Napoli – AC Milan: Højlund Napoli’s Focal Point (2-0)

Rasmus Højlund had two decisive contributions as Napoli overcame AC Milan in this Supercoppa semi-final. Early on, Napoli lacked cleanliness in their pressing that Milan were unable to punish, and then Massimiliano Allegri’s side lacked a creative edge against Napoli’s second-half low-block.

Tactical analysis and match report by Josh Manley.

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The Supercoppa Italiana kicked off with a semi-final clash between Serie A holders Napoli, and last season’s Supercoppa winners, AC Milan. Antonio Conte’s side were looking to get back on track after consecutive defeats in their last two games against Benfica and Udinese. Milan meanwhile were held to a draw at home to Sassuolo last time out.

Napoli lined up in a 3-4-3 system here, with Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Amir Rrahmani, and Juan Jesus in defense. Matteo Politano and Leonardo Spinazzola were the wing-backs, while Stanislav Lobotka and Scott McTominay partnered in central midfield. David Neres and Eljif Elmas then supported Rasmus Højlund up front.

Massimiliano Allegri’s side started in a 3-5-2 formation with a back three of Fikayo Tomori, Koni De Winter, and Strahinja Pavlović. Alexis Saelemaekers and Pervis Estupiñán played as wing-backs flanking a central midfield trio of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ardon Jashari, and Adrien Rabiot. Christian Pulisic and Christopher Nkunku partnered up front.

Man-orientations and complications

Napoli took a man-oriented approach to defending in this game, particularly in the first half when they were pressing high or trying to jump from a mid-block. This initially helped them to take the initiative but also caused some issues as the half unfolded.

Napoli’s front three would attempt to go man-for-man against Milan’s back three, which was somewhat asymmetric as Tomori often moved wider on the right in Milan’s possession game. Pavlović sometimes did the same on the left, in which case the defensive chain was likewise pulled to this side, or Jashari would drop in to form a chain of four.

Napoli attempted to press high early on. 

In all permutations, Jashari often dropped into the backline or very deep in the six area for Milan, which gave Lobotka decisions to make in many phases as this was his nominal marker. In higher pressing, Lobotka could jump forward more easily, but this decision became harder when Napoli were forced into a mid or mid-low block.

With Lobotka and McTominay primarily oriented towards Jashari and Loftus-Cheek respectively, the spare midfielder for Milan was Rabiot. Di Lorenzo would try to push out and mark him, especially when Napoli went into high pressing, but this was done a bit inconsistently overall, and Rabiot often dropped deeper into areas where Di Lorenzo was reluctant to follow.

The horizontal movements of Pulisic across the backline also occasionally caused confusion for Napoli’s two remaining center-backs. Overall, the jumping forward required from various Napoli players to maintain the man-orientations meant that they were sometimes inconsistent in their coverage.

Højlund the focal point

Milan actually experienced some similar problems in controlling the space between their defensive and midfield lines, although from a very different context as they defended in a zonal 5-3-2 shape which was usually positioned in a mid-low block in the first half. Against this, Napoli attacked from a relatively orthodox 3-4-3 formation.

Napoli’s attacking midfielders Neres and Elmas positioned themselves in the halfspaces behind Milan’s number eights, and could find themselves in space when Loftus-Cheek and Rabiot tried to pressure the Napoli central midfielders and the Milan side center-backs did not step up with the right timing.

Napoli’s established possession against Milan’s zonal 5-3-2 shape.

Napoli’s attack also featured the classic Conte third-man combinations with vertical passes into the forwards to set up one-touch play where possible. They sought to get the ball to Højlund with his back to goal in opportune moments for him to lay the ball off or try to roll his defender, and this ended up rewarding them well.

Just before half time, a ball fed into Højlund’s feet on the left side of the box led to him managing to squeeze in a low cross which was met by Neres, allowed to run free in the box by some poor tracking from Milan’s defense and midfield.

Just after the hour mark, Højlund received the ball in a similar position in the left channel and this time bagged a goal of his own, shooting powerfully across Mike Maignan to make it 2-0 to Napoli.

Napoli drop deep

Most of the second half saw Napoli defending deep while Milan pushed for a goal, to no avail. When Napoli did have the ball, Milan would press high from their initial 5-3-2, with Rabiot jumping from his left central midfield role to access Di Lorenzo who played in right-back areas during Napoli’s deep buildup. Milan could then lock on accordingly with man-orientations, and force Napoli into long passes to regain the ball.

Milan in high pressing. 

When Milan had the ball, the center-backs would once again often split into wide areas, particularly Tomori who often took up right back positions. Many of the positional tendencies explained earlier were also carried over to this phase of the game, such as Jashari dropping deep and Pulisic roaming across the line.

Loftus-Cheek also positioned himself quite high in the right halfspace, as he had done in the first half. McTominay would often still be oriented towards him, meaning he sometimes dropped into the Napoli backline.

So Napoli were defending in a 5-4-1 shape which sometimes became a 6-3-1 or similar in certain moments. Elmas also often dropped off deeper and wider to the left due to Tomori’s wider positioning.

Napoli were comfortable in their low block.

Milan struggled to exploit this slightly flat defensive shape from Napoli though, and lacked guile in central areas in their chance creation phase. Many of Milan’s attacks were centered around driving the Napoli defense back with their wide circulation, before looking for crosses around the corners of the box. They occupied the box well in these situations, but just couldn’t win enough first contacts against a disciplined Napoli rearguard.

Allegri tried some adjustments midway through the second half, such as moving Loftus-Cheek to right wing-back to make room for Youssouf Fofana in midfield, as well as later introducing Luka Modrić to the mix. However, they continued to create little, and Napoli prevailed.

Takeaways

Napoli’s man-orientations in the first half looked a bit disorganized at times, which is unusual for a Conte side. Their deeper defending in the second half was more solid though. In attack, they showed some good verticality and found Højlund in suitable positions to use his strengths, and he ultimately provided them with two match-winning moments.

Milan meanwhile had some defensive issues of their own, with the first goal a particularly avoidable one as defenders seemed to switch off at a key moment. Chasing the game in the second half, they lacked inspiration and were unable to get their creative attackers on the ball in central areas.

Match plots to be added shortly.