How Sassuolo Adapted to Crisis and Defeated Napoli

Roberto De Zerbi's Sassuolo faced off against Napoli at the Stadio San Paolo with several key players including talisman Francesco "Ciccio" Caputo, Domenico Berardi, and Filip Đuričić missing. In response to this, De Zerbi changed to a fluid system that allowed them to interchange between a 3-4-3 in possession and a 4-5-1 mid block off the ball.

De Zerbi opted for this system in order for Sassuolo's back three to maintain numerical superiority against Napoli's strike pairing of Dries Mertens and Victor Osimhen. As a result of this, Sassuolo's wide center backs could stretch apart the two strikers and allow one center back with the time and space to explore passing options in possession (Vlad Chiricheș in this example).

Despite trading their traditional 4-2-3-1 formation for a 3-4-3, Sassuolo continued to adhere to their strategy of positional play by achieving numerical superiority, allowing them to penetrate in between Napoli’s lines of defence. The centre backs constantly had a numerical and positional superiority against the front two because of the wide spacing.