Napoli's 5-4-1

[dazby]

3 centrebacks, wing backs that tuck in, a midfield that manmarks Silva and is fluid enough to block the channels, and a fast counter attack. Have Napoli shown the Prem how to play against us at home? How many managers will follow suit? Does Mancio have the solution to unlocking it?

[CityGer]

No doubt they were tactically excellent last night. They combined counter attacking football with some good possession play. They did a few things very well, how much of it was down to the system I'm not sure.

They key was crowding Silva and Nasri out of the game. They didn't have any space to operate in and it blunted our attacking threat.

Inler was interviewed after the game and commented on the number of our goals that come from wide or the inside left and inside right positions. They snuffed us out by filling the space in those areas. Perhaps the system they deployed was key to that.

They broke superbly well, Cavani's runs were intelligent and stretched our defence.

They stood up to us physically. We often out muscle teams but they were strong, fit and up for it.

The system may have been key, not sure. They just struck me as a strong, well organised, well disciplined side with some real quality in the attacking third.

It will be interesting to see how they get on in Serie this year.

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

They noticably seemed to be in our faces quicker and higher up the pitch in the second half, not allowing us to build from the back.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

3 centrebacks, wing backs that tuck in, a midfield that manmarks Silva and is fluid enough to block the channels, and a fast counter attack. Have Napoli shown the Prem how to play against us at home? How many managers will follow suit? Does Mancio have the solution to unlocking it?

He had better! Of course they also need half our players to have an off night and for us (arguably) to select the wrong players.

[lets all have a disco]

5-4-1 Isnt some sort of tactical genius formation i knew exactly how they would set up against us.
Barca have had to play against teams doing it to them for ages,you have to move the ball well to break it down expect more of it ladies and gentlemen.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

That's a crap loser formation.

People have been going overboard with "tactical genious" crap after last night. Only thing ingenious about Napoli last night was Mazzarri's jackett.

Had one of those numerous of chances we had in first half gone in, I have no doubt in my mind that we would've gone on to win comfortably. It was just one of those nights.

[Duckman]

nothing genius about it.

we needed some luck yesterday, bar some defensive mistakes, we should have scored enough to win.

[aaron bond]

Whilst I do think Napoli played well, I think if we had Richards and Clichy playing, two full-backs who are better at attacking than Zab and Kolarov, then their defence and midfield would have been under pressure more, as we would have had more width in the attacking third of the pitch.

As others have said though, we dominated the first 20 minutes and if one of those chances had gone in, we probably would have won fairly comfortably.

[dazby]

That's a crap loser formation.

People have been going overboard with "tactical genious" crap after last night. Only thing ingenious about Napoli last night was Mazzarri's jackett.

Had one of those numerous of chances we had in first half gone in, I have no doubt in my mind that we would've gone on to win comfortably. It was just one of those nights.

Hey guess what mate, we drew. And Dave Silva had a quiet one. After a few weeks of dominating teams we were a bit more tame.

Furthermore, a fair few managers would have been watching. I'll bet they try and copy it.

[lets all have a disco]

That's a crap loser formation.

People have been going overboard with "tactical genious" crap after last night. Only thing ingenious about Napoli last night was Mazzarri's jackett.

Had one of those numerous of chances we had in first half gone in, I have no doubt in my mind that we would've gone on to win comfortably. It was just one of those nights.

Hey guess what mate, we drew. And Dave Silva had a quiet one. After a few weeks of dominating teams we were a bit more tame.

Furthermore, a fair few managers would have been watching. I'll bet they try and copy it.

Dazzler you need to have a certain kind of player to hurt us using that system and those players were Hamsik,Lavezzi and Cavani but the formation will be seen again and against weaker teams it wont be a problem but in the Champions league we need to work it out and CONCENTRATE.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

That's a crap loser formation.

People have been going overboard with "tactical genious" crap after last night. Only thing ingenious about Napoli last night was Mazzarri's jackett.

Had one of those numerous of chances we had in first half gone in, I have no doubt in my mind that we would've gone on to win comfortably. It was just one of those nights.

Hey guess what mate, we drew. And Dave Silva had a quiet one. After a few weeks of dominating teams we were a bit more tame.

Furthermore, a fair few managers would have been watching. I'll bet they try and copy it.

Indeed we did. However it wasn't because Serie A champion's were dominant in any particular area. We made couple of bad individual errors like Barry being in attack and not being able to take care of the ball when BOTH Zabaleta and Kolarov were going forward as well when they hit us on counter for the goal.

Other than that we dominated the game and just little bit more sharpness in front of the goal would've guaranteed us easy three points.

They didn't play well or were particularily well organised but this time they managed to squeeze a point out of us. If I were manager, I wouldn't be looking at it like "hey, that's the way to beat City".

[dazby]

Are you serious? We didn't score from open play and Silva was kept quiet. We've scored 15 goals in the past 4 games and in this one only 1. It gave a lot of clues as to how to control us. It's a very very difficult task, but it's a start.

[CityGer]

People keep mentioning the "number of chances" missed in the first half. We had good possession and a few decent openings but we created nothing like the number of clear cut chances as we have been recently. I put that down to Napolia making themselves very hard to break down.

Just shows how people read a game differently. I though Napoli played well and that their coach used clever tactics to snuff out our biggest threats. I certainly don't see it as a case of missed chances. A draw was a fair result.

[Ted Hughes]

I think we created very few chances & if Napoli had been better in their use of the ball, could have been 2 or 3 down by half time in spite of dominating. On numerous occasions they had numbers on the break but lacked the quality to make the most of it (players shooting wildly rather than calmly killing us off etc). If the rags, Chelsea or Liverpool had the same space on the break they would humilliate us. We got that part of the game badly wrong & tactically were a mess.

It's not particularly their system that caused the trouble though it's just the sheer numbers they had behind the ball. We did the same v Arsenal away etc last season but we lacked the attacking breakaways; we just sat there, Napoli didn't.

If we had scored early, it would have been a massacre as we started well but as the game went on, we did well to get a draw as we'd tactically disintegrated.

[Sideshow Bob]

I agree that we were lucky to get a draw. For every near miss we had, they had at lease one decent chance on the break. The stats are deceiving b/c many of our shots were from distance.

Also, I said it during and after the Wigan game and I stand by it now. We should have taken Silva off at half time of that game or kept him on the bench from the off. He looked exhausted yesterday.

Finally, I have to ask: what happened to Nasri's 1 v 1 abilities??

[Kladze]

Are you serious? We didn't score from open play and Silva was kept quiet. We've scored 15 goals in the past 4 games and in this one only 1. It gave a lot of clues as to how to control us. It's a very very difficult task, but it's a start.

No doubt Napoli carried out their game plan well last night and credit must be given to them where it's due but I wouldn't go so far as to say they controlled us. We effectively 'controlled' ourselves through the lack of patience needed to actually drag their defenders out of shape in order for us to DEVELOP our wide options. Too many times, all four of Dzeko, Aguero,Nasri, and Silva were occupying a very narrow space too deeply into the final third - all way too rushed to be productive and having the unwelcome bi-product, especially in the second half, of drawing Barry and Toure too far forward also.

[Slim]

I thought Clichy and Richards would have given us better width and speed where they were weak, but it's all a hindsight thing anyway.

[Original Dub]

That's a crap loser formation.

People have been going overboard with "tactical genious" crap after last night. Only thing ingenious about Napoli last night was Mazzarri's jackett.

Had one of those numerous of chances we had in first half gone in, I have no doubt in my mind that we would've gone on to win comfortably. It was just one of those nights.

Bang fucking on my friend!

[Chinners]

That's a crap loser formation.

People have been going overboard with "tactical genious" crap after last night. Only thing ingenious about Napoli last night was Mazzarri's jackett.

Had one of those numerous of chances we had in first half gone in, I have no doubt in my mind that we would've gone on to win comfortably. It was just one of those nights.

Indeed .... I thought Napoli played 3-4-3 more of the time than anything else anyway ...

[Ted Hughes]

I thought Clichy and Richards would have given us better width and speed where they were weak, but it's all a hindsight thing anyway.

I think you're right & it is.

We have to change it tactically against Italian type teams though; that system is the wrong one & leaves us too open to the counter attack.