Arnold Clark Cup 2023: How England’s convincing attacking performance highlighted Italy’s issues – tactical analysis

The Lionesses faced the Azzurre in the Arnold Clark Cup’s third match of the 2023 edition, hosted by the Football Association in Bristol, Coventry and Milton Keynes, England. The latter won the tournament after finishing at the top of the group which includes Belgium, Italy and South Korea, while Belgium finished second, Italy third and South Korea held the last spot with no points.

The competition served to assess the team’s strengths and weaknesses so far ahead of the Women’s World Cup as it also helped head coaches try their desired tactics and experiment with their ideas during this friendly tournament.

In this tactical analysis article, we will be providing an analysis of what Italy Women need to improve and what they are already good at while also reserving a part that analyses England Women’s performance and explores their key strengths and weaknesses ahead of the big event.

Lineups and formations

Sarina Wiegman opted for the usual 4-3-3 formation with Manchester City’s Ellie Roebuck as a goalkeeper, Manchester United’s Maya Le Tissier, Jess Carter, Alex Greenwood and Niamh Charles in defence, Keira Walsh as a defensive midfielder, Laura Coombs and Jess Park as central midfielders, Lauren Hemp and Katie Robinson as wingers and Rachel Daly as the team’s striker. This line-up included a mix between the team’s usual starting players and players who appeared less with the Lionesses such as Park, Charles, and Robinson.

More importantly, Wiegman gave a second opportunity to Daly as a striker after a long period of using her as a full-back with the national team previously. After her start as a striker against Norway paid off since she scored a goal in that match and convinced Wiegman, perceptions about using Daly only as a full-back with the Lionesses started to change and Wiegman tried Daly as a striker once again against Italy. The former Houston Dash forward didn’t fail Wiegamn’s expectations and confirmed her great run of form as a striker with Aston Villa this season by scoring two goals against Italy and highlighting her outstanding finishing abilities to Wiegman.

On the other hand, Milena Bertolini preferred to start the match with the 4-2-3-1 formation using Milan’s Laura Giuliani as a goalkeeper, Valentina Bergamaschi, Martina Lenzini, Cecilia Salvai and Lisa Boattin in defence, Aurora Galli and Martina Rosucci as central midfielders, Manuela Giugliano as an advanced playmaker, Valentina Giacinti and Barbara Bonansea as wingers while Juventus Cristiana Girelli was the team’s striker.

It is true that Bertolini made some creative changes in this lineup such as playing Giacinti as a right winger, Giugliano as an advanced playmaker and most of all, switching the team’s formation. In fact, Bertolini has been changing the team’s formation a lot recently and she isn’t using one fixed formation. She used the 4-1-4-1, the 4-4-2 and the 4-3-3 formations during Euro 2022. Afterwards, she used the 4-3-3 and the 4-2-3-1 during the qualifications before switching to the 3-5-2 in the friendly games that preceded the Arnold Clark Cup. This can be understood as a positive and a negative tweak at the same time as Bertolini trying to find the most suitable formation for her players’ form and abilities ahead of the World Cup. But in the meantime, this can be seen as being unable to impose some clear defensive and attacking ideas and movements to follow.

Moreover, if Bertolini is going to opt for the 4-2-3-1 formation for the World Cup games, which is a very good formation that matches Italy’s players characteristics, it would be more beneficial for the team to keep using the same formation for the upcoming matches that precede the tournament in order for everyone to get familiar with their roles, positions and required movements within this formation.

Italy’s defensive issues and encouraging attacking signs

Italy’s performance in this match against England was very informative in terms of defensive weaknesses. It showed that the Azzurre will have to work much harder in order to be able to minimise, alleviate and ultimately stop the attacking danger of teams like England.

Italy’s defensive line committed numerous errors during this match and these were mostly individual passing or concentration errors that could have cost the team a heavy loss. For example, Salvai wasn’t able to resist Daly’s high pressing in this action and complicated things for herself instead of passing to the goalkeeper or clearing the ball away. Instead, she preferred to pass the ball to her teammate and wasn’t able to provide an accurate or powerful pass in order to prevent Daly from intercepting it. The latter, therefore, intercepted Salvai’s wrong and slow pass and shot the ball at goal. This could have been a goal if not for Giuliano’s excellent save. And that’s the only positive aspect for Italy in this action.