Sampdoria have only won Serie A once, in the 1990/91 season, and have generally been overshadowed
by their city rivals Genoa, who have a longer and more illustrious history.
This season, while La Samp have no chance of taking the title, they are attracting praise
for their possession-based attacking style and the form of young midfielder Lucas Torreira,
another hot central midfield property developing nicely in the Italian top flight.
Sampdoria have played a 4-3-1-2 in every game this season, with a first choice strike pairing
of Duvan Zapata and the evergreen Fabio Quagliarella playing ahead of Gaston Ramirez or Gianluca
Caprari in the hole.
The first choice midfield three sees Torreira sit in the centre, with Edgar Barreto on the
right and young Belgian prospect Dennis Praet on the left, although Karol Linetty has also
played a significant number of games.
The defence, anchored by Gianmarco Ferrari and Matias Silvestre, play a high line and
tend to move up as one, even in possession.
While the full backs do push up, they tend not to when the centre backs have the ball
even if there is space – they wait for the ball to go into the midfield before pushing
forwards, to ensure that space does not open behind them to be exploited in the event of
a turnover.
Sampdoria press cleverly from the front.
Zapata, who is strong and quick, actively presses the centre backs in possession, while
Quagliarella tends to drop off, though he does press from the front too.
The flanking midfielders on either side are responsible for pressing the full-backs when
the ball is still in the opposition half, while Quagliarella and the attacking midfielder
press either the opposition anchor midfielder or the passing lanes to central midfield.
This allows the Sampdoria defence to keep its high line and shape, as the full backs
do not engage the press, and also means that two midfielders are able to stay deeper as
they shuffle across, so they can try to cut out any long passes that bypass the press.
This pressing style, which transitions well into a back four low block, and defensive
shape mirrors the way Sampdoria attack, too.
They funnel much of their initial build-up through the centre.
The full backs will stay reasonable aligned with the centre backs until the ball has transitioned
into midfield and they can be played in with a pass in a forwards direction; if there is
no space to move into, they will hang back.
The centre backs and Torreira will play the ball between them, much as Napoli do, until
the right time to transition forwards occurs.
Torreira is the fulcrum of this Sampdoria side and excels as a deep-lying midfielder,
capable of reading play to make interceptions, tackling well, and shooting from deep.
He plays short, sensible passes either to the flanking midfielders, who split wider
in possession, or forwards to the attacking midfielder.
The flanking midfielders then play in a full back on the overlap for a cross, recycle to
Torreira, or look to pass through or over the top to the strikers.
Gaston Ramirez, formerly of Southampton and Middlesbrough among others, looks rejuvenated
for this Sampdoria side, with eight assists in Serie A so far.
Playing behind Quagliarella, who has 17 goals and five assists himself, Ramirez has excelled
with deft through balls, lay-offs to midfielders arriving from deep, and passes out wide.
He uses his physical strength to win the ball back high, too, turning defence into attack
in dangerous areas.
With Quagliarella converting his chances well, assisted ably by Zapata, and the midfield
weighing in with a few too, Sampdoria are, if not exactly this season’s’ surprise
package, certainly performing above expectations.
They can be stymied by teams who attack with high wingers, due to the 4-3-1-2’s lack
of natural width and the opposition pinning back the full backs, but against most teams
their combination of incisive attacking, possession-based style, and intelligent pressing works well.
Their blend of experience and potential is also exciting, and if they can maintain their
form, Sampdoria will be a welcome addition to European football next season.