NAPOLI VS MILAN: A THREAD AND TACTICAL ANALYSIS BY @keralista

Napoli made their Intentions clear from the First Minute. They were gonna press Milan using a narrow 4-4-2 with Politano and Mertens pressing Milan's Center-back's who were outlets when building out from the back.

Our fortunes changed when Milan signed Ibrahimovic as well as Kjaer. An absolute rock at the back, Kjaer professes "proactive defending" aka killing the attack way before it becomes dangerous. Here he makes a challenge on mertens before he can turn and make a killer pass

Napoli defended using a deep and compact 4-4-2 just the way Gattuso likes it. The idea was not to give space for Milan to execute Passing combinations and suffocate us

I've been quite critical of Alessio and this is the reason why. With Milan moving to a higher press it requires Alessio to play a high line. When fast wingers go one on one with him he does not have the "recovery pace" or the speed to run back along with the attacker and recover

Milan since lockdown form smart triangles while passing to facilitate quick passing. Also they switch flanks quite smartly. napoli who play a narrow block was sucked to our left wing and then kessie switched to Alexies which caught Napoli out. But Alexis missed

Napoli build their attack depending on the opponent. Here is a demonstration of their build up play.

The build up for the match was all about how Insigne would be crucial to napoli's attack and Milan came with a plan. Knowing how Calabria gets beaten for pace. Pioli/Bonera had Saelemaekers or sometimes Kjaer double team and block his passing lanes. here is an example

With no osimhen in the line-up Napoli were forced to build from the back since all their strikers were very short. Milan took advantage of this factor and created various pressing traps as Napoli tried to build out from the back

A big problem that Milan have with their pressing in their own half is that it leaves massive gap between the last line of defense and midfield. Technical attackers with speed can take advantage of this space and create problems

How Milan break out from defense to attack using a combination of infield and outfield movements supported by Bennacer's wonderful ability to play quick vertical balls is a treat. Combined with Ibra's takedown Milan produced orgasmic football

Once again, I stress the importance of Recovery pace. In the first instance he was beaten by Hirving Lozano and was saved by Kjaer. In the second instance =, Petagna was offside but Alessio did no favours for himself

Here is a short demonstration of how Milan beat the press when they want to build from the back.

Another instance of Insigne Double teamed by Calabria and Kjær

With Napoli trailing 1-0, they had no choice but to press Milan and play a high line

END OF A LONG LONG THREAD. PLEASE RT, LIKE AND GIVE FEEDBACK