Napoli – Fiorentina: Giuseppe Iachini’s Smart Game Plan Outclasses Gennaro Gattuso (0-2)

Napoli had the ball, but Fiorentina ran the show for most of the game. The visitors happily spent large parts of the game in a low block and their solid defensive plan neatly exploited the issues in a flawed Napoli side.

Tactical analysis and match report by Kareem Bianchi.

When Serie A opened its gates, it would have been hard to fathom a mid-season scenario with Napoli and Fiorentina as two teams without the manager that started the season. Three points off each other, Napoli and Fiorentina sat in eleventh and fifteenth place going into this game, a result of the flaws lingering on since the Serie A opener between Carlo Ancelotti and Vincenzo Montella.

Gennaro Gattuso and Giuseppe Iachini, hired following the former managers’ departure, were assigned the burden of a sinking ship to rise back to the surface. So far, Napoli have not found the stability the management wished for when bringing in the new manager, but an encounter between two teams in search of consistency was the ideal setting for the first progress evaluation.

Gattuso started Napoli in a 4-3-3 shape with Fabián Ruiz once again operating from the heart of midfield as the playmaker, with Allan and Piotr Zieliński at his sides. In attack, Josè Callejón and Lorenzo Insigne assisted Arkadiusz Milik from the wings.

Iachini played Federico Chiesa and new signing Patrick Cutrone in attack.

https://twitter.com/sscnapoli/status/1218613945189195777

A testing defense

The change in leadership did not alter Fiorentina’s shape, which remained the same 3-5-2 . . .