AC Milan – Napoli: Allegri Gives Conte A Dose Of His Own Medicine (2-1)

Despite their longstanding presence in Italian coaching, Allegri and Conte faced off for the first time in twelve years. After exploiting the man-to-man press, AC Milan caused Napoli great frustration as the champions struggled to build through the deep block.

Tactical analysis and match report by Joel Parker.

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Ex-Juve generals Massimiliano Allegri and current champion, Antonio Conte, still hold pedigree in the Italian game, but is this more of a testament to the quality of Serie A, as opposed to these two coaches actively adapting their frameworks?

A case can be made for Conte, whose team has built in a back four since that goalless draw on his return to Turin. The false left winger, in the 4-3-3 formation, is even more deliberate in Kevin de Bruyne, who has dropped into pivot positions. However, the quality of Napoli’s buildup has always been in question, with very few tensions placed on the defensive line and a cautious man-to-man system that wants to revert to a deeper block. The high pressing elements are even less secure from Allegri’s Milan, although the deeper defensive block has offered a lot better protection. In possession, very few rotations are arranged outside of the eight pushing forward and Luka Modrić pulling the strings from a deep position. However, its depth is better than that of recent title-winning campaigns. 

Despite the deficiencies, Allegri and Conte reign in a Serie A that has quickly transformed from its imaginative state. Upcoming coaching talents are elsewhere (Enzo Maresca, Roberto de Zerbi, Francesco Farioli) and proven buildup units are no longer present (Luciano Spalletti, Simone Inzaghi, Thiago Motta). This comes at a price: a lack of creativity makes a league less sellable. Only nostalgia keeps Serie A in the limelight, both in its presentation and tactics. 

The only change to Allegri’s lineup came between the posts. Mike Maignan went off in the game against Bologna due to injury, and had missed the 3-0 win away in Udinese, but returned in place of Pietro Terracciano. Rafael Leão returned from a calf injury but was on the bench, as Christian Pulisic continued on the left, whilst Adrien Rabiot has firmly made his place in the Milan midfield, which operates in a 3-1-4-2/3-5-2 formation.

Neither Alessandro Buongiorno nor Amir Rrahmani were fit to start at center-back, but Conte made a huge surprise by giving Luca Marianucci his first appearance next to Juan Jesus. At left fullback, there was also a first appearance for Miguel Gutiérrez, who had signed from Girona in mid-August. Alex Meret also continued in goal.

Distances too large to cover

Conte had fixed Napoli’s defensive issues in the title-winning campaign by moving into a stricter man-marking system, but one which did not make them more aggressive in this regard. In buildup, this can be exploited by dropping one of the midfielders into your defensive line, and Napoli’s ability to cause issues can be negated if the striker is pulled away from the center. Milan was perfectly set up in this regard, as Matteo Gabbia stepped towards the right, which took Rasmus Højlund with him. As a result, Stanislav Lobotka and Frank Anguissa had to fill the void on the left side of the Milan arrangement: Lobotka on Modrić and Anguissa on Strahinja Pavlović.

The problem for Napoli was that Anguissa and Lobotka had to cover half the pitch to jump onto their targets, so they would always be late for the jump. Two minutes in, and both midfielders started to drop into zonal positions as Gabbia took the ball down the right, before Fikayo Tomori’s pass back to Maignan saw Anguissa jump from the center circle to the final third. The result saw Pavlović have plenty of time to continue the move, and the man-marking system was exploited further. Rabiot drew Giovanni Di Lorenzo closer, and the vertical lane opened for Pervis Estupiñán into Pulisic. With space created around Marianucci, Pulisic took the ball around the young Italian and Alexis Saelemaekers was free at the back post for a simple tap-in.

2^nd minute: Buildup to Milan’s first goal. As the ball is recirculated from right to left, Anguissa has far too much distance to cover to put pressure on Pavlović. Di Lorenzo is drawn out by Rabiot, and Pulisic is fed in the left halfspace to take the ball around Marianucci in the outer channel.

The game would soon fall into Napoli controlling most of the ball, but Milan had quite an easy task in maintaining possession in the first ten minutes through Modrić dropping into the left center-back zone. Pavlović was more prone to knocking the ball over the lines towards Santiago Giménez, but Milan put through a few rotations between Estupiñán and Rabiot in this period, which saw Napoli open up once Di Lorenzo, Matteo Politano and Anguissa tried to jump.

Buildup issues and a compact block

After Napoli had tried to pump direct balls into Højlund for the first ten minutes, they started to have more phases in possession, and a familiar arrangement started to appear. Lobotka was active between the center-backs, as De Bruyne dropped into the pivot position. On the left, Gutiérrez held width (but did not pin Saelemaekers deep) whilst Scott McTominay and Anguissa bounced between collecting the ball and crashing into the box. Di Lorenzo also sat in slightly inverted positions in situations, but took up higher positions inside of Politano. The result of this arrangement is a lot of middle third activity and not a lot of clean attacks being played through the lines, as Napoli continued to showcase recurring problems.

With Lobotka and De Bruyne already in deep positions, it is easy for Napoli to have too many players behind the ball when Di Lorenzo moves into an inverted position or McTominay/Anguissa drop to collect possession. On the left side, De Bruyne was not in an area to underlap Gutiérrez, whilst McTominay is not interested in combining short exchanges that get possession forward. As a result, play is heavily reliant on the right side to create crossing situations: Di Lorenzo often underlaps as Politano drops in the outer channel, or vice versa. Defensively, Milan was well prepared in this regard, as Rabiot dropped between Estupiñán and Pavlović. Not only did this block the rotation space in the final third, but Milan could often step up with a three-versus-two defensive overload. Even if Anguissa tried to join in the moves, the screening of Modrić kept this defensive overload.

24^th minute: Right-sided buildup of Napoli versus the deep Milan block. As Marianucci passed to Di Lorenzo, Politano underlapped into the wider channel from the halfspace, but where up against an organized Milan left side. Rabiot dropped, and Pavlović slid over to maintain the three-versus-two. In this phase, Politano passed back to Di Lorenzo, and Napoli would recirculate the ball once again.

Napoli was still capable of making crosses from the right side and attacked the back post with some effect, but this is still a one-dimensional attack that struggles to find clean avenues between the lines. Out of the first line, Lobotka or one of the center-backs would try to carry more laterally to draw more angles, but Napoli will try to keep its security with too many players behind the ball. De Bruyne is the most reliable player, in these deeper positions, to switch the ball or break the lines with his passing, but he has yet to find the same finesse and consistency of these passes that he showed for so many years in Manchester.

During this time, Milan still showed a threat. After possession broke down on Napoli’s left, Milan countered through Youssouf Fofana before Pulisic threaded an excellent pass back into the Frenchman as the Napoli defense split into two. Fofana charged through, but his shot was fired over the crossbar. However, a few minutes later, Milan doubled their lead on the half-hour mark. Once again, Milan exploited the late jump from Anguissa: with Di Lorenzo following Pulisic inside and Politano in the fullback position, man-marking Estupiñán with Napoli in the medium block. Pavlović rotated around Modrić, and the lane was open for the center-back to carry. Upon entering the box, Napoli was open in its center yet again with a wide split between the center-backs, and McTominay was late to the danger. Fofana teed up Pulisic, the American made it two.

Gutiérrez inverts more

Towards the end of the first half, Gutiérrez started to rotate into more central positions, which complemented some more direct movements down the left channel, as Tomori was not too keen to leave his post, and Saelemaekers jumped high. Despite this making larger spaces against the Milan low block, the fluidity between these moves was not present nor consistent enough to create Milan problems.

41^st minute: Left-sided combination that Napoli could have exploited more. Gutiérrez made a third man run, which stopped Fofana from following McTominay, and the Scot received in a lot of space between the lines. As he passed through, Gutiérrez dummied, and Højlund received. Despite the move being executed, plenty of Milan shirts were still present, and the striker was dispossessed.

In the final third, crosses remained Napoli’s go-to, and at least they have the profiles to create a threat. These crosses often came from Politano or De Bruyne once the ball was moved back towards them: De Bruyne found Di Lorenzo at the back post, but his option to karate kick as opposed to head the ball produced a tame effort. Anguissa also had an effort towards the end of the first half, once Politano moved possession back onto his left foot, but Napoli finished the first period without posing as much of a direct threat as their opponents.

Gutiérrez operated more directly in an inverted position going into the second period. The Spaniard did offer cleaner circulation, as both himself and Marianucci (who pushed slightly higher down the right side with Lobotka and Juan Jesus’ protection) would be in the most space against Milan’s front two, which soon dropped deeper into a 5-3-2 low block. However, this led to some awkward exchanges where McTominay would end up being the player having to cross the ball towards the penalty area, or De Bruyne would wait on the left touchline to take the ball: under Pep Guardiola, when he could still explode, this would be a benefit, but for Napoli, the tempo is too slow.

Nevertheless, the right side can still provide for Napoli. Eight minutes into the half, Politano’s cross found Anguissa, who forced a good reaction out of Maignan, but Estupiñán brought Di Lorenzo down on the rebound and Napoli had a penalty. A red card delivered to Estupiñán, after a lengthy VAR check, would only reaffirm Allegri’s game plan to lock down the game. De Bruyne converted from the spot, and Napoli had their lifeline.

At least Milan was not going to change their approach upon the red card; Pulisic was quickly replaced by Davide Bartesaghi, and Milan continued to defend in a 5-3-1 low block. Despite the man advantage, Napoli could still not directly pull the low block out wide without active pinning on the left side, or at least a consistent threat down this channel to draw spaces open. With Gutiérrez still dropping into inverted positions, he would switch with De Bruyne in earlier phases, and it would be McTominay who had to fill out the spaces once possession reached the final third.

66^th minute: Napoli buildup after the red card. McTominay and Gutiérrez rotated positions as Lobotka moved the ball back towards the left. In this situation, Saelemaekers could still jump onto the left fullback as McTominay was not able to stretch the defense or pin the wing-back deep.

Desperate substitutions from Conte

Conte needed a solution and took off some key components. De Bruyne, Højlund and McTominay were replaced by Eljif Elmas, Lorenzo Lucca and David Neres, just before Politano was replaced by Noa Lang. Now Napoli had two natural wingers, playing with maximum width, but it was clear that the rest of the structure was ill-prepared for this sudden change in profiles entering the fray.

Napoli’s ability to put the ball into the penalty area worsened with Politano leaving the field. Lang and Neres had the touches around the box but completed just a single cross in the twenty minutes that they were on the pitch. With McTominay also exiting, Napoli lost another box-crashing target, and Elmas could not replicate the Scotsman’s abilities. The closest that Napoli came to equalizing came from Neres cutting onto his left foot, and his deflected shot, from range, smacking the top of the far post.

Allegri had put on Leão to give his attack an outlet, but Milan did not face an aggressive bombardment despite Napoli having the territory. A comfortable rundown of the clock, as Milan recorded a huge victory on their first major test of the season.

Takeaways

With no European competition, Allegri could be set to follow in Conte’s footsteps from last season. The depth of this Milan team is greater than that of Napoli’s last campaign, with other elite challengers in less stable conditions (Atalanta and Inter, especially). Of course, these expectations will be downplayed, but after Milan spent heavily in the summer, it should certainly be the target.

Napoli dropped points for the first time this season, but perhaps this should’ve come sooner after shaky games against Cagliari and Pisa at the Maradona. The team may be champions, but Conte needs to establish cleaner routes through the lines if he is to compete in European ventures. However, in Serie A, the current blueprint is enough to keep them competitive for the time being. Could this unravel as deep blocks continue to cause them frustration?

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