Tactical Review – Italy 2 – Spain 1

August 10th, 2011 | by: papai |

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A year after he took charge of the Azzurri, Prandelli’s Italy came of age with a highly entertaining 2-1 victory over the current World and European Champions Spain at the Stadio San Nicola at Bari. It was a victory of the Mister’s convictions, and a new way of playing for the Italian NT – hopefully this sets the team on the course to become a true footballing power again.

Tactical Breakdown

ItalySpain

The Defence

The starting central defensive pairing of Chiellini-Ranocchia looks extremely natural on paper, and certainly both players have the natural talent to succeed at these levels. However, although the team conceded only one goal (that too from an unjust penalty), it is evident that what this partnership needs is experience. Tonight, talent and luck ensured that Italy didn’t pay for some of the mistakes the duo committed. Again, I must stress that it is my belief that these mistakes will not occur once the two start playing together more and more regularly, and also gain valuable club experience, especially in the case of Ranocchia. However, it is certainly the best defensive duo Italy can field at the moment, and their talent is unquestionable. Overall, they played quite well tonight, especially Chiellini taking on the incredibly physical Llorente excellently – what I am saying is we all expect a bit more from the Azzurri center backs.

Since Prandelli had deployed a flattish midfield diamond, the onus of providing the width rested on the full backs.

On the left, Criscito had a stellar game. Now I have long been a critic of his, but today the pieces fell for him perfectly. With Spain narrowing down to maintain advantage in the central midfield, the Zenit left back had ample opportunities to bomb the flanks, sometimes going so far as to be the farthest Italian forward. His crossing was also excellent today, and his on the ball intelligence saw him picking up an assist for Italy’s opening goal.

On the right, Maggio had an indifferent game. Spain put considerably more thrust on his flank, and many times he struggled to cope up. There were a few trademark runs, and a couple of delightful crosses which begged to be put in, but overall a slightly disappointing performance. Abate is sniffing at his place in the NT – the coming season will tell us who will be the deputy to Cassani. Perhaps our defensive worries were linked to his sub par outing.

Tactically, it was pleasing to see the conscious effort to build attacks from the back – it looked risky at times, but the fact that we didn’t abandon the policy midway is heartening.

The Midfield

The midfield was set up in the Diamond formation – Pirlo at the base, flanked by Motta and DeRossi, and Montolivo occupying the top spot. It was everything Prandelli hoped for, and more. Abandoning width for the chance of dominating the central midfield, the Italians hounded the ball when not in possession, and expertly retained it when they had the ball. Pirlo acted as an excellent pivot, spreading the play excellently from the back, as well as moving forward when the opportunity arose. It was heartening to see the azzurri press as a unit, and Spain looked quite shell shocked for the first fifteen minutes of the match. In the second half, every member of the midfield changed bar Pirlo, which shows what a unique role he occupies.

Tactically, the diamond works extremely well in nullifying the 4-2-3-1, especially if the forwards drop down to bolster the midfield. This forces the game to become more and more narrow, stifling space and opening up the opposition to counter attacks. If both sides have an attacking intent,it makes for a highly entertaining spectacle.

Spain’s game has often been referred as “Possession Catenaccio” – meaning that their primary defensive philosophy is “If the opposition doesnt have the ball, they cannot score.” It is here that the italians successfully dented the spanish gameplan, by contesting each and every ball and not allowing Spain’s default passing game to take over.

The only sore point of the midfield for me was the number of mistakes DeRossi committed, especially in the second half – obviously it is difficult for him coming back to the NT after his troubles on and off the pitch; one hopes he regains his concentration and focus as early as possible.

The Attack

A wonderful gesture saw Fantantonio Cassano being given the armband infront of his home town crowd, and boy did he put on a show tonight. Along with Giuseppe Rossi, Cassano tormented the entire spanish defence with his technique, movement and pure fantasy. Prandelli started the game without any Prima Punta so as not to give the Spaniards a “Reference Point” – instead he unleashed two highly mobile strikers on either flank, with both cutting in to the box. The effect was very similar to Spalletti’s champagne Roma, although both systems in practice are quite different. By consciously sticking both the forwards on the flanks, Prandelli effectively nullified the spanish full backs, as well as creating space in front of the central defense which invited the italian CMs to push forward. When not in possession, the two forwards dropped back to support the midfield, effectively forming a 4-6-0 formation, albeit one that was geared towards a lightning counter attack. Its a very interesting system, and it tackles the problem of the lack of natural width in the team remarkably well. However, it remains to be seen how this tactic will work against teams who like to sit back – on suspects Prandelli will opt for a more classical number 9 in those situations.

Thoughts

1. The midfield looks set with plenty of options in the technical side. Obviously Pirlo is the fulcrum which makes the whole thing tick – it will be interesting to see how Aquilani or Montolivo plays in the deep lying playmaker role.

2. It was truly remarkable how aggressively Italy pressed once they lost possession of the ball – sometimes even pressing at the top of the opposition’s penalty box.

3. Disappointing game for Balotelli – showed flashes of his talent, and his lack of judgement in certain situations. One hopes for a bit more workrate from a 21 year old lad.

4. Balzaretti-Cassani should be the starting left back duo, but Criscito did wonders for his reputation today. Hopefully the confidence will do him good.

5. So many opportunities created, the game could have very well ended 5-2. A thoroughly deserving victory – Italy were superior in every department of the game. That said, this is just the beginning - the world will take Prandelli’s project a bit more seriously now. Spain were missing some of their top players, and it was only a friendly. But the end of the tunnel approaches, maybe.

6. Prandelli’s biggest bet was to test our player’s technique against the darlings of the footballing world – kudos for having the balls and conviction to do that.