Serie A 2019/20: Napoli vs Juventus – tactical analysis

Napoli had just won one of their last Serie A games against Juventus. In this clash, Gonzalo Higuain and Maurizio Sarri, a former top striker and a former manager, returned to San Paolo.

After sacking Carlo Ancelotti, Napoli did not boost their performance. Gennaro Gattuso’s men merely won Saussolo in the past five league matches. In the winter transfer window, they reinforced the squad with new signings, Stanislav Lobotka, Amir Rrahmani and Diego Demme. They looked to gain some positives from this game.

Juventus did not have their most comfortable season. Their title contenders Inter and Lazio both dropped points. It was a good chance for Juventus to enlarge the margin and retain the top of the league. However, they failed to do so as they were beaten by Napoli.

In this tactical analysis, we will show you how Napoli took this important victory. It is an analysis that focuses on tactics.

Lineups

Napoli played in a 4-3-3 formation. There were some key players injured, including Dries Mertens and Kalidou Koulibaly. Therefore, Giovanni Di Lorenzo sill partnered Konstantinos Manolas at the centre of the defence; Arkadiusz Milik played as a centre forward. Allan returned to Brazil for a while, the new arrival from RB Leipzig, Demme, started the game, pushed Fabián Ruiz into a more advanced position.

Juventus continued to play in a 4-3-1-2 formation. Since the injury of Merih Demiral, Matthijs de Ligt returned as Leonardo Bonucci’s partner. No Sami Khedira, Mattia De Sciglio, Giorgio Chiellini, Danilo for the game. It was Paulo Dybala to play behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Higuain.

The attack of Juventus

Juventus had some problems with their attack recently. If they intended to play out from the back, their sole pivot, Miralem Pjanić, was usually being marked. Therefore, they felt difficult to penetrate at the centre. Since the formation of Juventus did not contain any wide players, when they were trying to play out from the back, they went to the left, as Ronaldo would drop and provide supports.

We could observe the combinations between Blaise Matuidi, Alex Sandro and Ronaldo. The dropping movements of Ronaldo usually dragged the defenders out, and it created spaces for Juventus players to exploit.