Date : 18/09/2016
Venue : Stadio Giuseppe Meazza
Competition : Serie A 2016/2017, Matchday 4
The starting line ups:
Inter took an impressive win against the favorites for the title Juventus, just a few days after their disastrous performance in their return in European competitions, in one of their most impressive displays in the last few years.
Inter’s defensive plan
De Boer’s defensive plan was plain and simple as an idea: don’t let Juventus build-up from the back, if so, cover every central passing option and force the bianconeri to passes towards the wing or between the CBs. But how did Inter translate this simple idea on the pitch?
When Buffon had to initiate the build-up, the nerazzurri had to mark every short passing option the Italian goalkeeper had in order to force him on a long kick.
When, in contrast, Buffon managed to either pass to one of his teammates despite the marking or find the nerazzurri in an unorganized manner just after an unsuccessful offensive attempt, Inter was letting the three Juventus CBs have the ball, marking instead every central passing they had as follows in the below explanatory video :
As it can be seen above, Inter implemented a man-oriented marking which means that they were neither man marking their opponent nor were focused on marking the space around them, but instead positioned themselves accordingly in space in order to stay close to their nearest opponent.
Juventus, thus had the opportunity, as it can be seen in a below example, to create small spaces momentarily, with timed runs by the midfielders and dropping movements towards the ball by Dybala, taking advantage of these momentary windows of time in which the Inter midfielders had to pass their defensive responsibility from one to the other, in order not to get dragged far away from their positions.
However, Allegri never saw his three midfielders time their runs correctly or position themselves in a correct manner in order to take advantage of one of Dybala’s strong points, dropping movements, timed perfectly even at very small spaces and an ability to receive the ball and turn to face the CBs, forcing the Argentinian to primarily connect with Lichtsteiner on the right wing, which in turn made Juventus predictable.
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As you can see from the passmap above, Dybala connected almost exclusively to the right wing, having no connection with the LCM Asamoah or Alex Sandro.
When on the other hand spaces did get created, as in the video below, for Mandzukic or Dybala to receive the ball in front of the Inter CBs, the Juventus forwards were beaten on their individual battles by Miranda and Murillo that were always very quick to stick on their opponents back and don’t let them turn, sometimes even at the limits of foul.
Inter were also very focused and concentrated on applying pressure to their nearest opponent after losing the ball, forcing Juventus on sloppy long balls or to transition in a slow enough manner that let the Milanese team get organized correctly.
Inter on offense
On offense, Banega had a free role, roaming all over the pitch, in order to help Medel move the ball upwards during the build-up, or move between Juventus defense and midfield lines, connecting with Icardi and Eder. The Italian forward on the other side, did not play as a winger, as did Candreva, but was closer to Icardi, on the left channel, in a position that he is much more used to play, and tried to combine with the Argentinian multiple times.
In contrast to the previous three Serie A matches of the De Boer era, Inter was also much more in a hurry on offense, trying to play as much as they could on transition.
Against an organized Juventus defense, when the spaces, centrally, were limited, Inter tried to move safely via the wings, or to get advantage of a Juventus midfield three, that saw its’ players not exchanging tasks properly and not understanding each other moves on time in order to react appropriately.
For example:
As you can see in the above video, J.Mario drags Pjanic away from his position in front of defense, with Khedira not covering for him on time. Thus as Asamoah, is a bit late to pressure Santon the Italian defender finds a pass in front of the unprotected Juventus CBs.
Conclusion
Inter played with intensity, concentration when it came to their defensive tasks and had some excellent individual performances in their best appearance to date in the 2016/2017 season. Juventus on the other hand, saw some poor individual performances from players such as Mandzukic and Asamoah, and seemed to be far from the team they have the potential to become. De Boer, will now have to built on the momentum and the newfound confidence in order make this performance a given, week in, week out and not let it be just a surprise.
For more Inter and non-Inter related Tactical Analysis, you can find me on Twitter, @ThanosChelas.