In Round 22 of Serie A, Juventus were looking to extend their unbeaten run in all competitions to eight matches as Andrea Pirlo’s men faced Napoli – who started the day outside of the top six – in the hope of reducing the gap at the top of the table.
Unfortunately, the pre-match build-up did not live up to expectations as Napoli sealed a narrow 1-0 win over the Bianconeri in what was a dull and uninspiring encounter with few chances on either end. It was the first victory for Gennaro Gattuso’s men after three winless performances in all competitions, with Napoli taking a step closer to securing a so-needed Champions League spot for the next season.
In contrast, Juventus have blown away a massive opportunity to reduce the gap to just four points following Milan’s shocking 2-0 loss to Spezia. The last season’s Scudetto winners are currently seven points behind the Rossoneri, though Pirlo’s side do have a game in hand that still keeps them in contention to retain the league title.
The following tactical analysis will break down the key playing patterns of both teams, explaining the intricacies of their tactical approach to the game.
Starting Lineups and Formations
Both managers went for their tried and trusted tactical formations as outlined in the graphics, though in possession, the teams altered their shape depending on the circumstances. In detail, Gattuso opted for a more solid 4-2-3-1 set-up with a double pivot, whilst Pirlo stuck with a 4-4-2 formation.
At the back, Napoli were without their main center-back pair of Kalidou Koulibaly and Kostas Manolas, with Amir Rrahmani and Nikola Maksimovic stepping into the void of the injured duo. The other two integral players to Napoli’s defensive system in Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Mario Rui were fit to play and were supposed to be a threat in the attacking phase. However, their role against Juventus was more restricted to defensive tasks and playing a part in the first phase of build-up rather than making overlapping runs in the final third.
In midfield, Gattuso decided to go with a double pivot in Tiemoué Bakayoko and Piotr Zielinski, with the French international taking up a more retrieved holding midfield role. Contrarily, the 26-year-old Polish midfielder was given license to play further forward and often combined with Lorenzo Insigne, who played as a “number 10” in this game. On the flanks, it was Matteo Politano (right) and Hirving Lozano (left) who looked to create shot and goal opportunities from individual play, while Victor Osimhen led the line as a lone striker.
On the other side of the pitch, Juventus’ tactical set-up in possession looked more complex with one of the full-backs going high and wide, whereas the other one was a lot more cautious going forward and often tucked into midfield to create numerical superiority. Juan Cuadrado (right-back) was the more adventurous of the two, while Danilo (left-back) was more concerned with the defensive work and seldom made forward runs.
In the middle of the park, Rodrigo Bentancur and Adrien Rabiot formed a double pivot and were integral to Juventus’ build-up play in the first phase, whilst Federico Bernardeschi occupied the right half-space with Cuadrado on the outside, and Federico Chiesa occupied the whole left flank. Upfront, Alvaro Morata and Cristiano Ronaldo often interchanged positions looking to link-up play and get on the end of crosses.
Juventus’ Offensive Strategy: Emphasis on Cuadrado’s Right Side, Crosses Into the Box and Second-Half Adjustments
Even though the Bianconeri place a lot of emphasis on possession-play, trying to build their play from the back using sequences of slow and short passing combinations, Juve are also often capable of adjusting their style of play by adding more directness, verticality, and switch of play to their game.
In order to support the above statements, we delve into some statistical metrics. Pirlo’s men play the third-highest number of progressive passes per game in the league (42.6), only 0.3 passes behind second-placed Inter, also the second-most passes into the final third (38.9), and the seventh-highest number of crossfield passes to switch the play (15.1).
Additionally, Juve’s tendency to play more direct at times can be supported by the total distance their passes have traveled towards the opponent’s goal in yards. Pirlo’s men are the Serie A leaders for this metric, with their completed passes travelling on average 3164.4 yards per game. Contrarily, Sassuolo – a team with the highest amount of ball-possession in the league (59.0%) – are only 6th in the league for this metric, with their passes on average traveling 2741.8 yards per game.
Against Napoli, Juventus recorded even higher numbers for all the aforementioned metrics, including progressive passes (49), passes into the final third (39), and crossfield passes (18). The reasons for that are twofold: First, on occasions, when Napoli were applying a high-press, Juve had to play out from the back from deep areas, thus increasing the length of the pitch that allowed a more vertical ball progression and more switch of play in their build-up. Second, when Napoli retrieved into a low defensive block, it was much easier for Juventus to reach the final third of the pitch.
Nonetheless, although Juve were very comfortable on the ball throughout the game (63% possession), they either did not want to or simply could not find the way how to penetrate Napoli in the top third of the pitch. For this reason, the Bianconeri were very pragmatic in their approach around Napoli’s penalty area and relied on countless crosses into the box, particularly in the second half.
In the images below, we start with Juventus’ build-up play when Napoli were attempting to press their opponents higher up the pitch. In the first half, the often reoccurring pattern was to see Danilo occupying a central midfield spot in order to fill in the absence of one of the central midfielders who dropped in between the center-backs to facilitate the build-up. Additionally, such a manoeuver opened the wide areas, particularly the left flank, where Chiesa was playing in the first half.
After progressing through the first block of Napoli press, Juventus often found themselves in the situations similar to the one displayed in the illustration below. In this instance, Napoli’s backline shifted more towards the ball side, thus leaving more space on the opposite side for Cuadrado to exploit.
The second type of build-up play utilized by Juventus was against a mid-block of Napoli, meaning the home side were comfortably resting in a 4-4-2 defensive shape without attempting to press the opposition on the front foot. In such case, Pirlo’s men often tried to pull Napoli out of their blocks by playing many short forward and backwards passes, which initially forced Gattuso’s men to step out into the opposing half.
As a result, Juventus were also forced to retrieve deeper into their half with the ball and restart the build-up play in the defensive third. One of the tactics used by Juve when reorganizing their build-up was to overload one side of the pitch, thus underloading the other side.
Consequently, if Juve managed to break out of Napoli’s press successfully, they would have someone receiving the ball on the underloaded side, like in the example presented below. However, in most instances, the ball receiver was too slow to take advantage of the situation and switch the play to the side overloaded with Juventus players.
Consequently, most of Juventus’ attempts to penetrate the opposition in their defensive third failed as illustrated in the image below. Napoli were quick in closing down spaces which left Juventus with no other option but to send crosses into the box from not the most advantageous zones of the pitch.
A similar scenario is illustrated below, where Juve are building their play from the back, after outnumbering the opposition in the first phase of build-up. Danilo moved inwards once again to compensate for the absence of the central midfield player, plus allowing Chiesa to occupy the entire left flank.
In this case, Juve were successful in bypassing Napoli’s high press on the overloaded left side, which created space on the opposite wing for Cuadrado to exploit. Unfortunately, Morata’s crossfield pass was poor and did not reach the intended target.
Nevertheless, Juve stuck to their principle even when Napoli retrieved to a low-mid block. As we can see in the illustrations below, the Bianconeri have five players on the ball side, thus dragging Napoli players out there as well. The intention was to switch the play from left to right once again, but a player on the ball – Bentancur in this instance – did not attempt to play a diagonal pass for some reason.
Nonetheless, when Juventus did switch the play, on most occasions, it was already too little too late, which left Cuadrado with no other option but to play a long cross into the box from difficult positions.
In the second half, Pirlo made some changes in the personnel, with Alex Sandro coming on in place of Cuadrado. This change meant a tactical alteration as Chiesa moved over to the right-wing, whilst Alex Sandro occupied a left-back spot. From this moment, the intention was to play to the strengths of Chiesa, who is very good in one-on-one situations, by switching overloading the left side and switching the play to the right.
However, such a tactical change brought little success as Juve kept launching countless crosses into Napoli’s penalty area. The home side’s low defensive block proved to be an unsolvable mystery, with the Bianconeri playing an astonishing 27 crosses in the second half, of which only 8 found the target man (30% accuracy).
Napoli’s Attacking Organization: Left-Sided Build-Up, Not Press Resistant and Low Defensive Block
Although Napoli came away with much needed three points against Juventus, their offensive display was one of the worst of this Serie A season. Gattuso’s men were very restricted and cautious in their offensive actions and did not show the kind of attacking mindset combined with the fluidity that we have been accustomed to after watching Napoli for the last couple of seasons.
The Azzurri were second best in every statistical aspect of the game – apart from the scoreline – that was particularly unusual to see despite the opposition they faced. Throughout the 90 minutes, Napoli managed only 8 attempts at goal, of which only 2 hit the target (25% accuracy), plus created only one big scoring chance during the entire game. Additionally, Gattuso’s men created only 13 shot and 2 goal-creating actions – way below their season average. Speaking of season average statistics, so far, Napoli have been a team attempting the most shots per game (17.5), which result from the highest number of shot actions they create in the league (28.05). Sadly for Napoli fans, their team was well below par in this department against Juventus.
The most logical explanation for this is that Napoli simply decided to shut up shop after going 1-0 ahead, despite being relatively unimpressive from the attacking sense prior to their goal as well. Nevertheless, when Napoli did go forward, they tended to build their play down the left side of the pitch, with Mario Rui, Lozano and Insigne all combining in tight spaces. The principle of overload and underload was also present in Napoli’s game as can be seen in the images below. It is worth noting that the build-up play that led to free-kick and eventually the penalty also took place down the left side.
However, Napoli’s attempt to play out from the back under a severe amount of pressure from Juventus often ended up in lost possession, which perhaps forced the home team to sit back and preserve a 1-0 lead. According to Understat, Juventus allowed Napoli only 6.86 passes per defensive action (PPDA) in their half, meaning the Bianconeri were often pressing their opponents on the front foot deep into their half.
We can see how deep Napoli were defending in the second half compared to Juventus.
Shot Map of Both Teams
xG (expected goals): Napoli 1.04 – 2.47 Juventus
Result: Napoli – Juventus 1-0
Conclusion
To sum it up, Napoli clinched a very important win in the race for the top four, whereas Juventus wasted a great opportunity to close the gap to the leading Milan teams. It would be fair to say that the absence of Manolas and Koulibaly forced Gattuso to approach the game more cautiously and defensively, thus sacrificing the offensive side of the team. Contrarily, although Juve were comfortable in breaking Napoli’s press, they lacked ideas and the speed of thought in the final third of the pitch, which prevented them from unlocking Napoli’s low defensive block.