This month, Gennaro Gattuso followed in the footsteps of compatriots Claudio Ranieri and Cesare Prandelli, becoming the third Italian manager to take charge of Valencia CF.
The former Napoli boss has signed a two-year deal to become owner Peter Lims tenth managerial appointment since buying the club in 2014.
He has replaced Jose Bordalas, who was sacked after the club finished ninth in La Liga last season.
The journeyman manager has proven to be an unpopular choice amongst Valencia fans, who have now added to their protests of the club’s ownership by picking up the baton from Tottenhams supporters last season and started protesting against Gattuso’s appointment.
This article will be a tactical analysis of Gennaro Gattuso’s tactics and style of play.
We will focus on his time at Napoli and provide an insight into the tactical trends the Valencia fans can expect to see at the Mestalla this coming season.
Valencia Data Analysis
Tactically, there will be similarities between how Valencia set up under Jose Bordalas and how they set up under Gennaro Gattuso.
As we will show in this analysis, out of possession, similar principles are applied in Gattuso’s and Bordalas’s defensive shape.
However, the way Gattuso wants his team to regain possession differs from what Valencia saw at the Mestalla last season.
During Gattuso’s full season in charge of Napoli, their opposition averaged 13.81 passes per defensive action before Napoli started to engage in winning the ball back, with their challenge intensity measuring at 5.1.
This is how many defensive duels, loose ball duels, interceptions and tackles Napoli were performing for each of their opponent’s possessions.
The table below shows how they compared to the other teams in Serie A during the 2021/22 season.
As you can see, Napoli ranked low in terms of challenge intensity and was only the 10th highest in PPDA.
Overall, this shows that Gattuso preferred his team not to go looking to win the ball back immediately or aggressively when the opposition where in possession.
Instead, they would look to maintain a solid defensive shape.
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