Marco Giampaolo’s superb Sampdoria defence

Liverpool and Manchester City. What do they have in common? Well, other than being two northwestern English clubs, they are also the only clubs with a better defensive record in Europes top five leagues than Sampdoria. Yes, Sampdoria. Marco Giampaolos team have only conceded four goals in their first eight league games. This tactical analysis will look at Giampaolos defensive tactics which have proved so effective.

Formation and players

Giampaolo has become synonymous with the 4-3-1-2 formation which he has used exclusively in his time at Sampdoria and also at previous club Empoli. The shape includes a back-four, three central midfielders, one number ten and two strikers. Since this is Giampaolos third season in charge at Samp, youd be forgiven for thinking Samps success comes from having a core of players who know the system by heart. This is not the case as Samp have had players come and go throughout Giampaolos reign. To consistently be able to transfer his ideas to new players seems to be one of Giampaolos strengths.

After his first season he lost his central defender Milan Skriniar and this summer he lost his first-choice defenders, Matias Silvestre and Gian Marco Ferrari. Added to that, his defensive midfielder Lucas Torreira was sold to Arsenal.

Giampaolo is backed up by the superb sporting director Carlo Osti who consistently finds players perfectly suited to Giampaolos football. This season sees the young Dane Joachim Andersen lead the defence alongside Omar Colley who was brought in from Belgium. Swedish international Albin Ekdal has been brought into Torreiras old role and has been superb thus far. The quality of Sampdorias recruitment has given Giampaolo the right players for his tactics and hes quickly managed to get them to grasp the concepts of his football.

Tactical analysis: Marco Giampaolos defensive set up

Giampaolo uses a positional defensive setup with occasional man-orientations in certain games or certain phases of the game. Ive explained what positional defending is in this piece, but largely it means the team defends according to the position of their teammates, the ball and the space. This is in stark contrast to a man-orientated defence where the first focus is to mark opponents. Giampaolos positional approach means the team primary target is to keep a compact shape to be tough to play through and then take the rest from there. Now lets get into the details.

Compact and narrow shape

Giampaolos 4-3-1-2 is by nature narrow and his aim is to restrict the opportunity to play through his team centrally. This forces teams wide where Giampaolo is happy for them to have the ball. Sampdorias three midfielders cover the two half-spaces and the central space and the number ten provides a presence between midfield and attack to block progression through that space as well. The image below is a good illustration of how the formation looks. Its extremely compact and tough to play through that shape.

Below is another example of what the shape can look like. Giampaolo tweaks the positions of the two wider central midfielders slightly depending on the style of the opposition. Against teams trying to play through the centre, such as Napoli or Juventus, Samp are extremely narrow with their midfield. But against teams like Atalanta who often use the wings they a bit wider. Below is an image from the game against Atalanta where the left-sided central midfielder Linetty prepares to move wider which is possible given Atalantas lack of central options within Sampdorias structure.

Please also notice the positions of the back-four in all these images. They always keep an impeccable line. This is one of