Simone Inzaghi has earned plaudits for getting his in-game management right in Inter Milan’s Serie A win over Atalanta.

As L’Interista highlight, the player ratings after the match were complimentary towards the 47-year-old for making the right decisions at the right time to take three points back to Milan.

Inter had a week in which to prepare and regain their energy heading into yesterday’s match.

But facing Atalanta at the Gewiss Arena was always going to be the kind of fixture that would really sap the team of energy right away.

So Inter needed to find the right balance. The Nerazzurri did pick some moments in which to push up and engage La Dea.

It was certainly not a match in which Inter could just sit back, absorb pressure, and hope to hit the opposition on the counter.

But at the same time, it was not an overly aggressive match from the Nerazzurri.

Inzaghi made sure that his team denied space for La Dea to attack.

Simone Inzaghi Praised For Game Management In Inter Win Vs Atalanta

Midway through the first half, Inzaghi had his first real setback to react to.

Defender Benjamin Pavard had to come off the pitch with an injury.

This meant that the Nerazzurri coach threw Matteo Darmian.

But the 33-year-old proved to fit in very well to the pace of the match. Moreover, he added a certain proactive edge to the right-sided role in the back three that had been missing with Pavard there.

It was in fact Darmian who won the penalty from which Inter scored their opener.

Then, in the second half, Inzaghi reacted when Atalanta got a goal back and started pushing for an equalizer.

Carlos Augusto entered the pitch on the left flank. He took the place of Federico Dimarco.

And this proved to be exactly the substitution that was necessary to give Inter a boost of energy and defensive application down the side of the pitch that they had looked vulnerable.

After this, Inzaghi didn’t tinker with his team much.

The coach thew on Alexis Sanchez and Kristjan Asllani late on. They replaced two of the most tireless runners in the team, Lautaro Martinez and Hakan Calhanoglu.

This saw Inter saw out a match that had been very difficult indeed.

The team bent, but didn’t break.