Serie A 2018/19 Tactical Analysis: Leonardo Semplici at SPAL

Leonardo Semplici might be an unknown coach for those not following Italian football closely. That could change soon. Semplici has had a stunning rise away from the limelight and is currently impressing at SPAL. This tactical analysis will look at his attacking ideas and his defensive setup.

Background

Leonardo Semplici was born in Florence and impressed in his first coaching stints at Sangimignano and Figline in the lower Italian leagues. The 51-year-old then had short stints at Arezzo and Pisa before working in Fiorentinas academy. In December 2014, Semplici was appointed at SPAL, then in Lega Pro.

Semplici led them to promotion to Serie B in his first full season in 2015/16 and followed that up by securing back-to-back promotions as SPAL returned to Serie A for the first time in 49 years. Semplici then kept them up last season and is about to repeat the trick again this season. This success makes him an intriguing potential for some of the mid-table Serie A clubs.

Tactical analysis: Leonardo Semplicis style of play

Semplici has utilised a 3-5-2 system at SPAL when attacking, and when defending the wing-backs drop to create 5-3-2 instead. If we look at the statistics, we can see that SPAL, used a very dominant style in attack as their average of 50.4% is equal to clubs like Lazio and Fiorentina, for example.

As well see below, SPAL have one of the best build-up systems in Italy, but they often failed to convert their good overall play into goals since they only scored 44 goals. With better players, though, Semplici would probably see his teams score more.

Attacking structure: Positional play concepts

Semplici uses a variety of interesting concepts in attack. He wants his side to build attacks from the back and to quickly advance up the pitch with fast passing combinations. This has created a very exciting brand of vertical passing. Its easy to spot some well-known positional play concepts in Semplicis possession setup.

Firstly, he sets the team up in an impressive positional structure that creates maximum width, central players between the lines and numerical advantage in the first line. This setup can be seen below. Ive highlighted the back three, the positioning of the three central midfielders, the wing-backs (black) and the two strikers.

Its very clear that Semplici wants his midfielders to get in between the lines of the opposition. Its rare to see two of the three midfielders positioned on the same horizontal line. The defensive midfielder, Simone Missiroli in the image below, is always positioned behind the opponents first line of defence.

In the image below, we can clearly see how Missiroli positions himself between the lines of Romas attack and midfield. This is another concept in positional play; to have players positioned between the lines of the opposition.