Two teams, two formations. In this Champions League Group A fixture, the contrast between the 3-4-3 of Napoli and the 4-2-3-1 of Bayern Munich determined the outcome of the result. Bayern were the better side in the game and controlled the possession of the ball, yet they seemed content to draw away to Napoli and sit atop the hardest group in the Champions League. Despite the contrast in formations, both clubs had difficulty tracking the runs from deep of opposing players, namely Christian Maggio and Toni Kroos, and also focused their play down the wings.
Line Ups:
The Game:
Bayern dominated from the first whistle and scored quickly, in the 2nd minute, from a well taken Kroos goal. Bayern passed the ball shortly and quickly, building up pace as they passed it forward, then distributed it out wide to Jerome Boateng who's low cross fell into the path of the running Kroos, who then accelerated past the Napoli defence and side footed it home.
Napoli then tried to get back in the game, using the runs of Maggio and Zúñiga out wide to fathom chances. Cavani didn't feature in the game and didn't look sharp; arguably the service towards him wasn't great but Lavezzi tried to create chances through his precise dribbling. Maggio, who earlier looked slightly wasteful, finally had a run that came into fruition after receiving a through ball from Gökhan Inler and he put the ball across the six yard box, where it was turned in by the hapless Holger Badstuber.
Bayern dominated early on in the second half, receiving a dubious penalty in the 49th minute from a Cannavaro handball. Mario Gómez missed the penalty with a poor effort and from then the game dwindled down, both teams content with a draw.
Passing:
Bayern comfortably controlled possession, especially in the early first half, mainly due to their one-man advantage in the middle of the field. Bayern's three central midfielders outnumbered Napoli's two and they played short passes through the middle. Eventually, however they forced it out wide to Franck Ribery or Thomas Müller. Despite this, Bayern were more patient in their passing and waited for opportunities to arrive.
Napoli, on the other hand, were far more riskier with their passing and played more directly, looking to get the ball on the wings quicker. This was helped by the passing prowess that all three of their centre backs had in sending long balls out wide. Furthermore, Napoli had only one good passer of the ball in the middle, Inler, and they looked to get the ball forward to the wings or to their front three.
Runs from Deep:
Both goals in the game came from the difficulty the teams had in tracking runs from deep. For Bayern, the main threat came from Kroos while for Napoli it was Maggio.
Kroos ran from deep in the middle of the pitch and early on, Napoli had trouble defending against this. Soon however, Campagnaro started to get forward to stop Kroos. This reduced the effectiveness of Kroos but it wasn't ideal for Campagnaro to track him as he struggled. This in theory would work, as Napoli had two spare centre backs against Bayern's lone striker and they could afford to lose one, yet it made their two-man defence very narrow and susceptible to Ribery down the flanks. Perhaps Gargano could have tracked Kroos from deep, preserving the back three of Napoli, but his marking would have been put under question.
Bayern found it difficult to prevent Maggio's runs from deep, which may in part be because most teams nowadays employ wingers further forward, cutting inside onto their stronger foot. Maggio, however, liked to send crosses without cutting in and ran from a deep position. Schweinsteiger should have prevented his runs further down the pitch but he isn't a player renowned for his defensive abilities.
Napoli Defending the Wings:
Napoli played with a three man defence and weren't protected from Bayern's wingers, especially Ribery, as they didn't have any full backs. Ribery is a modern type of winger who likes to cut inside and play further up the pitch and Napoli had problems with him. Instead of preventing him from finding any space down the flanks, they focused on stopping them from his position. The first line of defence was Maggio, who additionally to running forward, tracked back to stop Ribery. Then, the next layer of defence was the closest centre back to Ribery, in this case Campagnaro, who closed him down by playing as a full-back, leaving the other centre backs to reposition themselves more centrally. If Bayern worked harder and Ribery played to his full potential, this area would have been more decisive in the game; instead for large parts Ribery was ineffectual.
Conclusion:
An interesting game between two very different formations which fizzled out in the second half as the two teams started to play for a draw.
There was a total of 36 goals scored in the 9 Bundesliga games played over the weekend. That equates to an average of 4 goals in every game played in Germany's top flight in the past three days. Notable results included Kaiserslautern's demolition of Schalke, Borussia Dortmund's 4-1 victory over namesake rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach and Hamburg beating Stuttgart in a six goal thriller. But why have their been so much goals in the Bundesliga this season?
After a 3-0 win over Werder Bremen, Schalke must have thought they were on their way up after Raúl's hat-trick. However in hindsight, the result might have come about due to Werder's poor form than the Königsblauen's great performance. After all, Werder went on to lose 3-0 to Tottenham leaving them bottom of Group A with two points and with no way of progressing in the Champions League. That said, Schalke probably thought that they had a good chance of getting all three points from the Fritz-Walter-Stadion. Kaiserslautern had over ideas. The 5-0 scoreline flattered Schalke as they had many chances to win over their more illustrious opponents. Kaiserslautern's first two goals both came from right-hand corners, with Christian Tiffert swinging the ball in for Srđan Lakić to power in the first and Martin Amedick heading the second past Manuel Neuer. Lakić showed great determination to get to the ball for the first goal, but Schalke's failure to pick him up left him on his own in front of the goal. Lakić went on to add another, coolly slotting home after a through ball from Christian Tiffert, which led to the former's second goal and the latter's third assist. Kaiserslautern added two more goals later on to humiliate Schalke and condemn them to 16th place.
While Schalke lost on Saturday, another Ruhr club won to keep themselves top in the Bundesliga. Yes, the youthful Borussia Dortmund side won again. It was the other Borussia that took the league, however, thanks to a wonderful goal from Marco Reus, a Dortmund native. For those that don't know, Reus is an almost carbon copy of a young(er) Marko Marin in terms of stature, style and ability. And the young German confirmed his promise by scoring a fierce strike into the Dortmund net. Dortmund came back into the game with a header rom Neven Subotić and took the lead when Shinji Kagawa rounded the 'keeper after a Mario Götze assist. The ages of the players mentioned in the last sentence: 21, 21 and 18 respectively. Jürgen Klopp does like to build a young team. Another young German player, Kevin Großkreutz, 22, scored the third goal for Dortmund, poking the ball in after a sublime back-heel from Lucas Barrios. The Paraguayan then added a goal for himself after being sent through by another Mario Götze through ball, who is showing signs of becoming a great playmaker.
The Bundesliga has overtaken the diminishing Serie A as third in UEFA's league coefficients and is fast becoming a major league. While the high goal scoring indicates a sense of risk taking (also resulting in the high amount of young German talents being given match action) it could also indicate poor defending. One reason why the Italian league is such a low scoring league is due to the high quality of defending. John Foot, in Calcio, says 'Italian teams have not been defensive. They have, quite simply, been much better at defending than other European teams.' The opposite can be said of German teams, with the attacking intent the teams are showing a result of the poor defending. One reason why Werder Bremen have been so poor in the Champions League is due to the comic defensive partnership of Per Mertesacker and Sebastian Prödl. There would be no chance that the two would play together in an Italian team of the same quality. Look at last year's Champion's League Final. While Walter Samuel and Lúcio were assured in Inter's defence, Martin Demichelis offered little protection at Bayern's back and remains a shaky player. So what are the reasons for lots of goals in the Bundesliga? A mixture of risk-taking, attacking intent and poor defending.
Round-up of the Bundesliga results:
Mainz 3-0 Nürnberg
Bayern München 4-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
Hamburger 4-2 Stuttgart
Hannover 3-0 Freiburg
Hoffenheim 2-2 Bayer Leverkusen
Kaiserslautern 5-0 Schalke
Borussia Dortmund 4-1 Borussia Mönchengladbach
Werder Bremen 3-0 St. Pauli
Köln 1-1 Wolfsburg
