Whenever Antonio Conte joins a new club, there is always huge interest around the move. As he prepares to take on former club Inter, in a huge game at the top of Serie A on Sunday, the intrigue only increases.
Napoli’s 3-0 loss to Atalanta last weekend came at a bad time. Before the defeat at the Maradona, Napoli were comfortably sitting pretty at the top of the table, scoring plenty of goals, and had an enviable defensive record which had seen them concede only twice in nine games.
Things were coming together for them, as despite sometimes not being at their best, Conte‘s side got the results they needed. Their form had turned around after a disastrous opening day defeat to Verona, who ran out 3-0 winners and killed Napoli on the break.
Things have changed now and the South Coast club look like title contenders weeks after that disaster at the Bentegodi.
As Conte prepares to return to his former club on Sunday, we look at what has gone right for the Italian at Napoli.
One game a week season
There has been one incredible pattern in Conte’s career and that relates to how he performs brilliantly when his team has no European football.
That is how he won the Premier League at Chelsea and won Serie A with Inter, who were knocked out of Europe early during that campaign. At Tottenham, Conte didn’t have a full season without European football and that is why Napoli could be a huge opportunity this season.
The Italian is extremely prone to making errors with substitutions and game-management when it comes to the knockout rounds in major European games, adding pressure to the squad.
More than that, the current Napoli squad isn’t blessed with great depth in key areas like midfield and the backline, something that would see a side struggle to compete across multiple competitions. And when Conte doesn’t have two games a week, he wins things. That is a big positive for the Partenopei, who had a similar idea in mind when they hired the ex-Spurs boss.
Adapting to player strengths
A constant criticism of Conte that gets spoken of at every club is how he refuses to adapt to the players at hand. He has previously shown a stubborn insistence on playing a 3-5-2 everywhere he goes (barring Chelsea and his early days in Italy) but he has been surprisingly quick to adapt at Napoli.
He started with a 3-4-2-1, accommodating Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the number ten role but after Scott McTominay arrived, Conte has often used a back four for the first time since his early years in management. That is aimed at keeping McTominay further forward in support of Romelu Lukaku and to protect Giovanni di Lorenzo more often at right-back, after the Italian had a poor 2023/24 campaign.
They do build in a back three many times, with Di Lorenzo inverting as a centre-back and adding an extra man in the middle but combining a 3-4-2-1 with a 4-2-3-1 has brought about an unpredictability to Conte’s attack that is closer to a manager who believes in relationism than positionalism. It also suits the dynamic players at hand and doesn’t pin someone like Matteo Politano – who has previously had issues with Conte – to a specific position which doesn’t suit him.
Bringing the best out of key players
The setup at hand isn’t overly positional and it is giving an element of freedom to Conte’s side that hasn’t been seen in the past.
Kvaratskhelia has been at his unpredictable best, as he floats inside and stays wide when he wants. He is often operating at will, with Politano also having the room to cut inside instead of operating as a wing-back or a forward. McTominay is acting as the receiver, helping out Lukaku in the final third and causing chaos around the box, in typical fashion.
Alessandro Buongiorno has arguably been the best centre-back in the league, as he is using his almost-telescopic legs to win balls back, circulate it forward and recover when Napoli are in possession. Most of his in-game actions are coming deeper in his half, as Conte has not forgotten what his setup looks like even if the formation has been altered.
Typical Conte ideas thriving
Despite Conte’s adaptation to what the squad has, the ideas have largely remained the same.
In that recent excellent run of form, they kept seven clean sheets and there was a familiar pattern to things.
They relied on quick transitions while either operating in a mid-block while the game was goalless or in a low block when they were a goal up. That approach gives Napoli’s best attackers a lot of room to operate in and they attack it with a lot of threat, dragging the opponent across the final third.
Someone like Buongiorno helps them win the ball back, play it forward quickly and Stanislav Lobotka is an expert at breaking the opposition press and dictating the game. He is currently injured but the Slovakian will soon turn out to be the perfect regista for the Italian’s setup.
The Inter game later today will not be a title decider by any means but it is a clash involving the two best sides in Italy and it should give us a clearer picture of where each of them stands going in to the latest international break.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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