President of the Coaches’ Association Renzo Ulivieri makes his tactical predictions for tonight’s Juventus–Napoli clash.
It kicks off at 19.45 GMT and sees the top two go head-to-head, click here for a match preview.
“It’s easy to predict Napoli’s approach because they use the same old system and line-up,” wrote Ulivieri on Calciomercato.com.
President of the Coaches’ Association Renzo Ulivieri makes his tactical predictions for tonight’s Juventus-Napoli clash.
It kicks off at 19.45 GMT and sees the top two go head-to-head, click here for a match preview.
“It’s easy to predict Napoli’s approach because they use the same old system and line-up,” wrote Ulivieri on Calciomercato.com.
“They might change something in the application of it, but these would be tiny details. If, for example, Juventus were to play with two strikers plus a trequartista right behind them, the Napoli defence would probably play tighter than usual to defend with four against their three.
“The Partenopei back four has improved so much since Maurizio Sarri took over and works primarily on defending the spaces rather than marking a man in a zone. Therefore if there are adjustments, they’ll just be a few metres.
“The development of the Azzurri’s attacking moves will also be the usual: trying to recover the ball as high as possible to spark rapid attacks.
“Napoli’s philosophy is to play in the opposition half. It was the same philosophy Sarri used at Empoli last year.”
While Sarri has a full squad to choose from, Max Allegri is missing Giorgio Chiellini, Mario Mandzukic, Kwadwo Asamoah, Mario Lemina, Martin Caceres and it’s likely Sami Khedira won’t be fit to start either.
“Juve have injury problems and the choice of system will probably be conditioned by the resources Allegri has at his disposal,” continued Ulivieri.
“Presumably, because he is painted into a corner, I think he’ll play with two central defenders rather than adapt a full-back into that role. This means four at the back, three in midfield with a deep point, a trequartista and two strikers.
“That is the system that Allegri identifies most with. So it’d be Napoli’s 4-3-3 against Juve’s 4-3-1-2.
“It’ll be interesting to see what work the Juventus trequartista does. If he deals with Jorginho, then he’ll force Juventus to go on Napoli’s full-backs with Paul Pogba on the left and Claudio Marchisio moving forward.
“If, as Allegri often does, the two forwards open up and the trequartista goes to work against the two Napoli centre-backs, it’ll be a different movement.
“In that case, one of the Juve midfielders will move up on Jorginho and Marchisio will go to occupy the zone left empty.
“We have to expect a performance of great athletic consistency from the Italian, who will have to work extra hard to protect his centre-backs.
“I think Juve will alternate short attacks, when recovering the ball in the opposition half, with longer moves from the back. In recent months Juventus have learned to approach the goal with a series of many passes. It’s great to see, if you like that sort of thing.”
Having made his tactical predictions, what result does Ulivieri expect in Turin tonight?
“Too often an incident can change everything in these games. Napoli could happily do with a draw, but despite that I am sure they’ll take the game to Juve and play in the opposition half.
“With the Bianconeri defending deeper, they’ll hope to open up spaces behind Napoli. That, of course, is assuming Juve do play with 4-3-1-2. Otherwise it’s all an enigma!”