Napoli plays with 4-3-3 line up. In set attacks, they use two different formations. First formation is 3-1-2-4. If they attack with 3-1-2-4, one full back stays at the defense line (usually Di Lorenzo) and the other full back goes forward from wing. Defensive midfielder takes position of the stoppers’ front. Right and left centre midfielders support attacks but right centre midfielder can use half-space more than left centre midfielder.
Because when right back closes to defense line, right winger closes to touchline and uses wing. So this time, right half-space is free for right centre midfielder. Left centre midfielder can’t take position in half-space as much as the right centre midfielder because when left back supports attack from wing, left winger has to shift to left half-space to find enough space. And when he shifts, in left half-space, left centre midfielder can’t find space for himself. But left centre midfielder uses centre too and he has more freedom about attacking than right centre midfielder. Also he supports attacks more.
The second formation is 2-3-2-3. If they attack with 2-3-2-3, full backs go to midfield and stay at half-spaces. Defensive midfielder takes position in defense line’s front. Because full backs are in half-space, wingers usually use wings and take position in touchline’s beside. Both right and left centre midfielders can support attack from half-spaces because of wingers’ positionings.
Sometimes right or left centre midfielder closes to defense line from half-space and full back, who takes position closer to midfielder which midfielder closes to defense line, goes to wing. This time, winger who takes position in the same wing with full back, goes to half-space in forward.
Now I start to explain tactics which are not specific for the moment attacking formation. From this situation, I will explain some tactical things. In this situation, Napoli tries to make game against Juventus. Juventus tries to meet them with 4-4-1-1 in midfield. Minutes is 02:38. Manolas has the ball. The opponent’s second forward closes to him little bit to stop Manolas’ moving forward with the ball. Then Manolas passes to Mario Rui. The opponent’s right winger meets Mario Rui but first of all, he tries to cut the connection between Mario Rui and Insigne. Because of that, Mario Rui passes to Fabian Ruiz who closes to him from midfield.
When Fabian Ruiz takes the ball, the opponent’s second forward and right centre midfielder meet him. But Fabian Ruiz protects the ball and sees Insigne’s diagonal movement to midfield and passes to him. When Insigne takes the ball, he has enough time to look at his pass options and he passes to Osimhen who escapes to Juventus’ defense line’s back. And they pass Juventus’ midfield pressing.
In this situation, there are a lot of great and smart movements. When Fabian Ruiz closes to Mario Rui to take the ball, at the same time, Insigne starts to close half-space from wing and takes position between midfield and forward lines. The opponent’s right back was marking Insigne but as Insigne goes to half-space and takes position in between midfield and forward lines, Insigne will not be in his marking area. So because of that, he won’t mark Insigne anymore. Because the opponent’s right back won’t mark Insigne anymore, before Fabian Ruiz takes the ball from Mario Rui, the opponent’s right centre midfielder sees Insigne’s movement and tries to cover him too. He doesn’t close to Insigne so much because first of all, he tries to meet Fabian Ruiz.
Normally, marking Fabian Ruiz was second forward’s mission. But in this situation, before Mario Rui took the ball, Manolas had the ball and second forward closed to him little bit to stop Manolas’ moving forward with the ball. Then when Manolas passed to Mario Rui, because Fabian Ruiz was already closer to Mario Rui, Fabian Ruiz could shift to Mario Rui quickly and second forward couldn’t. So this time, the opponent’s right centre midfielder had to cover Fabian Ruiz.
But Insigne’s movement confused the opponent’s right centre midfielder’s mind because now, if he closes to Fabian Ruiz, Insigne will be free. But if he closes to Insigne, Fabian Ruiz can make game before second forward catches him. So he took position between Insigne and Fabian Ruiz.
This positioning worked for Napoli because Fabian Ruiz found time and space to pass the ball to Insigne and also Insigne could find space and time to make game when he took the ball from Fabian Ruiz too. So the opponent’s right centre midfielder couldn’t cover both Insigne and Fabian Ruiz.
The opponent’s right centre midfielder couldn’t defend them well because as David Sumpter explains in his book Soccermatics, if two players try to passing each other against one defender, defender has two taking position options: pressing to player who has the ball or closing to other player who wants to receive the ball. If he takes position in these two players’ middle, he can’t cover one of these players perfectly because his position is not fit to cover player who has the ball or player who wants to receive the ball. And this time, he can’t cover both players either. And right centre midfielder made this mistake.
Firstly, he saw Insigne’s movement. And closed to him. But then when Fabian Ruiz took the ball from Mario Rui, he realized that Fabian Ruiz is free and second forward couldn’t catch him. This time, he started to close to Fabian Ruiz but he wasn’t close to him and because of that, he couldn’t catch him quickly. This time Fabian Ruiz could have time to pass to Insigne. And right centre midfielder couldn’t cut the connection between Insigne and Fabian Ruiz because after he closed to Fabian Ruiz, Insigne remained at his back so Insigne was out in his visual angle.
If we look at Juventus’ other players, actually, there are a lot of players who can cover Insigne. But Napoli’s players took position so smart too and didn’t let them cover Insigne.
Normally, the opponent’s left centre midfielder could close to Insigne and cover him. But in this situation, Elmas took position centrally and pulled him. After Insigne took the ball, he closed to Insigne as quickly as he could but he couldn’t mark Insigne quickly and Insigne could make game.
The opponent’s right stopper could close to midfield and cover Insigne but he didn’t close. Because Osimhen was matching with the opponent’s left stopper and trying to escape the opponent’s defense line’s back. And because the opponent’s left stopper didn’t want to miss him, he was taking position defense line’s back little bit. So if the opponent’s right stopper would close to Insigne, this time, the distance between him and left stopper would be too much and left stopper had to cover Osimhen 1 vs 1 in more space. Osimhen could enforce him in much space and right stopper couldn’t help to right stopper.
Osimhen usually tries to escape the opponent’s back from the opponent’s right stopper’s back. They use this movement well but also it can be a problem about using right half-space.
Sometimes when Anguissa supports the attack from right half-space and also Elmas goes to right half-space closer to forward, they can’t be effective because of Osimhen’s positioning.
In this situation, the minute is 32:14. When Politano closes to touchline, he pulls the opponent’s left back to himself. And this time, the distance between left back and left stopper increases. Anguissa is in the right half-space and matches with the opponent’s left centre midfielder.
Elmas is in the right half-space and taking position in forward as an extra player but the opponent’s left stopper can close to him and cover him. Because he is free. Because Osimhen is matching with the opponent’s right stopper, he can cover Elmas.
Napoli doesn’t use this attacking situation from left when Osimhen matches with right stopper. Because when they try to make game from left, Elmas is already in left half-space. If they attack from right, when Elmas closes to right half-space, he becomes an extra player. Because normally, he takes position in left half-space. But when they attack from left, they don’t have an extra player. Anguissa can be this extra player like when they make game from right Elmas was but his role is more stationary. Because of that, they can’t make game from left like the previous situation.
But also, as I explained in this article before, they can make game with Insigne’s movement from left and benefit from Osimhen’s positioning.
As I explained before, Zielinski or Elmas (whoever plays) is more free and in a more supporter role. So this player takes position closer to forward. But also sometimes when Fabian Ruiz and Anguissa can’t make game, he closes to midfield and be the extra pass option for Fabian Ruiz and Anguissa. And they can make game.
In this situation, Cagliari tries to meet Napoli in set defence with 4-2-3-1. The minute is 30:15. In Napoli, Rrahmani plays instead of Manolas and Zielinski plays instead of Elmas.
Rrahmani has the ball and nobody presses to him. The opponent’s offensive midfielder marks Fabian Ruiz with shadow marking and the opponent’s left defensive midfielder matches with Anguissa. Rrahmani can’t pass to Anguissa or Fabian Ruiz.
Then Zielinski closes to Rrahmani and also, offensive midfielder moves away from Fabian Ruiz and closes to Rrahmani.
Zielinski’s movement is so important because with that movement, he is an extra pass option for Rrahmani and Rrahmani can pass to him. Because not the opponent’s any player can cut the connection between them. The opponent’s right defensive midfielder was matching with Zielinski but he let Zielinski take the ball from Rrahmani comfortably.
When the ball goes to Zielinski from Rrahmani, Fabian Ruiz starts to move forward a little bit too. With that movement, he will take the ball from Zielinski comfortably because offensive midfielder can’t cut the connection between them. Because now offensive midfielder tries to cut the connection between Rrahmani and Fabian Ruiz, not between Zielinski and Fabian Ruiz.
And Zielinski passes to Fabian Ruiz. Fabian Ruiz takes the ball comfortably, passes to left and they start to attack from more forward.
Offensive midfielder couldn’t cover Fabian Ruiz well. Because when he decided to close Rrahmani, he moved away from Fabian Ruiz. Still he could cut the connection between Rrahmani and Fabian Ruiz but when the ball went to Zielinski, he was too far away from the connection between Zielinski and Fabian Ruiz. So he couldn’t cut this new connection. Also with Fabian Ruiz’ movement to forward, the distance between him and the connection between Fabian Ruiz and Zielinski became more.
