Serie A Week 2: Tactical Notes

Date: 12th September 2011 at 4:58pm
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The opening weekend of Serie A has come and gone and with some fantastic matches we look at some of the tactical implications from some of the top matches.

Milan 2-2 Lazio Match formations

Coach Max Allegri continued with his 4-3-1-2 from last season retaining a destroyer at the defensive midfield position (Ambrosini then van Bommel) and a hardworker as trequartista (Kevin-Prince Boateng) with the creative player, Alberto Aquilani taking Seedorf’s position on the left of the diamond. Edy Reja also went for his 4-2-3-1 with Klose leading the line and Djibril Cissé on the left (he retained an advanced position all game rarely tracking)

Both sides were dangerous in different departments. Milan sat relatively deep early on and failed to press Lazio too hardly so Lazio with Cristian Ledesma as regista were able to dictate play and influence play.

Milan’s weapon was its attacking trident of Ibrahimovic, Cassano and Boateng. Aquilani replicated Seedorf’s role of providing innovation from deep while the creative play of Ibrahimovic and Cassano coupled with the movement of Boateng produced quick dangerous moves for Milan.

Goals

Both Lazio goals were created by Stefano Mauri who combined with the central midfielders from his position on the right. The first came from a punt up field which he flicked to Klose whose control and finish was excellent (12′). The 2nd epitomized Milan’s faults. Under little pressure, he combined with the centrally located midfielders before chipping in a cross which Cissé headed in (21′).

Milan’s first came from the attacking trident of Milan with Aquilani’s creative input. Aquilani combined with Cassano for an Ibrahimovic goal (21′) while Cassano headed in an Aquilani corner for the 2nd (32′).

After the goals and into the 2nd half, Lazio became much more defensive bringing on the hard-working Álvaro González for Klose making Cissé as the lone/leading striker for counter attacks (hoping to capitalize on the pace he showed from time to time) and tightening up things at the back. Both sides failed to score after the the 1st half rush.

Milan failed to press Lazio and Lazio took advantage by controlling the ball in midfield. Milan then grew into the game, pressing Lazio and their attacking quartet (Boateng, Ibrahimovic, Cassano and Aquilani) which had combined in glimpses combined more to equalize. Lazio then shifted in defensive mode and Milan failed to score any and Lazio’s chances on the break resulted in nothing

Cesena 1-3 Napoli : An alternate Napoli Match formations

It appears Mazzarri has now developed winning tactics that isn’t pour as many players into attack as possible when in need of a goal. The transfer window was good for Napoli and the squad was strengthened. When in need of a goal against Cesena, Mazzarri with 2 changes (Hamsik for Santana and Pandev for Aronica) reverted from a 3-4-2-1 to a 4-3-3 formation which now had Inler, the midfield player director, holding, Dzemaili shuttling and Hamsik doing a “Frank Lampard” (getting into scoring positions which he is superb at). It worked and it made for good viewing. Chance upon chance was created and 2 goals were scored even though Pandev missed an open net.

Juventus 4-1 Parma Match formations

A much simpler game in terms of tactical issues. Both sides played 4-4-2. 2 second strikers (Del Piero and Giovinco) behind a main striker, two ball-playing midfielders (Pirlo and Galloppa) beside another more inclined to hack opponents (Marchisio-not a hacker though, and Morrone), both sides were similar in terms of personnel but their styles couldn’t be more different. While Juventus decided to press from the front, Parma forwards didn’t apply pressure on Pirlo or Marchisio while their midfielders sat deep.

When Trapattoni places a crowd around Pirlo to keep him unhappy (Ireland 2-0 Italy 07-Jun-11), he does it for a reason. Colomba did the exact opposite. The space around Pirlo allowed him the time to enjoy himself, bring others into play and his creativity was on display all game long. He created the 1st with a lob over the defence for Stephan Lichtsteiner to score as Juventus broke forward. The 1st half ended with Juventus being comfortably ahead

Parma attempted to gain momentum in the 2nd half by pressing Juventus and to an extent, this appeared successful. Galloppa tried to widen play with his passing but Parma were undone on the break as their new style involved a high defensive line. Matri initially failed to bury a 1-v-1 chance after a long ball from Del Piero just before another counter attack saw Simone Pepe score from a strong shot to double Juventus’ lead after a pass from Del Piero.

While Colomba’s substitutions made no changes to team shape, Conte’s (Vucinic for Matri, Vidal for Del Piero and Krasic for Pepe) saw a reversion to a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 with Vidal as the auxiliary striker behind a roaming Vucinic. Juventus moved into a very fluid mode and team chemistry looked very good. Vidal scored a 3rd while Marchisio scored a 4th after another lovely pass from Pirlo. Giovinco, though got on the scoresheet, from the penalty spot after being fouled in the box by Paolo De Ceglie.

2 Things: Give Pirlo the space and he’ll rip you apart; Juventus have an adequate squad which with some changes can transform its style.
For Parma, Colomba has something good going. He just has to make sure his squad closes down key opposition players better so they don’t get run over.

If Patience were a player, he would be the ideal signing Match formations

Roma dominated the game against Cagliari with good pressing to regain lost possession. Totti played as he did last term acting as a false 9 but now playing between 2 wingers-out-of-possession/strikers-in-possession, Osvaldo and Bojan. De Rossi played as an auxiliary centre-back dropping between Heinze and Burdisso and using his wide passing range to get Ángel and Rosi on the ball. At times though, play was slow but Rosi and José Ángel provided good width from time to time and their contribution helped Roma increase the tempo but the goal wasn’t forthcoming.

Ángel who played well was the easy culprit for the defeat. He nodded the ball on to Bruno Conti (Cagliari) who scored (68′) and got a straight red for a foul on Biondini (69′). With the subsequent substitution of Rosi, Roma’s width disappeared and the lethargy was more pronounced. Roma still retained some danger from set-piece situations and though Moestafa El Kabir (Cagliari) scored from a counter attack as Roma looked to equalize, De Rossi got on the scoresheet after knocking in the rebound from a Totti free-kick

The system in the mind of Luis Enrique is a sound one and one that can succeed. The wingers/forwards will have to be more deadly though but it all comes down to patience. If any doubts arise in the mind of Romanisti or followers of Calcio, the word is patience.

Palermo 4-3 Inter

Gasperini went for a 3-4-3 while Mangia in his first competitive game went with a 4-4-2. For Inter, Cambiasso who naturally plays as a box-to-box midfielder partnered Stankovic who isn’t a defensive player by nature leaving them exposed on the break at times. Ilicic played as the left midfielder but he spent a lot of time in the space between the Inter midfield and defence.

Problems Problems Problems!!!

It wouldn’t be off-base to describe the Inter performance as a disaster.

In theory: 2 defenders (Zanetti and Lucio) man-mark Hernandez and Miccoli leaving Samuel as a spare man who can clean things up. Cambiasso and Stankovic play against 2 man Barreto and Della Rocca while Jonathan and Nagatomo are up against Alvarez and Ilicic. Sneijder and Forlan are wide when defending thereby restricting or tracking the forward runs of Pisano and Balzaretti while Silvestre and Migliaccio try to cope with Milito’s superb movement.

What happened: Initially, the Inter attack didn’t combine well as they were no different from 3 strangers. The main problems defensively for Inter though were mainly two-fold:

– Tackling and marking was terrible as their defenders couldn’t tackle effectively against the nimble ball-playing duo of Miccoli and Hernandez while they failed to track their movements, runs. At times when the Inter defence pushed up as the side tried to dominate, Hernandez and Miccoli usually had free routes to goal on the break.

– Ilicic’s movement: In theory, Jonathan marks Ilicic but in reality, Ilicic frequently played from the centre leaving him unmarked and he combined with Miccoli and Hernandez to wreak havoc on the Inter backline.

Early on, Palermo pressed Inter deep and had the momentum forcing errors, mistimed tackles and using their skill and combination to create chances but Inter scored from a corner kick (33′) and tried to establish a hold on the game. As the 2nd half began, Miccoli beat the Inter offside trap following a pass from Barreto and scored. Inter then got a corner from a spot-kick and Barreto fouled Samuel giving Inter a penalty which Milito scored (51′).

Palermo scored almost immediately with Ilicic breaking away through the (defensively weak) middle and releasing Miccoli whose square pass was tapped in by Hernandez to draw level. While the problems in Inter’s defence were increasingly being exposed, the final Palermo goals came from a very good Miccoli free-kick (85′) and a long range Pinilla shot which Júlio César made no attempt to catch (88′). Forlan then scored Inter’s 3rd after a pass from Sneijder (91′) as the game ended 4-3

Points to note – 

Palermo

Palermo have begun the season well and the ability of their forward players to combine will be key for them all season. The defence has also been strengthened but the defensive players will still have to increase their concentration

Inter

Inter weren’t all terrible. Their wing-backs were able to get themselves into dangerous situations and with better decision making, Inter could have scored more goals from open play (If Maicon had started over Jonathan, it could have easily been different). Even though Wesley Sneijder played from out-wide, it was only his role when Inter didn’t have the ball as he moved centrally with the ball and created a few chances. Forlan was also promising.

While the idea of using wing-backs is sound, the defence appears to be having problems adjusting to a 3-man defensive set-up. While it could be that Zanetti, Lucio and Samuel all had the type of MRI scans Marco Motta always has before games (the type that tampers with brain waves), that is extremely unlikely. More likely is that they were extremely uncomfortable in their positions and without the shield just ahead of the defence, they fell apart. Across the pitch, Gasperini will have to get flexible and create a way players are comfortable in their positions and can function in their roles because it is easier to replace a head coach than it is to replace 11 players on big wages.

Follow James Uanhoro on Twitter: @stonegold546 and be sure to check out his blog as well

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One response to “Serie A Week 2: Tactical Notes”

  1. Vin says:

    This was a good post; I was really surprised to see several matches detailed so thoroughly. You easily could’ve broken this up into several posts!