Bit delayed, but my point was that with those guys on the pitch you expect a few goals at least. Napoli's defence wern't good. I felt Chelsea's attack as well as defence wern't on form, especially the defence obviously... but my point was that with those guys on the pitch you always expect goals.
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Bit delayed, but my point was that with those guys on the pitch you expect a few goals at least. Napoli's defence wern't good. I felt Chelsea's attack as well as defence wern't on form, especially the defence obviously... but my point was that with those guys on the pitch you always expect goals.
mccollio09
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Cavani and particularly Lavezzi defnitely lived up to the hype tonight, Hamsik wasn't too involved other than for that wicked turn when they should have made it 4. I'm guessing Lavezzi got Man of the match but I think Maggio had a cracker of a game.
Maggio was excellent, he and Zuniga are just as important as the front 3 three for Napoli's play
One of Chelsea's big problems is that they lack the kind of tracking wingers who would hassle and close down the Napoli wingbacks, particularly Maggio. Having a Kuyt, Milner, Park, Valencia would be a massive boost
mccollio09
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Got to agree with that, they're a very nice team to watch. I reckon there are a fair few Napoli players who Chelsea might be scouting for the future. I don't know why but I find them very similar to Tottenham in a lot of respects. As a Liverpool fan, Spurs are strangely the team I fear playing the most in the league, and I also feel that with Napoli, whilst they might not be the strongest team in Serie A, they are certainly the most dangerous. Similar in style of play too, obviously Cavani is one **** of a striker, but as I think we saw last night, most of the danger comes from midfield or deeper positions than the front line.
Spurs are a far more complete team than either Chelsea or Arsenal. Agree its about the transitions, Chelsea did not stop any of the transitional play. They dont have the player to track Maggio down the flank, and they need Essien back in the middle fast
Totally agree with you, Lavezzi, Maggio (and imo Cavani) played awesome.... Hamsik is very inconsistent, one of the reasons why they're not challenging for a champions league spot or the title..
Also Teams usually mirror the Napoli formation to some extent when they play them, and sit very deep- seems to baffle them, they're not good at breaking teams down.
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Napoli dont do too well when they are forced to take the initiative, they much prefer being a counter side
I'd say it wasnt even a big surprise that Chelsea didnt create any better chances, I counted couple times how many players Napoli had under the ball and it was 9. They kept the middle tight mostly, which got Drogba a bit isolated, leaving Chelsea playing again with the famous ''Smiling Cyclop'' tactic.
Raul Meireles was awful and tbh, Ive never liked him anyway and only thing why he keeps playin is cos hes Portuguese. Thats my opinion of him. Ramires wasnt much better, he lost possession couple times cheaply and sometimes had bad touches on the ball.
Malouda was the best of the midfield trio, he didnt look that bad at all.
Sturridge was too selfish and Drogba didnt have much of an impact due to napoli's deep defending. Mata tried and had the vision to pass around, but Napoli's defense didnt leave much holes which Mata could have used to make a killer pass or something.
Napoli played well to their strengths and defended deep and tight in the middle, but in the 2nd leg, its not impossible at all for Chelsea. I hope AVB tells Chelsea to play more wider and they need to switch balls between the flanks. I remember one situation in the game especially well, where Napoli had retreated to their deep defending and Chelsea had the ball on the right flank. Napoli started to press them as they were played into a small space, but then sum ''brilliant'' pass got through their pressing dudes and straight to Mata (If I remember right), who then had loads of space to move forward(Cant remember what happened afterwards, but not a goal scoring chance
). If you get what I mean, but this way Chelsea can salvage something from the 2nd leg.This is ma opinion.
Indeed I agree
I was thinking before the match yesterday that they'll do better away at stamford bridge for that reason.Great game from Napoli, they could have scored more goals had they not missed few easy chances. They are the myth buster that "Italians prefers defensive, slow game". They are absolutely joy to watch, shame they dont do it week in week out in the league (Another reason being Italian teams are strong defensively).
There were rumors that
Gabriele Marcotti @Marcotti
Shame if that is true.
AVB got it wrong though, he got team selection wrong. Plaing Raul meireles ahead of Essien and Lampard was a mistake. Luiz is just poor CB, he is a very good footballer but not a CB. He hardly had good games defensively. AVB should work out what is his best position.
Btw, Inler, Maggio, Zuniga, Lavezzi, Cavani, Campagnaro all had good game.
Disappointed with Neville's comments about Napoli. Looks like he is completely out of touch with Italian football and was massively biased towards English clubs.
There were rumors that
Gabriele Marcotti @Marcotti
.
Shame if that is true.
AVB got it wrong though, he got team selection wrong. Plaing Raul meireles ahead of Essien and Lampard was a mistake. Luiz is just poor CB, he is a very good footballer but not a CB. He hardly had good games defensively. AVB should work out what is his best position.
Btw, Inler, Maggio, Zuniga, Lavezzi, Cavani, Campagnaro all had good game.
Disappointed with Neville's comments about Napoli. Looks like he is completely out of touch with Italian football and was massively biased towards English clubs.
Team selection was somewhat irrelevant tbh. Essien was a surprise, but then mistakes were utterly basic things. Brana was poor, Both Boswinga and Cole were, DS did no tracking back whatsoever. Whoever is on the pitch should not be making those basic errors.
Considering that Luiz is by trade a CB, he should be working on improving him, because positionally he would be a disaster anywhere else too
Neville was right about Napoli's defence though, it was fairly shaky
Team selection was not irrelevant. Essien would have given lot more protection than Raul.
Luiz is by trade CB, poor one. He can easily make it in other position considering his strengths. Playing in top league for the first time and he got exposed very easily. He needs to improve a lot or change his position to FB.
Neville was right about defense but wrong on Napoli as a whole. It was very disrespectful.
But what about the other players? Selection is a minor issue here. The flanks were not protected at all. Full backs were defensively poor, centre backs were defensively poor. Essien could have made a central difference, but then what of the flanks.
Postionally poor at FB is just as big an issue, look at Boswinga, or even our Evra. Espeically since he doesnt know how to play other position, its more sense to actually work on his flaws.
The biggest problem came from Ivanovic getting cut up constantly.
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Yes but with Essien they could have done better than with Raul as he would have added steal to the midfield. Just because everyone was poor doesn't mean he didn't get team wrong. When I saw the line up I was like WTF is Raul doing instead of Essien and for the first goal Raul couldn't have bent any easier to take Lavezzi shot at goal.
Luiz one is very difficult. He is great at attacking so I said about FB. His positioning is non existent but imo team will be hurt badly if CB is poor than FB in positioning. Evra's positioning was bad even in the past but we had Vidic to cover that. So I feel fullback weakness can be covered if CB is **** good.
1) the biggest threat was down the flanks, so selection is a minor issue, Essien would not have stopped the two other goals, nor would he have saved Brana from constantly being tormented, so to talk about him "getting the team wrong" misses the key issues, namely the flanks, and the many personal errors
2) They dont have many CBs who are excellent, all you do by moving him is shift the issue slightly, still a massive weakness regardless. Only thing you can do is work on it.
Napoli 3-1 Chelsea: Ivanovic plays high up and Napoli exploit the space in behind him
Napoli 3-1 Chelsea: Ivanovic plays high up and Napoli exploit the space in behind him | Zonal Marking
February 22, 2012
The starting line-ups
Napoli played their classic counter-attacking game to put themselves in a strong position going into the second leg.
Walter Mazzarri was suspended from the touchline, so assistant Nicolo Frustalupi took charge. Morgan De Sanctis returned in goal, Hugo Campagnaro was fit to start, and Juan Zuniga was picked rather than Andrea Dossena on the left.
Andre Villas-Boas left out Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole, though the latter replaced Jose Bosingwa early on at left-back. Florent Malouda got a surprise start (though he has played the majority) of games in Europe this season. As expected, Didier Drogba played rather than Fernando Torres, while John Terry was out.
Formations
The use of Malouda meant Chelsea could play either a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1. Malouda has sometimes played in the midfield three with Juan Mata out on the left – away at Norwich, for example. But the line-up hinted at a 4-2-3-1 with Malouda left and Mata centrally (Malouda rather than Lampard starting), and that’s the way Chelsea lined up.
The formation probably played into Napoli’s hands, and made the basic tactical battle much less exciting. 3 v 3 at the back for Napoli would have been interesting, but because Chelsea played a 4-2-3-1 and defended with two banks of four, they often looked like 4-4-1-1 without the ball. As a result, Napoli’s midfielders could largely leave Mata to the back three, and it was a simply 3 v 2 situation at the back. With 4 v 4 in midfield and 4 v 3 for Chelsea at the back, the formations were evenly-balanced.
Ivanovic v Lavezzi and Cavani
The game was a clear clash of styles, but the key was a battle in the Chelsea right-back zone. Branislav Ivanovic played an extremely attacking role, pushing very high on the right to allow Daniel Sturridge inside. He saw a lot of the ball, attempting 53 passes (compared to Cole and Bosingwa’s combined 35), but crucially, Ezequiel Lavezzi didn’t track him back all the way. With Napoli’s wing-backs retreating back to form a back five, and the home side playing seven players in predominantly defensive roles, Lavezzi could afford to stay high up the pitch and break into the space Ivanovic had vacated. Furthermore, Edinson Cavani made lots of runs into the left channel, which meant he and Lavezzi overloaded Gary Cahill.
Napoli started very direct and hit lots of long balls from deep into the space between Ivanovic and Cahill, with Lavezzi chasing a long Paolo Cannavaro ball in the first five minutes. That was a warning sign, and there no fewer than seven further crucial incidents that involved Cavani or Lavezzi getting space in behind Ivanovic, or between Ivanovic and Cahill:
10 mins Lavezzi drifted inside, Cavani moved to the left. Gokhan Inler hit a diagonal ball out to Cavani, who brought the ball down well for a one-on-one, and had a shot saved well by Petr Cech’s foot.
38 mins A slightly different scenario – Cavani moves left, then makes a run to take Ivanovic away – Lavezzi cuts inside and scores the first goal.
45 mins Cavani makes a run in behind Ivanovic, gets to Inler’s diagonal ball and turns the ball in for the second.
54 mins Ivanovic is on the halfway line as Napoli break quickly – Cahill is dragged towards Cavani in the centre, Lavezzi is all alone with a great chance to make it 3-1, but fires his shot wide of Cech’s left-hand post.
57 mins Ivanovic is caught high up the pitch at a transition, Napoli break through Lavezzi, and Cahill collects a yellow card after fouling him.
65 mins David Luiz defends poorly and is beaten to the ball by Cavani, but on the opposite flank Ivanovic (again defending much higher than the rest of the back four) allows Lavezzi to sprint past him for an open goal.
80 mins Ivanovic is again too high up the pitch and takes too long to get back and defend a Napoli attack – Marek Hamsik gets space on the left, squares the ball for Christian Maggio, and Cole clears off the line.
All these incidents can be viewed here
Things got better for Chelsea after 74 minutes, when the exhausted Lavezzi was taken off, with Blerim Džemaili replacing him, and playing more as a midfielder than a winger.
It was telling that Napoli created more chances by playing the ball to a position to the left of the pitch:
And maybe also relevant that they made very few interceptions on the right, with Lavezzi able to collect the ball on that flank from very straight passes:
There were, of course, other factors in the game. Chelsea left too many spaces at the back in general, and playing a double pivot of two shuttling players was a surprising move that meant little structure in midfield. The away side were always likely to be vulnerable to quick breaks, but it was amazing how often they were exposed in the same zone of the pitch.
Conclusion
Chelsea basically played the way Napoli would have wanted – they didn’t give them a numerical problem at the back, they committed too many men forward at 0-0 and 0-1 when they should have been patient to prevent Napoli breaking, and they also conceded too many free-kicks – 18 compared to Napoli’s 7.
But the main issue was at right-back, the position Chelsea have struggled in for years. Ivanovic is meant to be the best defensive option there, as a converted centre-back – but whether because of managerial instructions or his own poor positioning, he may have cost Chelsea the tie.
Napoli 3-1 Chelsea: Ivanovic plays high up and Napoli exploit the space in behind him | Zonal Marking
February 22, 2012
The starting line-ups
Walter Mazzarri was suspended from the touchline, so assistant Nicolo Frustalupi took charge. Morgan De Sanctis returned in goal, Hugo Campagnaro was fit to start, and Juan Zuniga was picked rather than Andrea Dossena on the left.
Andre Villas-Boas left out Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole, though the latter replaced Jose Bosingwa early on at left-back. Florent Malouda got a surprise start (though he has played the majority) of games in Europe this season. As expected, Didier Drogba played rather than Fernando Torres, while John Terry was out.
Formations
The use of Malouda meant Chelsea could play either a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1. Malouda has sometimes played in the midfield three with Juan Mata out on the left – away at Norwich, for example. But the line-up hinted at a 4-2-3-1 with Malouda left and Mata centrally (Malouda rather than Lampard starting), and that’s the way Chelsea lined up.
The formation probably played into Napoli’s hands, and made the basic tactical battle much less exciting. 3 v 3 at the back for Napoli would have been interesting, but because Chelsea played a 4-2-3-1 and defended with two banks of four, they often looked like 4-4-1-1 without the ball. As a result, Napoli’s midfielders could largely leave Mata to the back three, and it was a simply 3 v 2 situation at the back. With 4 v 4 in midfield and 4 v 3 for Chelsea at the back, the formations were evenly-balanced.
Ivanovic v Lavezzi and Cavani
The game was a clear clash of styles, but the key was a battle in the Chelsea right-back zone. Branislav Ivanovic played an extremely attacking role, pushing very high on the right to allow Daniel Sturridge inside. He saw a lot of the ball, attempting 53 passes (compared to Cole and Bosingwa’s combined 35), but crucially, Ezequiel Lavezzi didn’t track him back all the way. With Napoli’s wing-backs retreating back to form a back five, and the home side playing seven players in predominantly defensive roles, Lavezzi could afford to stay high up the pitch and break into the space Ivanovic had vacated. Furthermore, Edinson Cavani made lots of runs into the left channel, which meant he and Lavezzi overloaded Gary Cahill.
Napoli started very direct and hit lots of long balls from deep into the space between Ivanovic and Cahill, with Lavezzi chasing a long Paolo Cannavaro ball in the first five minutes. That was a warning sign, and there no fewer than seven further crucial incidents that involved Cavani or Lavezzi getting space in behind Ivanovic, or between Ivanovic and Cahill:
10 mins Lavezzi drifted inside, Cavani moved to the left. Gokhan Inler hit a diagonal ball out to Cavani, who brought the ball down well for a one-on-one, and had a shot saved well by Petr Cech’s foot.
38 mins A slightly different scenario – Cavani moves left, then makes a run to take Ivanovic away – Lavezzi cuts inside and scores the first goal.
45 mins Cavani makes a run in behind Ivanovic, gets to Inler’s diagonal ball and turns the ball in for the second.
54 mins Ivanovic is on the halfway line as Napoli break quickly – Cahill is dragged towards Cavani in the centre, Lavezzi is all alone with a great chance to make it 3-1, but fires his shot wide of Cech’s left-hand post.
57 mins Ivanovic is caught high up the pitch at a transition, Napoli break through Lavezzi, and Cahill collects a yellow card after fouling him.
65 mins David Luiz defends poorly and is beaten to the ball by Cavani, but on the opposite flank Ivanovic (again defending much higher than the rest of the back four) allows Lavezzi to sprint past him for an open goal.
80 mins Ivanovic is again too high up the pitch and takes too long to get back and defend a Napoli attack – Marek Hamsik gets space on the left, squares the ball for Christian Maggio, and Cole clears off the line.
All these incidents can be viewed here
Things got better for Chelsea after 74 minutes, when the exhausted Lavezzi was taken off, with Blerim Džemaili replacing him, and playing more as a midfielder than a winger.
It was telling that Napoli created more chances by playing the ball to a position to the left of the pitch:
There were, of course, other factors in the game. Chelsea left too many spaces at the back in general, and playing a double pivot of two shuttling players was a surprising move that meant little structure in midfield. The away side were always likely to be vulnerable to quick breaks, but it was amazing how often they were exposed in the same zone of the pitch.
Conclusion
Chelsea basically played the way Napoli would have wanted – they didn’t give them a numerical problem at the back, they committed too many men forward at 0-0 and 0-1 when they should have been patient to prevent Napoli breaking, and they also conceded too many free-kicks – 18 compared to Napoli’s 7.
But the main issue was at right-back, the position Chelsea have struggled in for years. Ivanovic is meant to be the best defensive option there, as a converted centre-back – but whether because of managerial instructions or his own poor positioning, he may have cost Chelsea the tie.
Yeah should work on it, not only his positioning there are few aspects where he should improve a lot to play for a team competing on all fronts.
CM/DM can sit back and help fullback. Will agree to disagree though. With Essien maybe they would have controlled the game, who knows.