Legendary former Juventus midfielder Marco Tardelli believes that Inter are the stronger team than Juventus in terms of their style of football but that the Bianconeri have the more balanced style of play.
Speaking to Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview published in today’s print edition, the former Bianconeri and Nerazzurri player gave his thoughts on the clash between the two sides tomorrow in Serie A.
Inter sit three points ahead of Juventus in the Serie A table going into tomorrow’s match, with the Nerazzurri having enjoyed a strong but inconsistent start to the season while the Bianconeri have yet to fully recover from a poor start to the campaign despite much improved form over their last few matches.
The head-to-head could have significant ramifications at the top end of the Serie A table, and both teams will hope to be at their best for the occasion.
Tardelli is of the view that between the two Inter look to be the stronger but that the Bianconeri can rely on a better balance in their approach and squad.
“It is already a very important challenge for the teams’ ambitions,” he said of tomorrow’s match, “but it is more decisive for Juve, the numbers say so. Mentally it would be hard to restart and think about the Scudetto with such a significant gap, and they want to be front-runners.”
“Inter are further ahead in terms of play but a little behind in terms of team balance,” he went on. “Inzaghi is an excellent coach, he had abundantly demonstrated this at Lazio for several years.”
He explained that “Simone is building the team according to his creed: they lost very important players at a particular moment for Inter and those who replaced them at the moment have held up, but are they sure that they will hold up until the end? Today however, they have a little more than Juve.”
He predicted of the dynamic of the match, “I value the defense I have and I bet everything on the counterattack of Chiesa: Federico is the one who best of all knows how to penetrate and cause danger to defenses, the back three of Inter are physically strong but they can suffer from speed in one-on-ones and in the channels.”
“Countering quickly quickly is Juve’s weapon,” he explained. “Cuadrado, Morata and Bernardeschi know how to do well in the open field, but the decisive man can only be Chiesa. If he is fit he can create very big problems for this Inter.”
“I don’t think Juve will try to do much to discover themselves,” Tardelli stated, “Allegri has understood that you win in many ways and not only with ball possession, but he humbly understood that this Juve needs to play like this to climb the rankings.”
On how Simone Inzaghi should approach the match he gave the view that “As already said, for sure I would be afraid of Chiesa and Juventus’s newfound defensive solidity. Probably the ideal would be to lower the defensive line a little, try to let Juve control the match at times and then surprise them.”
“This could be a decisive factor,” he went on, “but I don’t know if Inter is able to completely change their skin today. And then if Inzaghi starts to back down too much. it ends 0-0.”
On criticisms of Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu he stated that “In reality Hakan has also showed many positive things, he lacks consistency.”
“Dzeko, on the other hand, has returned to the levels of when he arrived in Italy,” Tardelli expained, “he seems reinvigorated and rejuvenated. I think the change of scenery has been very positive, there were too many controversies at Roma even because he could have left earlier. Here, the move helped him a lot to find himself. At Roma, perhaps, he no longer felt at home.”
“Edin has always been a center-forward and a finisher, a point of reference for his teammates,” Tardelli explained, “extraordinary in the way he receives the ball with his back to goal and allows the whole team to turn. If I had to look for a key to surprise Juve, yes, I would say his quality.”
