Internazionale – Napoli: No Closer To Conclusions In Thrilling Scudetto Race (2-2)
As one contender has embodied new ideas from their young coach, the other has embodied old ideas from their experienced one. Whilst Internazionale seemed destined to break their hoodoo and gain a significant lead in the standings, Scott McTominay struck again to keep the title race wide open.
Tactical analysis and match report by Joel Parker.
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As the morning papers talked of Inter escaping from the rest of the title contenders, former coach Antonio Conte prepped his role as prison guard to try and keep them within distance.
Ahead of this crucial clash against the holders, Inter has built up steam. Under Cristian Chivu, the construction of the team may look similar to that of his predecessor, but there are distinctive differences. Out of possession, this is a team that plays with a lot more aggression: according to MyGamePlan data, Inter makes the most possession gains on goal-kicks (and has a success rate of 19.15%) whilst becoming more effective on the counter press, having doubled their successful pressure actions (within 10 seconds of losing possession) from 1.15 to 2.4 per 90 in recent weeks.
On the ball, the midfield of Inter has operated differently. Hakan Çalhanoğlu still influences as the regista, but Nicolò Barella has returned to a role he used to play earlier in his career, making runs into higher lines. As a result, Inter’s 3-5-2 system filters out in a traditional fashion to find quick vertical passes to the strikers, whilst flexible movers like Barella or Alessandro Bastoni fill in the gaps. This can come to their detriment, as the last trip to the Maradona revealed, when Napoli did not need to jump on Çalhanoğlu to stop Inter from progressing, whilst having the transitional ability with David Neres floating from the central position and Francesco Acerbi leaving space for the Brazilian to run.
The previous meeting was one of the examples when Conte found success under adversity this campaign. Past the November international break, Napoli has returned to playing in a 3-4-2-1 formation, which saw Neres reap the rewards, most notably in the Supercoppa. With Neres adding to the long injury list, Conte would have to try and find another solution, one in which they struggled to find at home to Hellas Verona in mid-week, a draw in which they had two-thirds of the possession, but it was Verona who had beaten them in Expected Goals. An Inter win would see them go five points clear, whilst Napoli could drag the league leaders within a point.
Chivu had rested the likes of Bastoni, Barella and Marcus Thuram ahead of this match. From the 2-0 win at Parma in mid-week, Carlos Augusto, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Petar Sučić and Francesco Pio Esposito came out. Ex-Napoli midfielder Piotr Zieliński was the last of four changes, whilst Manuel Akanji kept his place in the center of the back three.
Conte has not been afforded such luxuries, especially in his midfield, with Stanislav Lobotka and Scott McTominay being the only players available. All three of Napoli’s left-sided players changed: Alessandro Buongiorno was replaced by Juan Jesus, Miguel Gutiérrez was replaced Leonardo Spinazzola and Eljif Elmas switched flanks with Noa Lang, who was changed for Sam Beukema. As a result, captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo was at right wing-back and Matteo Politano was part of the front three.
Possession control is no king
From the start of the game, neither team showed an intention to stay with the ball for long periods. The usual script with Conte is that his teams like to keep things tight in the low block after going ahead, yet it was they who had to show more initiative in possession at the start. This is quite indicative of the changes that have happened at Inter, although they have always been a team comfortable going into deeper blocks; their operation out-of-possession set the stage for the game.
In possession, Napoli did not drop Lobotka directly between the center-backs, so the wide players in the first line, Beukema and Juan Jesus, peeled when Inter were more set in their 5-3-2 formation. However, when passes went back towards Amir Rrahmani, the aggressive counterpress was set from Inter, who worked extremely hard in this stage. The tempo is set by Lautaro Martínez, who leads the counterpress and the wider center-backs would be covered through Thuram on the left and Barella on the right. The aggressive man-to-man arrangement made it comfortable for Inter to move out from their deeper block and into the high press/counter press on the back pass, whilst congesting the area for Napoli’s double pivot, which constantly had Lobotka slightly deeper than McTominay to make vertical connections.
8th minute: Buildup to Inter’s first goal. As the ball was played back from Jesus to Rrahmani, Inter’s out-of-possession operation changed as the low block switched to aggressive man-marking. Lobotka still played to McTominay, but Napoli were forced into a very congested area, and Zieliński sparked the turnover.
After eight minutes, Inter would strike. McTominay’s touch in the center was loose and Zieliński knocked the ball to Martínez. With Thuram on the outside, the French striker lingered against Beukema and made space for Dimarco to sprint into. The left wing-back was in a tight angle, but his low shot squeezed into the bottom far corner and Inter had produced the perfect start. A few moments later, Inter nearly doubled when Zieliński pressed high in the far corner, the triangle of Thuram, Dimarco and Çalhanoğlu combined before Barella poked to Martínez, only for the Argentine to miscue his shot.
Classic Conteismo, helped by Højlund
The biggest story surrounding Napoli is that Conte has taken a step away from the trademark moves which he has instilled in his teams. There are still some exceptions, especially in the way that Rasmus Højlund likes to wrestle with center-backs in outer spaces, and this encourages different movements to come from the other forwards or even from deeper players in the buildup. Nevertheless, the wider system has seen Napoli act in a very un-Conte manner, but the recent return to the 3-4-2-1 formation has seen trademark moves come back into the picture.
Much of this is due to Højlund, whose ball retention has been inconsistent throughout the campaign. However, his back-to-goal work was clean in this game, as Akanji had several occasions where he misread the location of Højlund’s runs. In the process, Napoli threw a number of players in the second line or around the Danish striker as he received. Most of these movements came on the right side of the buildup, with Lobotka and McTominay coming onto the same side and the Scotsman being in a higher spot. From the halfway line, it was more consistent for Di Lorenzo to be inside of Politano, whilst McTominay could move from the double pivot to making runs ahead of the striker.
15th minute: Buildup pattern from Napoli. Beukema took the ball into a higher spot, whilst the lane to Højlund opened as Çalhanoğlu was attracted to Lobotka and Barella covered the zonal spot in the center. Di Lorenzo was free to receive on the underside of Højlund, whilst McTominay’s third man run was met. In this phase, Akanji and Barella would recover, but this pattern of play remained available for Napoli to exploit.
This pattern did not always lead to success. With Di Lorenzo inside and Politano outside, it seemed quite redundant not to have the two combining to create some flexibility. Additionally, the position of McTominay and Lobotka on the same side saw the right halfspace clog up with a lot of Napoli bodies, whilst Elmas did not drop from the left halfspace to provide another exit. Højlund’s back-to-goal work did see him flick to Politano, after Napoli cleared an Inter throw-in deep in their half. However, with Politano arriving on the left and with Bastoni ushering him wide, the Italian moved further away from the striker charging towards goal.
Instead, Napoli could manipulate Bastoni differently. In the right halfspace, Bastoni liked to keep his distance so he could operate in a hybrid role, man-marking the target but also pouncing on a heavy touch from a forward if needs be. However, when Di Lorenzo and Politano swapped positions, it meant that Politano’s left foot offered a lot more openness towards Elmas/Spinazzola, as well as wrapping his runs around Bastoni so that Napoli could connect inside the block.
25th minute: Buildup to Napoli’s first goal. The same pattern is made again, only this time, Politano and Di Lorenzo have swapped positions. As a result, Politano maneuvered inside the Inter block, and this drew a lot more space for Napoli to move the ball from right-to-left.
Napoli would punish Inter after McTominay passed around the shoulder and Højlund laid the ball back to Politano, with the switch of play available for the Champions. Elmas gave it to Spinazzola, who lined up to dribble, only to move it to the underlapping Elmas. In the box, Højlund lingered around the center for McTominay to steamroll at the near post and beat Yann Sommer from very close range.
Diversity in Inter’s directness
After Napoli evened the scoring, we started to get more phases of Inter in possession, playing at a fast tempo and not afraid of making channel passes to try and disrupt the defensive block. At the start of the game, Inter had targeted multiple runners down the left side with high balls, but their intensity within their sequences saw them attack the Napoli block in some different arrangements.
On the right side, Yann Bisseck could charge ahead of the chain to become an aerial target on the third man run. This worked as both Henrique and Barella were comfortable in deeper positions, whilst Lobotka would give Çalhanoğlu the space if the ball had already been worked up the channel. Down both flanks, either wing-back could rotate inside and still have the likes of Thuram on the left or Barella/Bisseck on the right to hold the width, so Inter could turn these rotations into crosses or gain entry into the final third at a quick tempo, also aided by Napoli’s tendencies to drop into the box as quickly as possible.
In the deeper build, positional rotations between Henrique and Barella were the most prominent feature of the Inter arrangement. Barella dropped into the right fullback position, a move that he has always been comfortable with, and this encouraged McTominay to jump whilst Lobotka followed Çalhanoğlu, who also moved into the ball side. With both Napoli center-midfielders positioned high up in the out-of-possession phase, it would be up to Rrahmani to jump on Zieliński, and Inter could progress through the lines. This created one of their better chances after Napoli had reset in their deep 5-4-1 defensive block and Barella floated a cross from the right halfspace. Thuram won the header and forced Vanja Milinković-Savić to palm the ball over the crossbar.
43rd minute: Buildup to Thuram chance. With both Napoli midfielders committed high in their man-to-man arrangement, spaces occurred when access was made towards Martínez, and Zieliński came more towards the ball side to connect with the move.
Despite Inter ending the first half with some momentum, Napoli were genuinely comfortable when Inter were exchanging shorter passes, and they could sit in their compact 5-4-1 defensive block. This was a balanced game where both teams did find ways to make one another uncomfortable, but were not present enough to see the game drastically swing in one direction. Inter had more balance between the flanks in their buildup; Napoli still had their right-sided route, which Inter did not plug the gaps in.
At the start of the second half, it was Napoli’s turn to put on pressure: only this time they produced two excellent chances that could have put them in the lead. One was from the most direct route of them all, when the goalkeeper’s low drive split Akanji and Bisseck, and saw Højlund chase. His angle was not the best as the Danish striker aimed for the bottom far corner, trickling just wide in the process.
A few minutes later, Napoli created again with McTominay and Lobotka’s roles reversed. Lobotka let the ball run across his body, and Højlund wrestled to return to him. Napoli switched, Elmas found Spinazzola, and his second attempt at a cross arrived at Di Lorenzo, who got ahead of Akanji, only to fluff his header wide from short range.
Çalhanoğlu’s redemption, McTominay’s ascension
Napoli were left to rue their missed chances when Inter started to get into better positions once again. The higher block started to deny the smooth access that Napoli had found, and even when Conte’s team worked themselves up the pitch, Thuram and Dimarco carried transitional threat, which soon saw them drop into their deeper block.
In the final third, Lautaro’s curved runs from in-to-out became a feature. On one of Thuram’s carries on the outer channel, three Napoli players were attracted to the ball and left Barella free on the inside. Lautaro tried to hang on the last line for just a little too long, as a pass was played into him and both Rrahmani and Juan Jesus reacted, the Argentine just offside in the process. A few minutes later, Barella played a long pass into the box. Lautaro timed his run with better precision, strong work to force a corner out of Rrahmani.
66th minute: The ball from Barella found Martínez inside the box. With Bisseck in the forward line, Inter had encouraged Napoli’s center-backs to man-mark, and Rrahmani slightly hesitated as the ball came in, so Lautaro’s curved run was connected.
From the corner’s second phase, Inter kept the pressure. A messy touch from substitute Mkhitaryan was enough to take possession into the box and force a rash lunge from Rrahmani. Napoli scrambled to block Dimarco’s shot before Bastoni nearly found the top corner with an excellent attempt, only for VAR to go back to the initial foul.
As Conte exploded on the touchline (his role as peacemaker has been short-lived since the Lazio game), Çalhanoğlu lined up to take another crucial penalty, having hit the woodwork in this fixture last season, as well as being denied in the derby earlier on this campaign. Here, he would make no mistake, sending the tall frame of Milinković-Savić in the wrong direction. Advantage Inter with twenty minutes left.
Chivu had plenty of substitutions on the bench but opted to stick with the players on the field while Inter was 2-1 ahead. Napoli’s bench had fewer offerings. Noa Lang would replace Beukema, which saw Elmas move to the right and Di Lorenzo/Politano to drop into deeper positions. Despite these dynamics, Inter’s decision to drop into a deeper block and enable Napoli to come at them would prove a very costly error. Defending in the 5-3-2 formation, you naturally concede a lot of space on the far side, with only one player being able to jump on a potential target. As Napoli tried to build on the left, the play split to Di Lorenzo, and Politano had space to float a cross towards the back post. Lang flung himself to keep possession in play and found McTominay for another great finish from close range.
It would only be then that Chivu threw more players on; Ange-Yoan Bonny proved to be the most valuable when he churned out the final chance of the game. In stoppage time, the ball was forced into the corner, but Bonny powered through Politano and played a pass back to Mkhitaryan. His shot deflected off Di Lorenzo and hit the near post as Inter were denied a late winner.
Takeaways
The challenge for the Scudetto has not been without its drastic turns over the last few seasons, and this seems destined to remain the same. In a balanced game between the Champions and the league leaders, a draw is a fair result but leaves one team much happier than the other.
Inter should have wrapped this up. Instead, their dismal record against Milan, Napoli and Juventus remains: as well as yielding the head-to-head record to the team that pipped them to the post on the final matchday of last season. It’s a crucial result for Napoli, who not only have two crucial Champions League fixtures remaining, but have to face Juve in Turin, between those games, at the end of the month.
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