“Same Formation, Different Ideas” – Inter Milan Vs Juventus Clash Showcases Tactical Battle Of 3-5-2 Shapes

Inter Milan and Juventus may play matching 3-5-2 formations, but the tactical ideas of their coaches are very different.

This is highlighted in today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, via FCInterNews.

Sunday evening’s Derby d’Italia will see the two outstanding teams in Italian football so far this season face off.

And in Simone Inzaghi and Max Allegri, Inter and Juventus have two of Serie A’s top coaches.

Barring major tactical surprises, the two coaches will play mirrored 3-5-2 shapes.

But the ideas behind them are quite different.

Inter & Juventus – Same 3-5-2 Shape, Different Ideas

For Inzaghi, the 3-5-2 shape is almost a dogma.

The 47-year-old has been hewing to that formation ever since he started coaching Lazio.

Inzaghi’s vision of football is a clearly defined one, although also versatile and adaptable.

Inter can dominate possession, but as they showed against Fiorentina this past weekend, can also sit deep and look to use the counterattack.

One way or another, Inzaghi sets his team up to have passing combinations all over the pitch in order to move the ball from one end of the pitch to the other in a flash.

This means that the defenders, particularly the wide centre-backs, have a lot of freedom to move into aggressive positions.

The wingbacks have a key role both wide and, in the final third, centrally. The wide players are often used as an outlet for switches of play.

And Inzaghi has always emphasized the importance of a strike partnership.

This season Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram have given a real demonstration of the Inter coach’s vision for how two out-and-out forwards can link up and coordinate their movements to bamboozle defenses.

Meanwhile, if Inzaghi’s use of the 3-5-2 is something longstanding, Juventus coach Allegri is not so wedded to the formation.

Throughout his career coaching teams like Sassuolo, Cagliari, and AC Milan, the 56-year-old has used multiple different shapes.

In his highly-decorated first spell in charge of Juventus, Allegri used both back-three and back-four systems.

But since returning to the Bianconeri in 2021, Allegri has stuck with the 3-5-2 shape.

But the Juventus coach uses the formation differently than his Inter counterpart.

Unlike the Nerazzurri, the Bianconeri are much more inclined to sit deep.

And where Inter like to use the shape to facilitate intricate passing combinations, Juventus’s style of direct attacking emphasize the pace and physicality of the strikers a lot more.