Napoli host Manchester City with Pep Guardiola’s side rampant, driven by the unerring
genius of Kevin De Bruyne. City beat Napoli 2-1 at home a few weeks back too, so can
Maurizio Sarri’s side do anything to stop De Bruyne and co?
Napoli’s 4-3-3 will likely line up against the same formation from City and there are
similarities in how these formations manifest on the pitch: both teams push the full-backs
high, although City invert theirs more, while both teams tend to have vertically staggered
midfield threes, with one player sitting, one pushing up, and one staying high – Napoli’s
is, however, more balanced.
Napoli’s front three of Lorenzo Insigne, Jose Callejon, and Dries Mertens should play
wider than City’s, which should be three from
Sterling , Jesus , Aguero , and San é . Both of City’s wide
players like to cut inside with the ball, while Napoli play with greater width, especially
on the right, and their full-backs pushed up vertically
to support, rather than also cutting in. City prefer to attack through the centre initially,
with De Bruyne quarter-backing moves that see four players ahead of him. Napoli’s
central, deeper midfielder, either Jorginho or
Amadou Diawara, must therefore try to cut this off at source by sitting tight on the
Belgian playmaker. Meanwhile, the other two central
midfielders, or one and a full-back tucking in,
should look to cut off City’s wider passing lanes.
In attack, Napoli need to be bold, with Mertens and Hamsik trying to find the space around
Fernandinho, City’s covering defensive midfielder. Should Fabien Delph play at left-back
again, Jose Callejon needs to pin him the touchline, which is his instinct anyway, but
Insigne should look to do the same to Walker instead
of drifting in quite so much – this will pose a
question for Walker when City break about leaving Insigne in too much space should the
Italians counter. As City tend to attack with five up and five
back, counter-attacking against them can be hard,
so Napoli must try to win the ball back when the transition occurs before City can find
their split shaping. If the wide players stay high
and wide and Napoli can press and win the ball
back, there could be a ball on to either flank that could allow for a quick counter.
Napoli also like to control possession, as City do, by rotating it around triangular
arrangements of players, for example among the two centre-backs and the deeper
midfielder, or between the full-back, central midfielder, and wide player.
This could suit City’s superb use of pressing and controlling passing lanes – just watch
how well players like Sterling and San é press
passing channels as much as they do players – and
so it could benefit Napoli to play more directly and vertically through the centre, before
spreading the ball wide. Too much rotation will entice City in – it works against many
teams, but Guardiola’s side are too good to take
risks. Lastly, Napoli would do well to find the corridors
of uncertainty, between Fernandinho and the centre-backs, and between the centre-backs
and Ederson in the City goal. John Stones and Ederson both like to push forwards to
control the space in front of them, but should Napoli be able to tease them out of position,
either by dropping Mertens back or pushing Hamsik forwards, and through crossing into
these zones, the positional issues and occasional bad decision-making that were factors for
City last season could be exploited. First in the Premier League visiting first
in Serie A should promise a great match. If Napoli are
canny and adjust elements of their tactics, they could pose Pep Guardiola’s men a problem.