A Tactical Analysis Of Inter Under Antonio Conte – Part 4: Attacking Transitions

This 5 part series aims to analyze Inter’s first 16 official games of the 2019/2020 season, which coincidentally also are the first matches under the Antonio Conte era.

In the first part an introduction was presented, in the second part the build-up play was analyzed and in the third part the defensive transition was analyzed.

In this piece an in-depth analysis of the Nerazzurri’s attacking transitions will be discussed.

Attacking Transition

When the possession of the ball is regained, the first choice is always, to quickly try to find one of the two forwards and especially Romelu Lukaku.

He will then try to receive the pass, facing the opponents’ goal, on the right side of the pitch, in order to go on a 1 vs 1 against a defender or move centrally in order to shoot with his left foot.

If the forwards are positioned close to each other when the ball is stolen by their teammates, they will execute their characteristic opposite movements, with one coming towards the ball and the other running in the space in behind, then combine and execute.

If this solution is not possible, they can always pass the ball either to the wing-backs that move very quickly up the pitch or the central midfielders that make supporting runs.

If the opponent counter-presses effectively or for any other reason Inter cannot counterattack immediately, they will not rush any passes or kick the ball away.

Instead, they will try to avoid the opposition counter-press with the supporting movements of the 3 midfielders, the wing-backs and also the goalkeeper.

As we can see from the above videos, Inter can also counterattack without looking for their forwards directly but with a very fast one-touch pass combination as well.

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