Luciano Spalletti's Napoli Masterclass

Introduction

Napoli has become synonymous with being the near men of Seria A. They have consistently run Juventus close finishing 2nd throughout their decade of dominance and surely would have won the Scudetto with better squad management under Sarri. Napoli and Sarri will be forever linked after being dubbed the most attractive team to watch in Europe during his tenure. The liquid style of football becoming known as Sarriball saw Napoli move the ball through the lines to manoeuvre opposition teams with ease. However, Sarriball was highly demanding both physically and mentally and Napoli would drop off in later parts of the season.

Ancelotti and Gattuso would look to harness elements of Sarriball and add their own styles to an already proven formula. For example under Ancelotti Napoli would try and attack in a 2-4-4 system and use squad rotation in a bid to prevent the same late-season drop-offs under Sarri. Gattuso introduced a more varied way of defending with Napoli moving away from the high press from the Sarri era to dropping deeper and defending from their own box.

Spalletti has blended all these styles together and has Napoli challenging at the top of Seria A once more. With the ball, Napoli plays somewhat similar to the days of Sarri but with an increased tendency to go long to the striker when needed.

Check out the video below for a full tactical breakdown of the 4-3-3 system that has seen Napoli win 7 of the 8 games when using the system scoring 22 goals whilst conceding only 4.