Serie A 2018/19: Juventus vs Napoli

In the top of the table clash between Juventus and Napoli on Saturday night, Juve flexed all of their muscles as they came from behind to win 3-1 in Turin. Dries Mertens had opened the scoring but a brace from Mario Mandzukic turned the game around. Leonardo Bonucci then added a third to clinch it. This tactical analysis looks at the key trends of the game. The focus will be on Juventus approach to the game, especially in attack.

Teams

Juventus lined up in what many thought would be a 4-3-3. Wojciech Szczesny was in goal with a defense of Joao Cancelo, Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini and Alex Sandro ahead of him. Miralem Pjanic anchored the midfield with Emre Can to his right and Blaise Matuidi to his left. The front three had Paulo Dybala and Cristiano Ronaldo either side of Mandzukic.

Napoli set up in a 4-4-2 which had David Ospina in goal. The back-four included Elseid Hysaj, Raul Albiol, Kalidou Koulibaly and Mario Rui. Allan and Marek Hamsik started in central midfield with Jose Callejon to the right and Piotr Zielinski on the left. Mertens was joined up front by Lorenzo Insigne.

Tactical analysis: How Juve won the game

Now lets look at the tactics behind Juventus win. But lets start with Napoli who started the game very positively.

Napolis bright start

Napoli started the game brightly and had the better of the first 15 minutes. They pressed well as a unit and moved the ball quickly. They also found the first goal of the game when Bonucci misplaced a pass as Juve tried to play out from the back under Napolis pressure. The pass was intercepted in midfield and Callejon then set up Mertens for a tap in.

Juve struggled to get out of Napolis press initially. The pressing-scheme was a mix of positional defending and man-orientated defending. The image below is one example of how it worked. The ball is with Juves left-back Alex Sandro. He is pressed by Callejon. Allan, as the ball-near central midfielder, steps up to mark Matuidi. The ball-far central midfield, Hamsik (yellow), provides cover for his teammate. We can also see how Mertens have dropped to get access to Pjanic. This type of press and cover is very basic but it worked really well at the beginning as Napoli constantly closed passing options for Juves back-four.

Napolis formation changed in possession. Callejon would remain wide on the right but Zielinski would constantly make inverted movements from the left. This caused Juventus a lot of problems early on. The best example is below where Zielinski has found space, gets the ball from Insigne and hits the post with a low strike.

After the bright start and early lead, Juve improv