Milan until 22nd November 2020 had never defeated Napoli at the San Paolo in the last 10 years. With manager Stefano Pioli and assistant Giacomo Murelli out with Covid-19, the mantle was ready for Daniele Bonera and the players to show their tactical maturity. Napoli had a big absentee in Victor Osimhen while Milan had Leao out with a knock.
Goals from Ibrahimovic (x2) and dewbut goal from hauge completed a famous win for Milan at the San paolo against their former coach and legend Gennaro Gattuso. Let us take analyse the tactics used by the sides.
Napoli- Pressing, Build-up and defense
Napoli set up in a 4-2-3-1 under Gattuso. The double pivot was formed by Bakayoko and Fabian Ruiz while the front 3 was formed of Insigne, Politano and Lozano with Mertens upfront.
Napoli with the ball used a patient build-up method waiting for the front players to make deep runs or occupy the half spaces before making the pass. If they had won the ball back, Napoli would try and use quick passes out towards the wings with full backs making overlapping runs. Layoff’s and horizontal passing was often used by Napoli
While defending Napoli used a narrow 4-4-2 formation with the front 2 i.e mertens and Politano pressing our CB Kjaer and Romagnoli. In their own half, Napoli tried to be compact and did not allow Milan much space to carry out passing combinations.
Milan- Pressing, Build-up and defense
Milan meanwhile took advantage of the fact that Napoli didn’t have any tall striker upfront and tried out to play out the back. They extensively used cover shadows that pressing by cutting out passing options for the player on the ball. Anytime the ball went for a Goal kick Milan committed players forward to prevent Napoli from playing out the back.
In defense Milan played a strict and narrow 4-4-1-1 with Hakan and Ibra, pressing Kouilybaly and Manolas. The idea of Milan was to press and win the ball back and break into quick counters. With Napoli having quick players, hard-working wingers like Rebic and Saelemaekers assisted their full back to prevent an overload i.e 2v1 situations for the defenders. Keeping in mind the danger of Insigne, Calabria rarely ventured forward and Milan used Theo’s to cause problems for Di Lorenzo.
Milan quite often used switch of play by sucking the opponent to one flank and then using one of the double pivot to switch flanks.
With Napoli playing a high line it always made Milan aware of the opportunity to counter attack and Milan used that opportunity well.
A few Points of Note
The problem of the half space
Milan when pressing from their own half, leave quite a gap between the last line of defenders and the double pivot of Kessie and Bennacer. For quite a few times, Napoli exploited this space but the final product was lacking.
A bad- day out for Alessio Romagnoli
Alessio Romagnoli had quite a day to remember. A modern day’s most potent weapon is his recovery pace i.e the ability to catch up to an attacker that has broken through the last line of defenders and is speeding towards the goal when Milan play a high line. Against Politano, Lozano and later Petagna Alessio was left behind when the attackers hit top speed. And then for the goal, Mertens turned Alessio very easily to score the goal. Time is running out for Alessio
Milan’s golden Duo at their peak again
Once again the double pivot of Bennacer and kessie dominated and bullied the midfield. Keeping no more than 10 meters between them Kessie and Bennacer form a deep midfield block in their own half while acting as a passing option during build-up play forming slick triangles to pass the ball out from the back. Against Ruiz and Yoko, Kessie and Benny passed yet another Litmus test to become a very crucial part of Milan
Rejuvenated Theo a force
Milan fans were concerned that Theo Hernandez was tailing off in the last few games but 2 weeks of rest has shown us how much of a factor fatigue has played in Theo dropping off. Milan’s epicenter of counter attacks and the creator of the first goal Theo back to his best is bracing
Hauge’s Individual brilliance
Even though Bennacer played a defense splitting pass, Hauge had to deal with Manolas, one of the best defenders in Serie A. And the Norwegian showed us his brilliance, by speeding past Manolas at first and then dummying past him by quick shifts of pace. He slowed down at first and deceived Manolas before changing pace quickly before Manolas could make a tackle and then lifted it over the keeper.
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