Watching Napoli hold Liverpool to one shot on goal in the first half of their Champions League match was a shock. Liverpool has one of the best attacks in Europe — the defending Champions League titleholders, with Roberto Firmino, Mo Salah, and Sadio Mané — and all they could muster was one fairly tame effort before the half.
Kalidou Koulibaly’s game against Liverpool showcased the high art of defending
Koulibaly proved that defending can be beautiful, too, in Napoli’s clean sheet against Liverpool.
Napoli went on to win the game and keep a clean sheet. Their whole defense was brave and organized. Usually, Mario Rui was the only fullback to go upfield, making sure Napoli always had three defenders back in case of Liverpool attacks. The rest of the team worked hard to recover in support whenever Liverpool counter-attacked.
At the heart of Napoli’s marvelous defensive display was Kalidou Koulibaly. Already heralded as one of the best defenders in the world, Koulibaly used this match to showcase his credentials.
Koulibaly made just one big mistake, and it was a great example of just how precarious it is to be a defender. Lucky for him, the mistake wasn’t fatal.
In the 21st minute, a long ball sent Salah on the run down the right, and Koulibaly engaged him right outside the box. Salah baited him into getting close, and then beat him with a burst of speed. Koulibaly tugged at his opponent but couldn’t slow down Salah, and fell as the attacker muscled past him. Had Salah gone down during their confrontation, he would have likely won a penalty.
But before and after that fall, Koulibaly was nearly immaculate. He led a defense that didn’t shirk from the challenge of Liverpool’s front three, and came to his team’s rescue on numerous occasions when it seemed Liverpool had found a way through.
Just to list a few instances when Koulibaly was critical:
- In the second minute, Salah beat Rui one-on-one on the right — isolating Salah with Rui was a priority for Liverpool’s attack — but as soon as Salah cut the ball back inside the box, Koulibaly was there before the attacker could even pick his head up. Koulibaly poked the ball out for a corner.
- In the 12th minute: Salah cut in from the right and sent a through ball through Napoli’s defense looking for Mané, who made his run from the left and had beaten Kosta Manolas to the inside. But before Mané could get to the ball, there was Koulibaly to sweep up the danger. His intercepting touch put the ball in Firmino’s path, but Koulibaly slid in to keep possession of the ball and prevent the Brazilian from capitalizing.
- Two minutes later: Fabian Ruiz was dispossessed in midfield by Fabinho, who then found Salah at the top of the box. Koulibaly engaged the Egyptian and got so close to him that Salah seemed to be taken by surprise. Salah tried a nutmeg but Koulibaly blocked the attempt and won the ball back easily.
- In the 37th minute: Salah beat Rui on the right again, then cut back inside and found Firmino at the top of the box. Koulibaly was a few steps beneath Firmino, but while the Brazilian had time on the ball, Koulibaly had also blocked his path for a shot. As a consequence, Firmino pushed the ball inside to create space. As soon as he took that touch inside, Koulibaly stepped up and muscled him off the ball.
These sequences continued throughout the game. Koulibaly seemed to win every battle he engaged in. He was both unbothered in stopping his direct opponents, and excellent in aiding of his teammates. Containing Liverpool is a major test most teams fail, but Napoli had the perfect man for the job.
Late in my second watching of the game, I noticed something peculiar about the way Koulibaly defended. Afterwards, I wondered if it was a personal quirk or part of Napoli’s defensive scheme.
When Napoli were setting up their defense to prepare for a Liverpool attack, Koulibaly would get in line with his fellow defenders, then take a few steps even deeper towards his goal. No matter how deep the defensive line set itself, he would stand beneath the others. This made sense when the team was high up the field and Koulibaly was ostensibly covering Napoli’s other two defenders. But curiously, he would step deep even when Napoli was in their own box.
This quirk seemed like a function of both Koulibaly’s tendencies and Napoli’s gameplan.
The event that drew my attention to this behavior came in the 76th minute. Mané had the ball on the left wing and drilled a pass into the middle of the box to Georginio Wijnaldum. The pass beat Kostas Manolas, Koulibaly’s defensive partner, but Wijnaldum’s touch wasn’t good enough to control it. He touched it and the ball went past him.
Koulibaly intercepted the miscontrolled ball because he had positioned himself deeper than everyone else. And if Wijnaldum had been lucky in retaining possession, Koulibaly would have still been in a perfect position to either tackle or block the shot.
Koulibaly’s dropping down allowed him to dictate play by baiting attackers into spaces where he could win the ball rather than simply react to their actions. He gave himself time and space to make better decisions while also helping his teammates as a last line of defense.
My favorite instance of him using this deeper position to his advantage came when he made a tackle to prevent Firmino from passing to Salah in the 61st minute. The play exemplified all of Koulibaly’s marvelousness as a defender.
A long kick from Adrian found Mané on the left wing. Mané cut in and set the ball into the path of an underlapping Andrew Robertson. Robertson drove forward and then cut the ball back to Firmino a few yards outside the box. Koulibaly, whose starting position when Mané received the ball was once again deeper than his teammates’, was standing right on the edge of the penalty box at the moment when Firmino received the pass.
Firmino took a touch to control the ball, and as soon as he turned his body to make the pass out to the right, Koulibaly lunged in. In a flash, he closed the space between him and Firmino with his long left leg, prevented the pass, and pushed the ball away.
There’s a cliché in soccer that slide-tackling is a sign of a defender trying to atone for a positional failure. The thought may stem from an unsourced quote by Paolo Maldini, who supposedly said, “If I have to make a tackle then I have already made a mistake.”
Like all clichés, there’s some truth to it — a lot of defenders do try to make up for being caught out by sliding — but it’s also reductive (and likely based in anti-English sentiment).
Tackling, and slide-tackling, when done well can be as brilliant and artistic as anything in the game. It isn’t only a last-ditch attempt at redemption. Well-timed slide-tackling is a brave way to win the ball or prevent a dangerous situation. No one would (or should dare) dismiss Alessandro Nesta’s famous tackle on Messi as the product of a mistake. It was art.
Koulibaly’s tackle on Firmino summed him up perfectly. He had the time to read the attacker’s intentions and was in a position to potentially sweep up the ball if a pass went elsewhere. He was aware and prepared for the possibilities of the attack, and when he realized what was developing, he countered the play.
The moment Firmino went the way Koulibaly wanted him to, Koulibaly decisively made his move. Many defenders can see moments like that, but only a few, like Koulibaly and Virgil Van Dijk, have the combination of resolve, timing, composure, concentration, and physical skill to step forward. They do it so often that their actions seem precognitive.
Koulibaly didn’t prove anything against Liverpool that wasn’t true before. He’s a remarkable player. The real fun of his performance was in seeing all of his qualities pushed to the limit against one of the best attacking teams in the world. Had Napoli conceded, there would have been no shame in it. Yet as much as Napoli was stretched and hammered against Liverpool, they didn’t break. And during those fews times when things seemed bleak, there was Koulibaly, as reliable as always, to win the ball.
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