Serie A 2018/19: Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli

Much was expected of Carlo Ancelotti when he replaced Maurizio Sarri as Napoli head coach this summer. The experienced Italian has overseen some changes to the playing style so far. Despite those changes Napoli have kept getting good results with the highlight being the Champions League win over Liverpool. They were soundly beaten at Juventus, but find themselves just four points behind the Bianconeri in the Serie A table. This tactical analysis looks at how Napoli have played under Ancelottis guidance.

Tactical analysis: Carlo Ancelottis Napoli

Napoli gained plaudits for both their results and style of play under Sarri where they broke their points total over and again. Ancelottis work has been to build on the very specific style Sarri implemented and make the necessary tweaks to make Napoli improve. The main change has seen Ancelotti drop the 4-3-3 Sarri used and Carletto started the season with. Instead Ancelotti has moved to a 4-4-2 with the biggest change having been the deployment of Marek Hamsik in a more defensive role and Lorenzo Insigne through the centre as a second striker.

Tactical shift in defence

In his autobiography Ancelotti explained why he believes 4-4-2 the best defensive formation there is. He said that he finds it the formation to best cover space vertically as well as horizontally. Weve seen him use it before; at Real Madrid, Ancelotti largely played 4-3-3 in possession but that changed to a 4-4-2 in defence. Its hard to say it didnt work as Real Madrid won the 2014 Champions League.

After starting the season in a 4-3-3 with the same characteristics as Sarris 4-3-3, Ancelotti has moved the shape into his preferred 4-4-2. This has dramatically changed the position and role of Marek Hamsik in central midfield. A former number ten, Hamsik played as the left-sided attacking central midfielder in Sarris system. With Ancelotti, Hamsik started the season as the defensive midfielder but now plays as one of two central midfielders. This has created a role with a lot more defensive responsibility for the captain.

We can see this in the image below. Jose Callejon is Napolis right-sided midfielder here and provides pressure on the ball. The ball-side central midfielder, Allan, provides man-orientated pressing on Juves central midfielder. Hamsik (yellow) acts as the most defensive player and provides cover for Allan. On the bottom we can also see the left-sided midfielder Piotr Zielinski centring.

From Sarris almost strictly positional defending, Ancelotti mixes a positional with a man-orientated defensive setup. That can be seen above with one midfielder marking and the other defending space.

Against PSG on Wednesday, Ancelotti looked to press quite high but the defending was much more zonal than man-orientated. Instead Napoli tried to keep their front-two tightly connected to the midfield quartet and minimise the space for PSG to build up in. It worked really well as Napoli dominated the first half in Paris.