Another day, another Conte masterclass. This was arguably more impressive than the Belgium display as Spain were considered favourites to win the whole thing by many people. But even taking the talent gap between the two sides into account, this display was nothing short of magnificent.
Line-ups
Italy
Italy’s line-up and system has essentially been the same every game. It’s becoming abundantly clear that after the Belgium and Spain games, compared to the Sweden and Ireland games, this Italy team is far better suited to face teams that will look to dominate.
Candreva suffered an injury and in came Florenzi. Personally, I adore Florenzi, they say fullback is a position that you play when you can’t succeed in any other position, and for Florenzi, it’s probably true. He’s industrious yet doesn’t really possess any creative midfield qualities for a modern day midfielder. But playing as a fullback, his average creative abilities become far more valuable compared to most fullbacks. Florenzi’s defensive qualities are not the best but considering it was a straight swap for Candreva, this wouldn’t affect Italy’s gameplan.
As usual, Giaccherini and Parolo would shift central-left/right while De Rossi is left alone in midfield. When the attacking phase is initiated, De Sciglio and Florenzi would push up the flanks so they could receive the ball via long passes or knock downs from Pelle.
Spain
Spain’s line-up has also settled now that we’re in the knockout rounds. Alba and Juanfran would push up to provide width, although the latter is a far less attractive attacking option than the former. Busquets would drop just ahead of the CBs to create a back three of sorts. Fabregas and Iniesta would be just ahead of the Catalan. Spain’s forward line looked to lack the width required to beat this Italy side (as Belgium did). Silva is a #10 playing wide, and doesn’t possess the pressing knowledge to do anything worthwhile. Nolito was the only man beyond the defense providing any sort of width, although the Spaniard has been playing more like a striker than a winger this tournament.
Xavi was right!
I tend not to listen to former players when they have comments to say, there’s a lot of rhetoric and hyperbole and most of the time it’s not worth anyone’s time. But what Xavi said the other day gave us some rare insight:
“Your 3-5-2 is the most complex system for an opponent that wants to press high up. When Italy want to bring the ball up, they have three at the back and two on the wings, for a total of five potential receivers of the ball. Pressing the way that Spain like to do becomes really difficult.
“And playing with two strikers makes things difficult for us up-front, too, because both of our central defenders are engaged and one of the full-backs, Juanfran or Jordi Alba, has to push up to close on [Antonio] Candreva or [Alessandro] Florenzi. It leaves us with a three-man defence.
“It forces us to change our system to adapt to the opponent, which just makes it all more complicated. At the World Cup, Brazil, Holland and Chile all opted for the 3-5-2 and caused us tremendous difficulty.”
This is the luxury of having three CBs who are more than capable on the ball. Morata’s pressure is on Bonucci is good as we saw against Belgium, leaving the Bianconeri defender to play his own long balls is footballing suicide. Silva and Nolito showed that they are not used to pressing CBs early on in the game.
During Spain’s golden era, the pressure they’d exert early in the game would stamp their dominance for the rest of the match. However Spain’s start was rather nonchalant and Buffon distributes to Chiellini without much trouble.
This is a lot better from Spain. There’s an instant press from their forward line and it forces Parolo to come deeper but Buffon ends up punting the ball up midfield from an awkward angle.
However, such pressing from the forwards is quite unsustainable for the whole game, but Buffon still really utilised all his options. Xavi was right, when one CB is being marked out of the game, or even two, Buffon can opt for the third. Especially as seen above and Barzagli and Chiellini move away from Bonucci to almost become FBs. If all three CBs are being pressured, Buffon has the option of the wingbacks, MFers coming deep or a long ball up field.
If Juanfran or Alba push up too far to try and pressure Florenzi/De Sciglio, they risk leaving Ramos/Pique exposed if they make a mistake, it’s not a balanced risk/reward situation.
A back three being pressed by a front three still allows the back three team to still have at least an equal numerical battle in midfield and may even have a numerical advantage up front depending on pressing match-ups.
Spain’s midfield stifled by man marking
One of the things that really impresses me during this sequence is how proactive the Italy players are. The accountability in man marking is something I like and all the players are constantly checking over their shoulder to ensure their man doesn’t get into space.
Whilst the marking from Italy is great, Spain’s lack of energy and poor positioning really made it easy for Italy. Busquets was far too deep at times and when he did advance up the pitch to help Fabregas/Iniesta, Pelle was sure to drop deeper and man mark him.
The end product is the screen above. Italy remain proactive in their pressing and special credit has to go to Eder for cutting off the passing lane to Pique, whilst Pelle stays close to Busquets albeit loosely.
The selection of Fabregas was an odd one. The 29 year old looked like he couldn’t keep up with the physicality of the game and offered very little in midfield. Spain’s stative and low-energy midfield would have been benefited by someone such as Koke or Thiago. The latter’s passing ability coupled with his ball carrying/dribbling ability would have offered a different dimension to midfield. Parolo is evidently not the most talented player, but he showed off how industrious he can be with his persistent and clever man marking of Iniesta and limited his chances to carry the ball.
Onto Iniesta, the Spaniard was having an absolutely magnificent tournament until he ran into this Italy side. With Busquets often sitting too deep or being marked by the proactive Giaccherini and Fabregas being rather stative, the Barcelona midfielder was left to do far too much. If he advanced up the pitch, it would leave a midfield of Fabregas and Busquets a little deeper, thus surrendering a numerical advantage to two players who were not having the best of games. But with Iniesta in the same lines as Fabregas, Spain struggled to advance the ball.
They could distribute to the wings, but then both of these players are being heavily man marked by Florenzi and De Sciglio, this would then lead to Spain recycling the ball to the back two. Silva and Nolito dropped centrally to help with advancing the ball, the only problem was it yet again set off a chain reaction which Spain couldn’t deal with.
With Silva and Nolito moving centrally, Chiellini and Barzagli followed, with De Sciglio and Florenzi moving into a back five. With the half space clogged by the rest of the MF dropping deep, it meant Spain had to work through the wide areas, which they were just not effective in doing.
The lack of movement in Spain’s midfield was just insane (in awful way) to watch throughout the whole match. Italy pushed Spain into the wide areas they were uncomfortable in throughout the whole game and above you can see how much pain Italy’s man marking caused Spain. Iniesta’s lack of options throughout the middle are staggering, De Rossi did so well to command the area in front of the CBs throughout the whole game.
The introduction of Aduriz
This is exactly what Italy wanted. The exact same happened with Belgium and yet again Conte got his opponent to do what he wanted. With Italy blocking the halfspace and Spain unable to build through the middle, they were forced into wide areas, which didn’t suit this Spain side at all. With both FBs heavily marked, Italy’s deep block and the lack of a target man in the box, Spain were left without any ideas.
Wide areas are inefficient for creating chances for most sides, even more so when your striker isn’t particularly physical and he’s going up against the most physical defence in the world.
One measly chance is probably not what del Bosque expected from bringing Aduriz into the game. It was baffling to seemingly everyone that he didn’t change his midfield, as Spain’s build up problems evidently stemmed from there. Instead he stuck with his choices and let Italy’s physically dominate CBs easily clear almost every ball that came into the box.
(Via Squawka)
Conclusion
Beyond all expectations, Italy are in the quarter finals. They had arguably the hardest draw in the round of 16 and still progressed. It’s becoming clear that this Antonio Conte’s tournament and everyone else is just watching. Many have complained about Italy ending up on the harder side of the tournament tree, but the way this team is set up to defend and attack, it’s clear they prefer to be the underdog. So with Italy’s next opponent being Germany, it’s going to fun.
Forza Azzurri
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The post Tactical analysis: Another Conte masterclass in Italy 2 Spain 0 appeared first on IFD.
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