Napoli and Inter Milan Make the Case for the Defence in Scudetto Chase

What is that line about things remaining the same the more they change? The old adage that strikers win matches and defences win titles rings as true as ever in Serie A if Napoli and Inter Milan are anything to go by.

The Partenopei put the Khvicha Kvaratskhelia drama aside for 90 minutes as they made light work of Hellas Verona on Sunday night, courtesy of an own goal from Lorenzo Montipo and a stunning finish from Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa.

It was the kind of routine win teams with legitimate title aspirations must have in their bag and it kept Napoli four points clear of Inter, who have two games in hand and had Matteo Darmian to thank for their 1-0 win in Venice 24 hours earlier.

Inter and Napoli have both won their last five Serie A matches and, like riders attacking on one of the Giro d’Italia climbs, have steadily dropped their rivals behind them.

With 11 points in five matches, Atalanta are the only team that have managed to keep pace with the duo as they trail Napoli by five points but have a game in hand and will host the league leaders on Sunday.

Over the same period, Juventus and Lazio have picked up seven and six points respectively and the gap from the top is already in double-digits, while Fiorentina, who also have two games in hand, have fallen off a cliff, with just one point in the past five matches.

With 46 goals scored in 18 matches, Inter boast Serie A’s best attack, the only team along with Atalanta and Lazio to have scored more than Napoli so far.

But it is their respective defences that have been the cornerstone of their excellent run of form.

With 12 goals conceded, the Partenopei have the joint-best defensive record of any team in Europe’s top five leagues along with Atletico Madrid and have conceded half of their goals in two games – the 3-0 thrashing away against Verona on the opening day of the season and the 3-0 loss at home to Atalanta on November 3.

Sunday’s clean sheet against Verona was Napoli’s 12th in 20 Serie A matches, the most of any team across Serie A, the Premier League, the Bundesliga, LaLiga and Ligue 1.

The last time Napoli had kept 12 clean sheets after 20 games came in the 1981-82 season, when they finished fourth and somehow still only had the third-best defence behind eventual champions Juventus and runners-up Fiorentina, who conceded 14 and 17 respectively over 30 matches.

Conte singled out his decision to switch from a 3-4-2-1 formation at the start of the season to the 4-3-3 Napoli have settled on as the reason behind their defensive solidity.

“Since we started this summer, there has definitely been a change, as I’ve always sought to find the best fit for this team,” he said.

“We’ve found the best possible approach, and we’re fully committed to it.

“The team is making significant strides, and it’s inspiring to see the players’ dedication in training. Their progress is a testament to our hard work, and it’s fostering a positive and confident team environment.”

Inter, meanwhile, have conceded three more goals than Napoli but have kept six clean sheets in a row away from home – winning each of those games in the process.

Since the 4-4 draw against Juventus on October 27, the Nerazzurri have conceded just twice in nine Serie A fixtures.

After the Bianconeri scored four at the San Siro, Inter’s defensive record read 13 goals conceded in nine Serie A matches, the second-worst of any team in the top-eight at the time.

“You can’t concede four goals from four [Juve actually had five] shots on target,” Inzaghi said at the time.

“That’ll be where we’ll focus our analysis starting tomorrow morning.”

Fast forward three months and the Beneamata have the second-highest number of clean sheets in Europe’s top five leagues, with only Napoli and Bayern Munich conceding fewer goals.

At the current pace, Inter could still replicate last season’s record, when they conceded just 22 goals in 38 matches en route to winning the Scudetto.

Napoli and Inter’s defensive prowess points to a wider trend in Serie A, where defences are harder to breach than anywhere else in Europe’s five big leagues.

There have been 2.66 goals per game scored in calcio‘s top tier so far this season, on par with LaLiga but significantly behind Ligue 1 and the Premier League, which average 2.96 and 2.98 goals per match respectively. The Bundesliga is even further ahead with 3.26 goals per match.

But wheeling out the usual tropes about Catenaccio would be both premature and misguided. At the current rate, Serie A is still on track to improve last season’s goal-per-game ratio, which was itself higher than that recorded in the previous campaign.

Serie A may not be going back to the safety-first days of 1980s anytime soon, but title bids remain built upon rock-solid defences. Conte and Inzaghi both know it.