Antonio Conte has always been known for his defensive tactics and fast counterattacking football whether it was his title winning seasons with Juventus Chelsea or inter the vast majority of attacks were created from combinations out wide with aggressive Wing backs pushing forward and finding players in the box but his impressive start at Napoli is not following the same blueprint and con is slowly Reinventing his tactics from wide overloads to huge Central clusters no longer creating chances from Cross but from Fast vertical passes in the center with different players running in behind this change in shape has
made nap one of the most interesting teams in Europe but why's Conte suddenly moved away from his trusted wide overload and could surrounding Lukaku with support in the center make him more dangerous than he's ever been let's take a look Welcome Back to Football meta Napoli have been on a roller coaster in recent Seasons from dominating the Sera to a seriously underwhelming 10th Place finished last season so con's appointment raises some questions because while he does bring success almost everywhere for me IIT this unacceptable his high-intensity football often has a very specific sell by date
nonetheless at Napoli we are witnessing a completely different con from what we are used to and the first major difference is their starting formation throughout his career con has always relied on back three formations alternating between the 352 and 3421 formation with a heavy emphasis on Fast athletic Wing backs that can cover the length of the pitch for 90 minutes when defending his teams shift to a back five notoriously difficult to break down with fast players up top ready to start the team's counterattacks in possession the combinations out wide meant a lot of their buildup
would happen on the flanks with lots of space to exploit with switches in play if the opposition closed them down eventually looking to get the ball into the box from crosses in deep positions it's one of the reasons why players like Victor Moses and Marcus Alonzo were two of Chelsea's best players in their Premier League winning season and why his time at Spurs didn't work out as Emerson Royale and regulon struggled to get forward and defend but this season at Napoli after a heavy 3-0 defeat on the opening day con quickly assessed the situation and
realized he could get more out of players like mcom and Lukaku by having the team play in close proximity whilst it may seem like a minimal change con has switched to a back four formation and the focus has complet completely shifted from the flanks to the center of the pitch and by having the Wingers moving inside it creates these big overloads that allows for quick circulation and combinations in the center with different players ready to attack in behind we'll examine the effectiveness of this Central cluster in the next part of the video but it's first
important to understand how this overload is created because it does take on different shapes depending on where they are on the pitch Step One is the buildup shape which resembles a 2422 with the two Wingers in karat Scalia and politano moving a lot more centrally leaving Lukaku and Momin up top for any long balls they can knock down between the lines this shape creates these two vertical corridors down the center which is the most common route they look to use when moving up the pitch however at times a ball out wide into the fullback to
play a first time pass into the Winger has also been very effective with the opposite Winger then ready to give the team width on the opposite flank step two is when Napoli gain a bit more control of the pitch and is when we can really start to see the more important rotations up top starting with a back four does mean that the fullbacks can't be instantly as aggressive moving forward as it would leave the defense a little exposed but in order for the central overload to make sense the team does still need width in these
areas otherwise the opposition could comfortably close off all the players in the center to do this Con is relying on the Laval Piana exit named after the Mexican Coach Ricardo laulin in which one midfielder drops between the center backs allowing them to move a bit wider and have the fullbacks push up it's a very common tactic used most notably by Pep Guardiola during his days at Barcelona but it's an approach that can be seen in countless different teams and players the advantage that Napoli have is that both their holding midfielders in labotka and angua are
comfortable making this rotation meaning depending on what is needed they will alternate this movement to form a back three forming a diamond build shape in the center as soon as the fullbacks push forward this is when crat Scalia and politano can move more centrally and is where we can start to see the impact that this cluster of players can have in the center this means the other holding midfielder becomes the target to then bounce attacks from but Momin is also active in this phase by rotating and adding support if needed we can see an example
of this from their match against Juventus which is the first time we saw con adopting this back four shape in this clip angua drops alongside the center backs to form a back three the four can then push forward on the flanks and this frees a space for Momin to move into the center these rotations drag the Juventus Midfield out of position and frees up a big space for politano to receive the ball and push forward once this shape is created is where the fun can begin and where we can see the core reason as to
why con decided to change his tactics the combination of a Target man like Lukaku along with a box Crasher like Momin up top is allowing both players to play to their strengths in every game momin's Mobility means he is consistently dropping deep and swapping places with Crow Scalia while Lukaku is a lot more fixed but is the target for any ball into the center that he can then lay off to any of the players he has as support Napoli's two goals against Kom are a perfect example of the dangers of this system with Lukaku holding
up play and waiting for a player to run in behind because of this Central cluster of players it does often mean Napoli can exploit the space between the fullback and the center back as the opposite position steps out to close down the fullback players will take it in turn to run into the channel and this ball over the top has led to a lot of dangerous opportunities for Napoli this season this system means Lukaku is adopting a slightly different approach from what we've seen in previous seasons and rather than being the end Target his ability
to Hold Up play and find players running ahead of him means that he's likely going to get more assists than goals this season and he's already well on track to outpace his 11 assists from his phenomenal season at in again under con this has resulted in Napoli creating chances in completely different ways from what you'd expect from a con team their crosses per game have decreased significantly compared to his time at inter while through balls and cutbacks have become a much more important part of the game but this analysis on con and Napoli wouldn't be
complete without touching on their defensive structure and while their attacking shape is slightly different from predicted this is still very much a con team and their defensive tactics counterattacks are as dangerous as ever in fact when Napoli are defending they very quickly shift to a 532 formation with poano dropping deep alongside dorenzo this means there is more cover in the half spaces with lotka angua and Momin covering any space in the center of the pitch Napoli are not a team that will press aggressively in the opposition's half but will try and form their defensive structure
as quickly as possible and sit in a mid block rotating from side to side to ensure there are no easy passes through the middle more importantly con chooses to keep both Lukaku and crat Scalia above the line of the ball so even if the opposition are able to break past the Midfield Napoli always have two Targets to aim for on the defensive line this also has the advantage of forcing the opposition to leave at least three players in their rest defense to ensure they don't get outnumbered on the Counterattack meaning it's not easy for the
opposition to get players forward on their attack once Napoli regain possession their only objective is to get the ball forward it's in situations like these where farat scalo will move out wide to receive the ball attempting to gain ground by dribbling past the fullback while Lukaku will operate more in the right inside Channel with Momin quickly joining the attack down the middle while it's still early in the season Conte has had a fantastic start to his life at Napoli and the lack of midweek European football will certainly be a huge physical Advantage come later in
the season but do you think Napoli will be in the title race in a few months time leave your thoughts in the comments down below we're so close to 300,000 subscribers which is a number I can't even comprehend so if you haven't done so already please do subscribe and help support the channel and thank you so much to arh trivia and SLO 1234 for becoming the latest members of the channel I really appreciate your support thanks for watching
