Inter hosted Gennaro Gattuso’s Napoli last night in what was one of the biggest midweek matches in Serie A Round 12 and here is our tactical analysis of the game.
The build-up of the encounter was a little strange given that pressure was continuously mounting on manager Antonio Conte to start delivering. Napoli on the other hand, were expected to eke out a win and continue putting together a run that would help them mount a sustainable title challenge.
The Lineups
Inter went for their regular 3-5-2 formation with Stefan de Vrij paired up with Alessandro Bastoni and Milan Skriniar in a three-man defence. Former Manchester United misfits Ashley Young and Matteo Darmian operated as wing-backs while Marcelo Brozovic settled at the base of the midfield to provide further protection to the backline. Up ahead, Roberto Gagliardini and Nicolò Barella were positioned as advanced midfielders tasked with providing creative impetuous to Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez.
Napoli on the other hand, opted for a 4-4-2 formation with Kostas Manolas and Kalidou Koulibaly pairing up at the heart of defense and Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Mario Rui operating as conventional full-backs.
In order to contain the enterprising talents of Barella and Gagliardini, Gattuso went for a double pivot comprised of Diego Demme and Tiemoué Bakayoko. Hirving Lozano and Lorenzo Insigne acted as wingers on either flank and the tip of the attack was led by the pairing of Dries Mertens and Piotr Zelinski.
Throughout the first half, it was clear that both teams were willing to soak up pressure before making their move. The early stages of the game were very cagey, with both teams trying hard not to make any mistakes, closing down one another and constricting space.
Napoli’s plans did receive a major setback when Mertens tweaked his ankle while trying to deliver a cross with his body in a rather awkward position. The Belgian was replaced by Andrea Petagna shortly after and Gattuso would be sweating over his star player’s fitness.
What was interesting during the first half was that despite losing arguably their greatest creative influence, it was Napoli who seemed to be playing with more purpose. In fact, Kalidou Koulibaly was much more enterprising in his displays, always looking to drive further beyond his original position, thus freeing up more space for his teammates.
As you can see from his heat map, the Senegalese international was continuously available down the left flank and every time he got a chance, he would venture further up field.
He won 6 out of 7 ground duels and had 106 touches.
Now if you look at the xG touches map for both teams, you get the idea about how the game eventually panned out. Inter managed to nick this one but barely. Antonio Conte’s men only had two real chances while Napoli had at least four clear cut goal scoring opportunities that were snuffed out by an in-form Samir Handanovic.
On any other day, Napoli could have won this game, but it was essentially the ultra-defensive tactics deployed by Conte that assured the Nerazzurri three valuable points.
To further back our argument, you can look at the xG map above. The first quarter of the game was a dull affair but from then on, the match opened up – not thanks to Inter who needed a penalty to win it anyway. As you can see, Napoli’s xG kept improving throughout the game which can be further backed by the following infographic:
As you can see from this, Napoli dominated the game in every area except the goals. Their xG was better, they had more shots on target, had more deep pass completions and based on the PPDA, stretched the Inter defense to its limits.
However, it should also be noted that at present, Romelu Lukaku leads the Serie A xG charts so based on our data centric approach, it wasn’t much of a surprise that he managed to find the back of the net once again.
Conclusion
Even though this wasn’t Inter’s prettiest win in recent memory, Antonio Conte will take it. Three points mean that Inter are now trailing league leaders Milan by just a point but based on this performance, it is clear that they don’t look like genuine title contenders.
Throughout the second half, Napoli laid siege on the Inter goal and on any other day, the Nerazzurri could have lost the game.
Napoli, on the other hand, have a few issues to take care of. While they are very good at the break and do tend to cause quite a few problems, it seems that Gattuso’s men don’t offer enough penetration in the final third. This aspect of their game is going to see them struggle to mount a Scudetto assault.
Moreover, with Mertens set to miss at least a couple of games through injury and Victor Osimhen still unavailable, Napoli will have to rely on the likes of Hirving Lozano and Andrea Petagna to come up with the goods in the upcoming encounters.
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