Antonio Conte Mastermind
Napoli is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan.
As the third-largest city in Italy, they should have a very good football team, right? Not really.
Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli is an Italian professional football club based in the city of Napoli that plays in Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. In its history, Napoli has won three Serie A titles, six Coppa Italia titles, two Supercoppa Italiana titles, and one UEFA Cup.
The club was formed in 1926 as Associazione Calcio Napoli following the merger of US Internazionale Napoli and Naples Foot-Ball Club. They saw relatively little success in its early years, winning their first major trophy in the 1962 Coppa Italia.
Inter Napoli were immediately enrolled in the top-flight Prima Divisione Lega Sud championship, as both Internazionale Napoli and Naples FC competed in that division pre-merger.
Since the end of World War I both clubs had lost dominance of the region to the likes of Puteolana and Savoia. Even with the combined strength, Savoia still proved to be the top team in southern Italy.
Napoli was re-admitted to Serie A's forerunner, the Divisione Nazionale, by the Italian Football Federation, and began to improve thanks in part to Paraguayan-born Attila Sallustro, who was the first legend to the fans.
He was a capable goal-scorer and eventually set the all-time goal-scoring record for Napoli, which was later surpassed by players like Diego Maradona and Marek Hamšík.
Jumping through time, we reach the 1964 season, when the club changed their name to Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli. They began to rise up again, gaining promotion in 1964–65. Under the management of former player Bruno Pesaola, they won the Coppa delle Alpi and were back among the elite in Serie A, with consistent top five finishes.
Napoli came very close to winning the league title in 1967–68, finishing just behind Milan in second place. Some of the most popular players from this period were Dino Zoff, José Altafini, Omar Sívori and midfielder Antonio Juliano. Juliano would eventually break the appearance records, which still stands today.
The trend of the team performing well in the league continued in the 1970s, with third place finishes in the 1970–71 and 1973–74 seasons. This gained them qualification to the early UEFA Cup competitions.
The club won their second Coppa Italia trophy in 1975–76, eliminating Milan and Fiorentina, before beating rivals Hellas Verona 4–0 in the final. This helped them qualify to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup for the 1976–77 season, where they reached the semi-finals, losing 2–1 on aggregate to Anderlecht.
Napoli broke the world transfer record fee after acquiring Diego Maradona in a €12 million deal from Barcelona on 30 June 1984. The squad at the time was gradually re-built, with the likes of Ciro Ferrara, Salvatore Bagni and Fernando De Napoli filling the ranks.
The build-up was gradual, but the 1986–87 season was the landmark in Napoli's history, becoming just the third Italian team to win the double after securing the Serie A title by three points and then beating Atalanta 4–0 to lift the Coppa Italia.
As no mainland Southern Italian team had ever won the league title before, this turned Maradona into a cultural, social and borderline religious icon for Neapolitans.
This cultural phenomenon is still seen nowadays throughout the city and it’s clear that the Argentinian meant the world to the fans.
However, they needed the love for Maradona as after adding the second league title in the 1989-1990 season and after winning the UEFA Cup in 1988-1989, the club collapsed.
Of course, it took decades, but gradually, the club ended up being relegated and eventually bankrupt.
To secure football in the city, film producer Aurelio De Laurentiis re-founded the club under the name Napoli Soccer, as they were not allowed to use their old name until the folowing season. The Italian Football Federation placed Napoli in Serie C1, where they missed out on promotion after losing 2–1 in the play-offs to local rivals Avellino in the 2004–05 season.
Despite Napoli playing in a lower division, the fans stood by them and the club retained higher average attendances than most of the Serie A clubs, breaking the Serie C attendance record with 51,000 at one match.
Napoli kept pushing and pushing and eventually, the illusive league title returned to Southern Italy, with the club winning it in the 2022-2023 season.
Having the likes of Victor Osimhen and Kvicha Kvaratskhelia and being managed by Luciano Spalletti of course helped.
In the meantime, Antonio Conte was manager of Tottenham Hotspur. And to be honest, that’s all that can be said about his time there.
But, that’s not all that can be said about his career, which contains so many trophies that they could fill two cabinets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
After retiring from playing, Conte worked as an assistant manager for Siena alongside Luigi De Canio in the 2005–06 season. In July 2006, he was appointed coach of Serie B side Arezzo. After a series of disappointing results, he was in October that year, only to be reinstated in March 2007, as his predecessor Maurizio Sarri failed to improve the club that was facing a relegation battle.
On 27 December 2007, Conte was appointed by Bari to replace Giuseppe Materazzi for the second half of their campaign. The following season, 2008–09, Bari were crowned Serie B champions, being promoted to Serie A for the 2009–10 season, Conte's first major honour as a manager.
After rumours of Antiono Conte becoming the new manager of Juventus in 2009, the Italian moved to Atalanta instead. But his stay there turned into a dangerous game, having being escorted by police after a defeat against Napoli, as the fans were furious with their team’s performances.
Following a brief spell at Siena in 2010, Antonio Conte made the move to Juventus. A move that would tie the Italian manager back to his playing career club.
Despite drawing many matches during that season, on 6 May 2012 Conte led Juventus to their 28th league title with one match remaining by beating Cagliari 2–0. Juventus also finished the league unbeaten, the first team to do so since Serie A expanded to 20 teams and 38 rounds.
Conte's innovative 3–5–2 formation, which featured wingbacks and two box-to-box midfielders in a three-man midfield, gave more creative freedom to the newly acquired deep-lying playmaker Andrea Pirlo, who was key to the club's success that season.
Conte's Juventus won the 2012–13 Serie A title as they accumulated 87 points, three more than the previous season, nine more than second-placed Napoli and 15 more than third-placed Milan.
Juventus won their third consecutive Serie A title under Conte during the 2013–14 season, winning the league with a Serie A record of 102 points. This was also the club's 30th league title.
And following his huge success at Juventus, Antonio Conte became the Italian national team’s manager.
However, mixed results led to his resignation after Euro 2016. This, in turn, led to his appointment as Chelsea manager. A decision which the English club will never regret. As Antonio Conte delivered the Premier League title in his first season.
After he left Chelsea, Conte won the Serie A title with Inter Milan before being appointed manager of Tottenham.
And his stay at Tottenham was chaotic.
And this is a contrast compared to his Napoli appointment. The team sits currently first of the table in Serie A, following 22 wins. Of course, this might have changed by the time you watch this video. But with only 3 points separating Napoli and Inter Milano, the situation is tense.
As tactical setup, Antonio Conte prefers a 3-5-2 formation. Or in certain cases, a more defensive setup - 5–3–2. Fielding two wingbacks instead of wingers, with two strikers backed by an attacking box-to-box midfielder in a three-man midfield, in front of a three-man defensive line.
However, I noticed that at Napoli, Conte ditched the 3-5-2 setup and opted for a balanced 4-3-3 formation. It might be that he made this change to best match his available squad and get the most of out of his players’ abilities.
I opted for a sweeper keeper on defend duty. In front of him we have a back four made of two wing backs on support and two central defenders on defend. The wing backs are expected to go up in attack as the ball is progressed.
The defensive midfielder is a half back. Of course, a defensive midfielder role or an anchor can be used here. I chose a half back as I wanted to use a more mobile role than the anchor one, but still a defensive one. As when the team is in possession, this player becomes a third centre back.
A box-to-box midfielder and a central midfielder on support make up the rest of the midfield. The central one is asked to get further forward, roam from position and move into channels. As the base role comes without any player instructions, it’s important to apply what you think helps.
In some setups, this role is supposed to be taken over by Scott McTominay, who is the heartbeat of Napoli’s setup sometimes.
And the front three are two inside forwards – one on support and one on attack and a target forward on attack. The wingers are very important to the setup, as they are brought into play by Lukaku, the target forward, and are the main threats for the opposition’s goal.
I chose positive as mentality.
In possession, fairly wide attacking width, play out of defence and focus play down the middle. Slightly shorter passing directness and a slightly higher tempo. And play for set pieces.
In transition, I let the game decide when to counter-press and when not to. Counter and distribute the ball to the central defenders through short kicks.
And out of possession a mid block and a standard defensive line. Antonio Conte’s teams usually sit deeper and allow the opposition teams to start their build-up, meeting them at the halfway line. Doing this restricts the space the opposition has moving forward and reduces the risk of a counterattack being played against.
And trigger press more often.
Using this tactic, I managed to win the league title in my building a nation save in Romania, with FCSB. We also managed to win the Romanian Cup and the Romanian Super Cup.
And in Europe, we qualified through from the league phase and were knocked out by Atalanta in the Second knock-out round playoff.
Antonio Conte might come across as a very intense manager, but his achievements, especially as a manager speak for themselves. He had some clubs where it didn’t work out, but in the end, his legacy is there and we should all take advantage of him being an active manager and enjoy the teams he builds for success.
