This article was first published on footballromance.com (a predecessor to this website) in October 2016.
Line-ups
This was Napoli’s first match without Arkadiusz Milik, who netted six goals in his first nine games for the club but is now set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines; Manolo Gabbiadini was his replacement up front. In the other change to the team which lost at Atalanta, Allan took over from Piotr Zielinski on the right of a three-man midfield.
Kevin Strootman failed to prove his fitness in time for the visitors, so Leandro Paredes came into central midfield alongside skipper Daniele De Rossi. Bruno Peres also missed out with a knock, with Alessandro Florenzi the man to fill in at right-back. Radja Nainggolan had been a doubt but was ultimately deemed fit enough to start in support of lone striker Edin Dzeko.
Space in midfield from the first whistle
The first half was a hugely enjoyable affair, with both sides intent on striking the first blow, not only in the match but also in the race to keep up with league leaders Juventus. The end-to-end nature of the play meant neither did particularly well at restricting space for the opposition in midfield, which led to a plethora of threatening attacks.
Lorenzo Insigne had plenty of initial joy down the Napoli left, with direct opponent Florenzi venturing forward frequently – his positioning was more akin to that of a wing-back – and being caught upfield when his team lost possession. Kostas Manolas was often forced to shuffle across to cover, by which time Insigne had already picked his pass or cross.
Napoli unable to capitalise on crosses
Balls into the box from wide areas caused the Roma defence plenty of concern in the opening period, although they ultimately managed to emerge unscathed. Faouzi Ghoulam, whose attacking presence was more notable after half time, benefited from Insigne’s tendency to drift inside to whip in a tantalising cross just beyond the reach of Gabbiadini, while a wicked Insigne delivery similarly evaded Jose Callejon.
The Spaniard also played a narrow role from the right, giving I Giallorossi an extra problem to contend with in central zones and clearing space for the bustling runs of Allan and Elseid Hysaj from deep. Both players delivered balls into dangerous areas, one of which forced the visiting defenders to make no fewer than three separate last-ditch blocks, while the other again found Gabbiadini on his heels.
Marek Hamsik was an obvious danger to Luciano Spalletti’s side, yet he frequently found space in front of their defence, De Rossi and Paredes unable to keep up with his darting movements between the left and centre. The Slovak, however, failed to make the most of several promising situations, not managing to produce a single shot at goal or make a game-changing pass.
Roma’s quick passes forward with quality
But Roma were equally – if not more – threatening when they broke forward, which they were able to do with relative ease. Napoli played high up the pitch but didn’t press the ball at all effectively, allowing their opponents to attack quickly with high-quality, one-touch passing.
Dzeko and Mohammed Salah were, as ever, key to Roma’s attacking strategy. The former ultimately produced a match-winning display with two goals, but he could – and undoubtedly should – have scored more. The Bosnian is, evidently, not renowned for his pace but was nevertheless able to exploit Napoli’s high defensive line thanks to his link-up play with Salah and Nainggolan, neither of whom had much trouble finding space in behind Jorginho, the deepest of the hosts’ midfield three, who was left exposed by the forward runs of Hamsik and Allan.
Salah, who did very little defensive work in the first half, also found plenty of room to work in on the flanks. A series of quick passes forward gave him the chance to run at Azzuri central defender Kalidou Koulibaly, with left-back Ghoulam pushing onto Florenzi. Koulibaly showed on several occasions that he was capable of keeping up with Salah, but the Senegalese was the culprit as Roma took the lead just before the break, his dallying on his own goalline allowing Salah to pick his pocket and tee up Dzeko to score, with Nainggolan’s presence in the box creating space for the ex-Manchester City striker.
On the opposite side of the field from Salah’s, Diego Perotti and Hysaj were left to battle it out mano a mano, with Juan Jesus at times resembling a third centre-back rather than a left-back. Although there were a few examples of Hysaj getting forward to good effect, Perotti shaded the duel on the whole, getting round the outside of the Albanian to deliver several balls into the area, one of which was fired over by Dzeko, who should have done better.
I Giallorossi’s deeper defensive block after half time
A few minutes of to-ing and fro-ing suggested the match would carry on in the same vein after half time, but, together with Roma’s mentality, its complexion quickly changed. No sooner had the visitors’ deeper defensive block become visible, another unchallenged pass into Dzeko’s feet ended up with the attacker winning a free kick, which he himself headed into the net.
With a two-goal advantage to hang onto, there was no reason for the capital side to alter their new game plan. Florenzi curbed his attacking instincts and remained goalside of Insigne, who became significantly less involved. But while Salah did do some defensive work, Ghoulam was able to advance down the left to put in six second-half crosses; the only one which was successful, however, was the corner which led to Koulibaly halving the deficit just before the hour.
With Milik out for the foreseeable future, this was Gabbiadini’s big chance to prove he was the man to spearhead Napoli’s potential title challenge, but his failure to get on the end of even one of the many crosses into the box – there were no fewer than 35 in total – summed up his afternoon. The striker touched the ball only ten times – just twice in the penalty area – in 56 minutes, at which point he was replaced by Dries Mertens.
Possession for the hosts, but no space
The Belgian buzzed around in a central role, pressed the Roma centre-backs with greater intent and was generally more active than Gabbiadini, although the lack of space in the opposition half restricted him to just one shot on target from distance.
It was the same story for his teammates. Hamsik broke into the area on just one occasion in the whole of the second period and didn’t complete a single pass into the box. Both he and Allan – and Napoli as a team – saw plenty of the ball but in much deeper areas than in the first half, while Callejon had only eight touches after the break (he was replaced after 76 minutes), compared to 28 in the opening period.
Dzeko and Salah continue to spearhead dangerous breaks
I Giallorossi defended the space in front of their backline excellently and dealt very comfortably with the vast number of crosses which were somewhat hopefully tossed into their penalty area. Their continued to possess a considerable offensive threat too, happy to leave Dzeko and Salah to initiate attacks on their own, although Nainggolan and Perotti, who also tracked Hysaj diligently throughout, were extremely quick to get up in support if they judged it might be worth their while.
77 or Roma’s 437 passes could be classed as ‘long balls’, but at no stage did they simply resort to lumping the ball forward aimlessly. Of course, some inevitably went astray, but there were enough occasions on which the accuracy of the pass allowed Dzeko to link with the nearby Salah on the right, or for the Egyptian to race away on his own, as was the case for the third goal which sealed the victory in the dying moments.
What next?
Back-to-back defeats leave Maurizio Sarri’s men seven points adrift of top dogs Juventus, which already looks to be too big a gap to close. As usual, there pieced together some neat passages of play, but Gabbiadini failed to prove himself as an effective front man despite his teammates’ best attempts to provide him with some service, particularly in the first half. The ease with which Roma were able to get the ball forward and run directly at the Azzuri defence should be a cause for concern.
Salah and Dzeko are obviously two completely different types of player, yet they are also very similar in the sense that they often do not make the most of the dangerous situations they create for themselves. Even in a 3-1 victory, that was the case again here, with Spalletti critical of Dzeko’s wastefulness post-match. After seeing his side more than match their opponents in a basketball-style first half, the former Zenit boss will have been particularly happy with their defensive capabilities in the second, which had been called into question in the away defeats to Fiorentina and Torino.