Date : 11/12/2016
Venue : Stadio Giuseppe Meazza
Competition : Serie A 2016/2017, Matchday 16
The starting line-ups:
After a heavy defeat against Napoli, Inter returned to winning after another unconvincing performance, this time against Ivan Juric’s Genoa.
Stefano Pioli confronted yet another match with what seems clearly now to be his standard game style for this team, choosing a very man oriented approach on defense that combined with Genoa’s usual man-marking led to a game full of duels and 1vs1.
Similar defensive approaches
Both teams proved to have similar defensive approaches coming in this game, focusing on forcing the opponent to building-up through the wings, using heavy man-orientations and situational man-marking when needed.
As it can be seen in the above picture, Genoa’s defensive plan started from the forwards immediately after the build-up phase was starting from the back for the nerazzurri.
Simeone’s task was to apply pressure to Miranda, arching his runs towards the (primarily left) side in order to force a pass towards the wing to either D’Ambrosio, who had Ocampos always moving in relation to him during the build-up phase, or to Candreva who was man marked by Laxalt. As for central passing options, both J.Mario and Brozovic were man-marked with Rincon behind them acting as insurance for his team in case they got unmarked or cutting passing options and passing lanes that led to spaces in front of his CBs.
This defensive strategy brought a lot of problems to Pioli’s men who were outnumbered in the centre of the field and as they had no rotations of positions or teammates joining the midfield were left with only the more direct approach to test.
But that didn’t bring results either, as there was an evident lack of timing and communication between the front three, who have had very limited time together on the pitch in the past, losing the ball easily even in situations when Mauro Icardi had pushed the defensive line deep enough with his off-ball runs to create space for Palacio and Eder.
When on the contrary one of the three dropped deeper to collect the ball it was always with a defender very tight on their back that didn’t allow them to turn and forced them to pass the ball back.
As for Inter on defense, with the 5-2-2-1 shape being from its nature very compact centrally and with Veloso and Rincon surrounded by five players, Genoa’s build-up was forced towards the side even if Icardi didn’t apply pressure at all.
With the ball, thus, moving towards the RCB or the LCB, Palacio’s (or Eder’s task) was to apply pressure to the ball carrier and force him to the wing, where the rossoblu WB was always marked by the Inter one.
In contrast however to Inter’s problems, Genoa found two ways to continue their build-up phase and move closer to Handanovic’s net.
The first one was via Rigoni, who was wandering on the right inside channel of the pitch that had always open passing lanes towards it, as both Brozovic and Mario were positioned too centrally and their initial man-orientation towards Rincon and Veloso didn’t allow them to shift towards the side quickly.
The second one involved again Rigoni, who with the ball on the wing was responsible to drag Murillo off his position, and with Lazovic doing the same to Nagatomo, create a big space behind them for Simeone to run into and receive a long ball.
Second Half
With Pioli fully aware of the abovementioned problems and having seen his team’s defensive problems in transition, caused by the numerical inferiority (3vs2) that they had in the centre of the field and exacerbated by Brozovic’s bad defensive reactions, a substitute was more than a reasonable move.
In the above video, focus on Brozovic and notice how, when in a numerical disadvantage 3vs2, he tries to apply immediate pressure to the ball carrier without closing the passing lane that leads to an opponent behind him, thus leaving J.Mario in a 2vs1.
Now, look how in the Nice-Toulouse match, Nice’s number 6, Seri, dealt with the same problem. Being in a similar 3vs2 numerical inferiority he didn’t apply pressure to the ball carrier but used his body to close the passing lane behind him and forced the ball to the wing.
These are the defensive deficiencies that when dealt with properly by him and by a coach and if not eliminated, at least improve, will transform Brozovic from a very good player to a great one.
As a consequence, Felipe Melo entered moving behind Brozovic and J.Mario giving them the much needed help against Rigoni’s movements behind them and allowing them to focus more on not allowing Veloso and Rincon to help in their team’s build-up. He replaced Eder who was continuously without a defensive role as Inter were forcing the game towards the wing and he was primarily being left on the opposite side without a direct man to mark (the only Genoa wing player was marked by Candreva).
On offense the 1-2 midfield, was invereted becoming a 2-1, with Melo staying centrally and Brozovic moving towards the left wing during the build-up phase, a side through which Inter emphasized their attacking in the second half, probably due to the fact that Genoa had only one wing player in their right side and as Rigoni was staying centrally and Ocampos on the left side, Veloso and Rincon had to shift quickly every time, something that gave enough time at Inter to progress.
This wasn’t however the final tactical modification Pioli made in the game, as with the replacement of Palacio and Perisic’s entrance Inter’s defensive approach changed again.
Inter returned to their initial 5-2-2-1 defensive shape with Perisic and J.Mario behind the Argentinian captain, this time though with bigger defensive responsibilities assigned to the two inside forwards, who now had to cut the passing lanes towards Genoa’s double pivot (Veloso and Rincon) as always forcing the ball towards the wing and allowing Brozovic and Melo to sit deeper and protect their defensive line.
It was the last tactical change that influenced the battle between the two teams as the flow of the game sped up and Genoa’s luck of man-orientation and lack of structure in the defensive transition phase left a lot of spaces uncovered for Inter to counterattack through.
Conclusion
Inter didn’t satisfy and were not convincing once again but took three valuable points, that the Inter fans can hope is just the start of something better as the nerazzurri have now six matches to play from which only in one will align without being the clear favorites(the one against Lazio) and will determine if the Milanese team can make a final push towards Champions League qualification.
For more Inter and non-Inter related Tactical Analysis, you can find me on Twitter, @ThanosChelas.
