SOCCER
Italy is No Longer Italian
… and it’s looking good. So far.
There were recent posts on social media that proudly say, “Italy wins! Thanks to the catenaccio!”, “Long live catenaccio! This is why Azzurri is back!”, and something along those lines. Frankly speaking, there were quite many of them. Perhaps too many. Surely one cannot help but laugh reading that. Seriously, is this still the 1970s?
Making stereotypes about football countries is lazy. In the last decade, the world saw Spain triumphed massively with their tiki-taka. But, is Spain the only team to play with short passes in today’s football? No. Everyone also saw the rise of German teams with their high-pressing and counter-attacking football. Is Die Nationalmannschaft the only national team to press high at the moment? Again, the answer is no.
So, why is it when people talk about Italy and their recent success, they still use catenaccio as their go-to word? Why don’t they just accept that Roberto Mancini’s Italy is one of, if not, the most offensive national team in the world? Gli Azzurri has broken their scoring record in a single UEFA European Championship match this summer. Not just once, but twice. Oh, they also did both of them in a span of 5 days.
Long live catenaccio, eh?
“We want the ball and we want to score”
Mancini’s Italy is so much different from Antonio Conte’s team in Euro 2016. Five years ago, Italy only averaged 46.0% of ball possession before getting knocked out in the quarterfinals. That put them in 17th place out of 24 competing teams in terms of ball possession percentage.
Shooting-wise, the four-time world champion was also in 17th place with an average of just 9.6 shots per game. Even footballing minnows like Albania (9.7 shots per game) and Romania (13.3 per game) were averaging better numbers than Italy in this term. However, Italy took their chances well. They netted six times in 2016, making them the joint-seventh most aggressive team in that tournament.
This summer, the revamped Italy enjoyed 58.8% of the ball in their group stage matches. Spain and Germany were the only teams to have more possession than Italy during that time. Italy’s shooting quantity also increases. They put an average of 20.0 shots per group stage match, more than twice their total tally in 2016.
How about the shooting quality? Even better! Mancini’s Italy scored seven goals in the group stage. That’s one more goal than Conte’s side in the tournament half a decade ago. Azzurri’s top-scoring side in the Euro was their 2000 team, where they made nine goals in that edition. Their two goals against Austria on the opening day of Round of 16 also equaled Francesco Totti’s and co. record in 2000. With this seemingly unstoppable attacking football, there’s a good chance Italy can get double digits even before the semifinals.
Fluid rotations everywhere
Let’s dive deep into Italy’s tactics. Mancini chooses 4–3–3 as his go-to formation for this year’s Euro tournament. However, the aforementioned shape is only in theory. On the field with the ball, his side would play in a 3–2–5 or 3–1–5–1-ish shape, which he set up rather interestingly.
First, Mancini would rotate his backline. The right-back, either Alessandro Florenzi or Giovanni Di Lorenzo, would tuck inside to play alongside the center backs. Quite similar to what Kyle Walker does at Manchester City in the last few years. Conversely, left back Leonardo Spinazzola is given the license to bomb forward and play in line with the attackers.
The second rotation happens in the midfield. Their defensive midfielder, Jorginho, is the only player who stays in his position, in front of the backline. Meanwhile, central midfielders Nicolò Barella and Manuel Locatelli have various tasks.
Barella is often tasked to go forward and burst into space in between the lines. This is important for Italy’s ball progression, and I’ll come back to that later to explain why. Meanwhile, Locatelli’s duties are more situational. Sometimes, he can drop alongside Jorginho to give Italy numerical superiority in the midfield, especially when they struggle to get the ball forward. However, Locatelli can also play more aggressively by situating himself in between the lines like Barella.
Last but not least, their positional rotation happens in the forward line; in their wingers, to be exact. Napoli’s Lorenzo Insigne and Sassuolo’s Domenico Berardi play in different areas and therefore utilized differently. Left winger Insigne usually tucks inside to play inside the left half-space. His space on the far left is often occupied by the overlapping Spinazzola. Meanwhile, Berardi is tasked to stay wide on the far right.
Various ways to create chances
Barella and Insigne’s positionings have a particular purpose. They are used by Italy to progress the ball forward. Jorginho and Leonardo Bonucci are mainly tasked to send the ball to Barella or Insigne in between the lines. After that, they could drive the ball forward to create their own chances, combine with other attackers, or play to the flank, especially on the left side.
Italy mainly attacks through their left flank. This is proven by their left-sided players’ amount of touches in the final third. Insigne (137 touches) tops the chart among all Azzurri players while Spinazzola (92) and Locatelli (51) are in third and eighth place respectively.
By playing inside, Insigne usually likes to drive forward and create shooting opportunities for himself. He’s currently averaging 3.88 shots per 90 minutes in Euro 2020. That’s the seventh-most in the competition so far, and the second-best among all wingers.
If Insigne can’t create chaos on his own, he could allow Spinazzola to do so in the left flank. By playing wide, Spinazzola is often engaged in one-versus-one duels against the opponents’ right-sided defender. After that, the AS Roma player can send crosses into the box, mainly targeted to the target man, Ciro Immobile. This particular reason is why Spinazzola leads his side in successful dribbles (9) and accurate crosses (8).
The difference between Italy’s wing players was previously mentioned. Despite Italy being a team that focuses their attacks on the left side, that doesn’t mean the right-sided players are unused. Italy would utilize Berardi mainly by using a quick switch.
To do so, they often use Barella’s presence on the right half-space to bridge the left-sided players and Berardi. This allows Italy to switch the play with better accuracy instead of using a one-pass switch from Insigne or Locatelli. As the only player on the far side, Berardi would always have a huge space to create chaos after receiving from Barella. He could go to the byline and send cut-backs or he could also cut inside and shoot for a goal himself. At least three (42.85%) of Italy’s goals were started by a diagonal pass to Berardi.
“You shall not pass!”
That’s probably the mantra of Italy when they don’t have the ball. Three clean sheets in three games prove its efficacy. However, they do it differently these days. Gone are the days where Italy just sat deep in front of their penalty box. They now attack rather aggressively by pressing high, even up to the opponents’ 16-yard area.
Shape-wise, Italy has converted to 4–1–4–1/4–1–2–3 from the 5–3–2 they used in 2016. It’s a rather unique choice as more teams are using a back-five in their formations in today’s football. System-wise, Italy uses a mix of man-oriented pressing and zonal defending.
In their high-press, Italy mainly uses the man-oriented approach to nullify their opponents’ central midfielders. Barella and Locatelli are often tasked to step up and follow their respective men, even up to the final third. This is used to prevent the opponents from building their attacks smoothly through the central area.
Sometimes there can also be rotations when they do the man-oriented midfield press. There were occasions where Jorginho also joined the press and stepped up, while Locatelli stayed back. This is rather interesting as both players are capable of playing as a pivot and a central midfielder.
Italy can also defend deeper by using a medium/medium-low 4–1–4–1. The shape is fairly compact, both horizontally and vertically. In this shape, Jorginho is deployed as the main defensive midfielder to protect the area in between the lines. That means Jorginho is responsible to prevent the ball from reaching Italy’s defensive third if the opponents are able to penetrate through the midfield. No wonder why the Chelsea player is leading Italy in terms of tackles won (9) and successful interceptions (9).
Champion bound?
After failing in the finals twice in this millennium, I believe this is Italy’s best chance to win the Euro. Their current 31-game unbeaten streak is a strong testament to their quality and attacking intent. Azzurri’s three clean-sheets from three group matches also speak volumes about their traditional defensive solidity. Not to mention the early fall of other favorites such as Portugal, Germany, and France.
But, history is not on their side. Since 1980, only two teams have finished the group stage with full points and came home with the Henri Delauney trophy. Italy even faced a similar situation before. In Euro 2000, they won all their group matches yet sadly lost to France in the final via the golden goal rule.
Can they break the curse? Or will we see another heartbreak this summer?
All statistics are accurate until 1 July 2021.
I’m Petrick Sinuraya, a 24-year-old football writer based in Indonesia.
Currently, I work as a contributor and a content writer for a well-known Indonesia-based football site. You can check my works here: https://totalfootballanalysis.com/author/petrick-sinuraya.
For inquiries, please contact me at petricksinuraya@gmail.com.
