Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi is starting to think about tactical alterations to his team as he kicks off preseason training with a view to building a Scudetto-winning machine.
This according to today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, who report that Robin Gosens and a returning Romelu Lukaku are among the players who he’s focusing on as he starts rebuilding the team from last season.
Inzaghi already put his stamp on the team last season, quickly assimilating the team to his ideas which were in many respects very different from those of his predecessor Antonio Conte.
The return of Lukaku presents the coach with both an opportunity and a dilemma, in that the Belgian is a player he has always made clear he wanted to work with, but is not quite a natural fit for the formation and system that he used last season.
Lukaku had been a perfect fit for the tactics of Conte, who was happy to let the Belgian attack space in behind defenses and run with the ball at his feet.
Last season, Inzaghi had the Nerazzurri playing a more possession-based style of play which saw the entire team involved in the attacking phase and the strikers playing in teammates more.
Now, the coach is thinking about how he wants to use Lukaku, and will spend the preseason period experimenting with instructions to the 29-year-old to stretch defenses to allow the team to continue to play his brand of possession football.
Meanwhile, Gosens is set to have a very important role as the first-choice player on the left following the departure of Ivan Perisic.
The German didn’t play a great deal last season following his January arrival from Atalanta, due to the outstanding form of Perisic.
However, with the Croat now gone, Inzaghi is putting significant effort into working with Gosens to get the 28-year-old back to his best on the left.
Having Gosens showing the incisiveness and attacking threat that he has for Atalanta and the German national team could be key to Inzaghi’s system functioning at its best and improving on last season’s second place Serie A finish.