Antonio Conte has never had life as easy up front as he does with Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez at Inter, a report in the Italian media highlighted today.
As per Corriere dello Sport’s print edition, Lukaku and Lautaro have scored a combined 41 goals in all competitions this season (25 for Lukaku and 16 for Lautaro).
Conte never had a strike partnership as reliable as this when he was at Juventus or Chelsea, the report highlighted, despite bringing home four league titles in five seasons between the two clubs.
Lukaku and Lautaro immediately became his deadliest pairing when they scored 37 goals together in Serie A last season, propelling Inter to a second-place finish behind Juventus.
During Conte’s first season at Juventus his top two league scorers managed just 19 goals between them, with Alessandro Matri finishing on 10 and Claudio Marchisio getting nine.
Arturo Vidal and Mirko Vucinic were joint-top the following year with 10 goals apiece, making a total of 20, before Fernando Llorente and Carlos Tevez raised the bar with a combined 35 in Conte’s third season (19 and 16 goals respectively).
When Conte was at Chelsea, Diego Costa and Eden Hazard provided 20 and 16 goals respectively to deliver the Premier League title at his first attempt in 2017, which still falls one short of Lukaku and Lautaro’s league tally last year.
In order to confirm their superior status over the Tevez-Llorente and Costa-Hazard partnerships though, the report added, Lukaku and Lautaro would have to complete the final step and bring home the Scudetto for Conte at Inter.
