Sampdoria produced a very good performance at Sassuolo on Saturday to earn an impressive 5-3 victory in Serie A. The scoreline will be the only disappointment for Marco Giampaolo’s men as they shouldn’t have conceded three goals in a game they were always in control of. This tactical analysis will look at Sampdoria’s pressing, the passing quality with which they carved Sassuolo open time and time again, and finally how Sassuolo looked to target the wide areas to hurt Sampdoria.
Lineups
Sassuolo set up in a 3-4-2-1 in possession which in all honesty mostly resembled a 3-4-3, as Filip Djuricic dropped onto the same line as Jeremie Boga and Domenico Berardi but didn’t occupy a normal striker position. Defensively, Boga dropped into midfield to create a 5-3-2 defensive shape. In the second half, with Sassuolo 3-1 down, Roberto De Zerbi introduced Manuel Locatelli and Khouma Babacar in place of Federico Di Francesco and Djuricic to change the shape into a 4-3-3. The results of this change will be looked at later.
Sampdoria continued with the 4-3-1-2 they always use under Marco Giampaolo. His deployment of Gregoire Defrel as the number 10 would prove inspired as Defrel’s ability to run with the ball in central areas became a vital weapon in this game.
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