Serie A 2020/2021 – Napoli vs Atalanta – tactical analysis

Following their virtual loss against Juventus due to covid-19 issues that prevented them from going to Turin, Napoli looked forward to their clash with Atalanta to win some very needed points to climb in the standings.

On the other side, Atalanta were the first in the league with nine points and went to Napoli in order to maintain their leadership of Serie A and keep their good run of form going before thinking about their coming UEFA Champions League away fixture.

The game went surprisingly in a single direction, that of Napoli. They convincingly won 4-1 over Atalanta who were not able to make their usual outstanding performances.

It was clear that Gennaro Gattuso prepared this match in the best possible way and his players were very determined to win and apply his instructions. And we will come to analysing this in detail.

In this tactical analysis article, we will look at both teams’ tactics and the plans that they applied throughout the match, while focusing on the best performing players and on what went wrong for Atalanta.

This analysis will begin by analysing Napolis plans and positioning that enabled them to stop Atalanta before moving on to identify what went wrong for Atalanta.

Lineups

Gattuso preferred to start this match with a 4-2-3-1 with David Ospina as a goalkeeper, Kostas Manolas and Kalidou Koulibaly as centre-backs, Giovanni Di Lorenzo on the right flank and Elseid Hysaj as a left-back. In midfield, the team played with Fabián Ruiz and Bakayoko as central midfielders, and this was the first official game of Tiémoué Bakayoko for Napoli.

In front of them, Matteo Politano played on the right-wing and Hirving Lozano on the left-wing, while Dries Mertens was positioned as an attacking midfielder behind Victor Osimhen, the team’s forward.

For Atalanta, Gian Piero Gasperini chose to start with a 3-4-1-2 formation with Sportiello as the goalkeeper, while Rafael Tolói, Cristian Romero and José Luis Palomino formed the defensive line since the three of them played as centre-backs. In midfield, Fabio Depaoli played on the right-wing and Robin Gosens on the left-wing.

And both of them contributed in attack and helped the team’s defence when out of possession. Mario Pašalić and Marten de Roon played as central midfielders in front of the defence while Alejandro Gómez, known as “il Papu”, was the attacking midfielder who played just behind the team’s forwards Josip Iličić and Duván Zapata.

A convincing win for Gattuso’s Napoli 

The game started with Napoli relying on short and accurate passes in defence and, when possible, long-passes to Osimhen who had the physical strength needed to beat Romero, who was his direct marker throughout the match. The latter was obliged to commit mistakes and overall, he was not able to stop Osimhen.

This created many attacking solutions for Napoli, because Osimhen alternated between moving centrally and at times on the right and on the left. By winning in aerial duels and creating space to Lozano on the left, to Politano on the right-wing and at times to Mertens who played just behind him, Atalanta’s defence was destroyed even though Gosens and Depaoli both did not participate in attack so often like in their previous matches.

Also, Atal