog unable to occupy three men at once, meant that possession was easily retained here.
Napoli defend with too many
Of course, this was not particularly helpful in terms of Napoli attacking, and here we had the standard problems with a three-man defence up against a one-man attack – it’s defensively secure, but it means that the side isn’t attacking with enough players. Basic maths it may be, but the situation was apparent whenever Napoli looked to build an attack – it was rare to see anything other than 5 v 8, with the wing-backs, Andrea Dossena and Christian Maggio, only joining the moves at a late stage. Those two were the biggest dangers, but Ryan Babel and Milan Jovanovic coped reasonably well – the latter is better defensively, but Babel’s pace helped him regain a decent position quickly when he switched off.
Still, considering that Napoli have got around this problem very well in recent games (see the opening day draw at Fiorentina, where Campagnaro stepped forward as an additional midfielder and allowed Maggio to move into a more orthodox right midfield position, in turn meaning Hamsik could drift in as a central playmaker) they did little to help themselves. Campagnaro sometimes joined the attack, but it was too sporadic to put any constant pressure on the Liverpool defence. His moves forward started around the 30 min mark, and Liverpool defended better against this when Jovanovic and Babel switched sides. Still, Liverpool were reasonably comfortable – with 2 v 1 at the back and two holding players solidly in front, Napoli didn’t create a real chance until the stroke of half-time, when Paul Konchesky cleared off the line from Hamsik.
Liverpool play on break
Liverpool, as expected, largely sat back and looked to play on the counter-attack, using the pace of Ngog and Babel. They defended very well, setting out in two deep banks of four, Hodgson’s trademark, and whilst these tactics are disliked by Liverpool supporters for Premier League games the side should win, for European away legs they are perfect, as Hodgson showed with Fulham last year. The difference in Liverpool’s Premier League record (P8 W1 D3 L4) and European record (P7 W5 D2) under Hodgson is surely no coincidence, even when taking into account the quality of opposition.
Liverpool rarely pushed forward in the second half but they did have chances – as often happens against a three-man defence, the best opportunities were when play was worked from one side to another on the counter-attack, and it was Babel who had the best sights of goal. In the first half he miscontrolled a crossfield pass when through on goal and ended up putting the ball out for a throw, whilst midway through the second half he shot straight at Morgan de Sanctis after good work from Jovanovic, who had taken advantage of one of many mistakes from Aronica.
No significant changes
The disappointing aspect of the game from those wanting goals was the fact that Walter Mazzari waited until 75 minutes to bring on a substitute. His side were not brave enough on the pitch, and he was not willing to inject some attacking intent with a positive substitution. Perhaps he felt 0-0 was a good result, but Napoli should have asked a lot more questions of the Liverpool backline.
Hodgson was unquestionably pleased with a 0-0, only making like-for-like changes. Joe Cole replaced Babel and kept the ball well. Overall, Liverpool had five shots on target compared to Napoli’s three – admittedly a couple were half-hearted attempts hardly likely to cause de Sanctis major difficulties, but that, along with the scoreline, shows that Hodgson’s tactics worked well.
Conclusion
A low-key game between two sides lacking attacking intent. The major tactical feature was Napoli’s problems with 3 v 1 at the back – it simply meant they had one less player when they were attacking, and was always likely to lead to a low-scoring game unless either Campagnaro or Aronica pushed forward, which happened rarely.
Both sides played very deep – for Liverpool that was expected, but again Napoli could have been braver and pushed 15-20 yards higher up the pitch. Maybe the pace of Babel and Ngog was worrying Mazzari in this respect, but the 0-0 was predictable at an early stage.
Napoli 0-0 Liverpool: the home side not brave enough when going forward
Good piece. From what you’ve seen of Liverpool this season, do you detect any sort of grand plan from Hodgson? It was obvious from fairly early on, I think, how Benitez (and even Houllier) sought to set the team up and their first bunch of signings (certainly in the case of Alonso, Garcia etc) reflected this.
But with Hodgson we’ve had Meireles on the right, Cole under par whether behind the striker or on the left. Added to the fact his signings haven’t offered much, he has failed to get effective performances from the better players he inherited (thinking mainly Torres, but certainly others eg Agger, Johnson).
It seems to me he is trying to impose his passive, counter-attacking system from the Fulham days (and perhaps before) on a team who are more used to being on the front foot, with disasterous results.
Seems like Hodgson is approaching European games the same way as he did at Fulham. Even in their successful campaign last season, Fulham fielded weakened ‘B’ sides in the group games, only playing first-teamers when it got serious.
I think to be fair it’s a sensible ploy – he can’t risk Gerrard or Torres getting injured, and whether or not ‘Pool do well in Europe will not determine whether he keeps his job – getting them into the top 6 will.
I should be the manager for Pool
Very disappointed with Napoli last night.
A Liverpool side that was there for the taking, lacking in both confidence and craft. The home side did not show enough going forward, as ZM quite rightly has pointed out, with the formation they are often found to be overburdended at the back – esp when an away team sets up with only man up front. And in this case the away sides ‘trequartista’ didnt exactly pour forward at will either to begin with.
With Napoli’s formation, they rely heavily on the attacking full backs to provide the main outlets or sources of attack. However when opponents stifle these 2 positions as strongly as Liverpool did, then it really leaves their front 3 very isolated. This proves even more to be the case as both Gargano and Pazienza do nothing more than retain their pivotal roles in the centre. Neither player looks to get beyond their marker often enough to provide a different source of attacking threat to any deep lying defensive formation.
Maybe if pushing Campagnaro into the mix sooner, may have freed one of these players. Or, if available, the more attacking Sosa would have been a better option from the centre of midfield.
A disappointing game, especially as the atmosphere under the lights at the San Paolo created mystical memories of previous conquests in European football. Unfortunately, Napoli’s early lack of pace and urgency into the game subdued their normally vociferous home support, and thus stifled what could have been an excellent night for the Azzurri.
A question for Zonalmarking: what are Liverpool’s real problem(S)?
The players, the manager, the tactics? I can’t believe the players are that bad. Please enlighten me, the meat and potatoes pundits are spewing a lot of drivel…
if only football was that easy. finding the source of the problem may even worsen the situation as Liverpool are no position to start looking back for answers when they have no clue what tomorrow brings. the players? another case of new manager signing “his men” and ridding of the previous gaffer’s signings (Aquilani!!!). manager? with all due respect, wrong club for the kind of football that makes him smile. being outdated as a football manager is just as criminal as being a witch doctor. tactics? where do I start?!?!
I would even go as far as finding out where in the world Juande Ramos is, coz Hosgaon is either clueless or out of luck
A question for Zonalmarking: what are Liverpool’s real problem(S)?
————
-Hodgesons tactics in the PL
-Playing 4-4-2
- Playing gerrard Deep
- CARRAGHER
Hey ZM, I missed the game. How did Shelvey look? I’m excited about him for the future.
On the 3-vs-1-at-the-back dilemma: watching the Melbourne Victory vs Melbourne Heart game the other week I noticed an interesting way Ernie Merrick (Victory coach) dealt with Heart’s 4-2-3-1. He set up similarly at the back to Napoli against Fiorentina, although in the overall context of a 3-4-3 diamond shape. Adrian Leijer (ostensibly Victory’s right-sided centreback) had the dual role of tracking John Aloisi’s (the Heart striker) runs out his way as well as closing down Rutger Worm (Heart’s deep-lying left winger, playing an almost Kuyt-esque role) when he picked up the ball during a counter-attack. Billy Celeski (who, admittedly, had a shocking game as the right wingback for Victory, playing far too narrow and neither working forward nor back particularly hard) was easily bypassed on the right flank, so Leijer often pressed much higher than the other central defenders, while at the same time pushing wide from his central starting position.
The idea here seemed to be that Celeski would deal with Worm higher up the pitch, with Leijer taking responsibility when he got near the defensive line – both players having a separate zone of defensive responsibility on that right side. However, it didn’t work that way, with Worm put under very little pressure when he picked the ball up deep, which in turn drew Leijer off his line very easily, opening up space closer to goal for the likes of Aloisi, Sibon, and Terra to exploit.
So Leijer was effectively playing a dual centre-back/right-back role, and it would have worked very well if not for Celeski’s ineptitude on the right. This could be a new way of dealing with the 3-vs-1 issue, in a similar vein to Napoli’s system against Fiorentina. However, unlike Campagnaro, Leijer stayed relatively narrow until Worm began to work forward, at which point he would move further right. So, while functioning more or less as a normal back 3 in some ways (with Kevin Muscat playing his favoured libero role and Roddy Vargas manmarking Aloisi), it took the unusual step of forgoing man-marking on the right side, in favour of defensive zoning.
While I prefer Mexico’s World Cup 4-3-3/3-4-3 hybrid as a way of dealing with a 3-pronged attack, Merrick’s system (which appears to be a one-off, judging from their recent games) definitely has the potential to work very effectively, as long as the wingback and centreback can communicate effectively.
Aside from communication issues, the biggest problem would probably be that it has the effect of making the other wingback work extremely hard, having to sprint back to get goal-side of his man. Surat Sukha (Victory’s extremely fit left wingback) was obviously exhausted after about an hour.
i wonder where is the spanish wonder kid pacheko..why isnt he playing..for me he is good enough to play in first team!!!!!!!
Think he went back to Spain, saw him playing a couple of weeks ago. Can’t remember which club though.