Serie A 2018/19: Napoli vs Roma

This post originally featured on our dedicated Serie A analysis website, serieaanalysis.com

Roma’s start to the season has been very complicated as the Giallorossi sit in 8th place in the Serie A table, but the game against Napoli was a chance to show that they’re still one of the “Big Three” in Serie A. Ancelotti’s side, on the other hand, on the back of an impressive performance against PSG have had an excellent start to the season, considering the teams they’ve faced in the league and their Champions League campaign thus far.

An interesting tie awaited, as Roma had a point to prove and Napoli sought a win to stay four points behind the league leaders Juventus.

Roma: Olsen; Santon, Manolas, Jesus, Kolarov; De Rossi, N’Zonzi; Under, Pellegrini, El Shaarawy, Dzeko.
Napoli: Ospina; Hysaj, Albiol, Koulibaly, Rui; Callejon, Allan, Hamsik, Fabian; Insigne, Milik.

Roma’s plan

As Roma took the kick-off, Napoli started the game in their usual 4-4-2 mid-press shape, and would push up to press only when Roma played a backpass to the goalkeeper or a lateral pass to the full-back, where the winger would step out to reduce Roma’s wide player’s time on the ball and force a backpass. Although Napoli’s press didn’t force any turnovers, it was very effective in compelling Roma back and preventing them from accessing the forwards. As a result, albeit Roma were able to bypass Napoli’s first line of press through the numerical superiority (3v2) gained in build-up through De Rossi’s dropping movements, they struggled to create anything significant.

Napolis man-oriented press against Romas 2-1 build-up shape

Only in rare situations were Roma able to access Pellegrini or one of the wingers in the half-spaces, when Napoli’s second line stepped out to press and the last line failed to adjust its height accordingly (generally due to Dzeko and a winger pinning the centre-backs deep), creating space between the lines.

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