A highly exciting clash was on display on Wednesday as Napoli battled Atalanta at Stadio San Paolo in matchday 10 in Serie A.

Both teams were equally strong and have been performing extremely well since the start of the season. Atalanta, in particular, came into the match following a 7-1 thrashing at home against Udinese. Gian Piero Gasperini’s side sat in the third place as they managed to collect six wins, two draws, and a loss prior to the match against Napoli.

Meanwhile, the home side have also been rather solid, but need to be able to keep their consistency if they are to challenge for the top spot this season. Dropping points against SPAL in their 1-1 draw away from home in the last match surely didn’t help. Lorenzo Insigne and co. were definitely eager to earn three points in front of the home fans in this match.

In this tactical analysis, we’ll break down the tactics set up by Napoli and Atalanta in this match.

Lineups

Serie A 2019/20: Napoli vs Atalanta - tactical analysis tactics
Both team’s lineups. [Wyscout]
Ancelotti deployed his side in his favourite 4-4-2 formation. Some changes of personnel can be seen with David Ospina, Nikola Maksimović, José Callejón, Fabián Ruiz, and Hirving Lozano coming into the starting lineup. Meanwhile, Alex Meret, Kévin Malcuit, Piotr Zieliński, Eljif Elmas, and Dries Mertens all warmed the bench. Sebastiano Luperto seemed to start in the left-back spot in this game, having started as a left-sided centre-back in the last match.

Gasperini, on the other hand, made very few changes in terms of system for this game. La Dea were deployed in a 3-4-1-2 system with Papu Gómez playing in behind the two forwards, Mario Pašalić and Josip Iličić. They seemed to play in more of a 3-4-3 shape in their last match against Udinese though, with Gómez and Iličić playing on the left and right-wing respectively and Luis Muriel as the main striker.

José Luis Palomino, Remo Freuler, and Robin Gosens all came back into the starting lineup for this game. Simon Kjær, Luis Muriel, and Timothy Castagne were relegated to the bench.

To read the full tactical analysis of this match – click here


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