Date : 14/02/2016
Venue : Stadio Artemio Franchi
Competition : Serie A 2015/2016, Matchday 25
Roberto Mancini chose Samir Handanovic under the goal posts, behind a defensive line of four that consisted of Telles, Murillo, Miranda and Nagatomo. Gary Medel was protecting the defense with Brozovic and Kondogbia in slightly more attacking roles as CMs. Icardi was the sole striker, with Palacio and Eder on either side of him.
Inter decided to sit back, close the spaces and counter-attack on yet another big match against a top 5 team.
The three midfielders and the three forwards, were positioning themselves centrally, creating a compact block that was forcing Fiorentina to play primarily from the wings.
The opponent’s attacking formation against this very compact shape, meant that sometimes Brozovic or Kondogbia were helping the FBs on the wings, with Palacio and Eder filling the central spaces that the before mentioned players had evacuated.
On their defensive third of the pitch, Inter was organized in a very tight 4-5 shape, with the wingers helping the FBs to defend against Fiorentina’s width (especially Palacio).
Ex-Inter player Paulo Sousa chose the Romanian Tatarusanu as the GK. In front of him there were Roncaglia, Rodriguez, Astori and Alonso. Vecino and Borja Valero created the double pivot in front of defense. Tello was providing the attacking width on the right as a winger, while Bernardeschi and Ilicic played behind the only ST Kalinic.
When on defense, Fiorentina were organized in 4-4-1-1 shape, with Ilicic near the opposition DM in order to either press or create problems to Inter’s recycling of the ball.
When on offense on the other hand, Fiorentina utilized a shape that resembled a 3-4-2-1. With Bernardeschi moving to a central position behind Kalinic, Alonso was occupying the whole left wing with Tello providing the width on the right.
It was a shape that instantly created a lot of problems to Inter’s pressing.
Inter’s pressing
Inter’s pressing has been, many times this season, with probably the most obvious example the match against Juventus, unorganized and executed without the proper concentration and thought. And although the problems were not that obvious when it came to it’s execution (for example players not covering behind players that pressed), many of them were still present.
As you can see on the above image, Fiorentina’s natural shape on offense, was constantly asking the question of who to press, the player on the wing or the player positioned behind Kalinic, on the Inter FBs.
This 2v1 for the Viola, made situations when an Inter FB decided to press one of them, very easy to bypass, as they could immediately find a free man.
For example, above, Nagatomo moves to press Alonso who immediately finds Bernardeschi free with a header.
The opponent’s players individual ability to bypass the pressing, also made thing much more difficult for the nerazzurri.
For instance, let’s take a look at one of those situations.
Astori moves his body to the left, like he is about to pass the ball to the wing, making Kondogbia to move two steps on that side, and leave enough time and space for Borja Valero (red bubble) to receive the ball from the Italian defender and break the pressing.
Icardi and pressing
It is difficult to tell something, without knowing what was practiced during the weekend, about Icardi’s pressing during the match. Either Mancini’s order to him was to start the pressing every time the ball was returning back to the Fiorentina defense, or the Argentinian was not recognizing the right situations that would have allowed his team to press properly.
Either way, this led to Icardi sprinting towards the opposition defenders in order to press, while his team was either unorganized or too far behind in order to continue the pressing. That meant that he, also , lost a lot of energy that he could have used on offense.
As it can be seen above, Icardi initiates the pressing, with Palacio/ Eder very far behind him. That meant that the Viola player that received the ball next had enough time and space to break the pressing.
Brozovic
The Croatian, for yet another big match, was at fault on game changing situations.
On the first goal conceded by Inter, Borja Valero run from deep to break the offside and score with a header.
Depending on the coach, these dangerous runs from midfield are treated either by the CBs or by the CMs following them inside the penalty area.
However, whatever the instructions are in those situations, to the Inter players, Brozovic should have had recognized that there was a numerical superiority (3v2), for the opponent inside the penalty area, and Palacio and Medel behind him to cover him in case Vecino received the ball outside of the area, and follow Valero.
The second goal, started with Viola building from the back.
As you can see, Brozovic presses Astori with his body being too wide and does not close the passing lane to Borja Valero who receives the ball.
The Spaniard then passes to his compatriot Alonso, who finds Zarate free, as Brozovic did not mark him or close the passing lane (other than that Inter’s defense in this situation was very well organized), who then pass to Babacar who scored for the final 2-1.
Conclusion
Inter’s nightmare continues. Lack of movement on offense and pressing mistakes were once again present for the nerazzurri, who, however, could have probably avoided the loss, if those easily avoidable mistakes, had never occurred.
You can follow me on Twitter at @ThanosChelas.
great Thanos as usual, I wish Mancio read our comments or at least someone from his staff, definitely Inter rivals are growing but well there is still a small chance we just need to win 10 out of 13…. no matter if by 1-0, the point is to carry the team all the way to the top.
Hopefully Eder teammates are nice and not laugh at him! Please be nice~ Couldn’t watch this season turns worse than current situation. Worse is playing Juventus on the next match. Terrified to see our Inter being destroyed by on form Rubentus!
Keep Faith! Nothing is over until it’s over.
Borja Valero &Co will destroy us again and again they know we have dumb midfielders.
There is something very wrong with this team’s attitude they were wasting time in the beginning of second half as if they were winning 10-0. Even if you are winning with a large margin you should not try to waste time like that but try to score even more. Football is all about exploitation and taking chances. Other than palacio who was everywhere and handanovic and telles who I think played a good game. The whole squad was lost. Now to mancini ,its clear there is some problem in their preparation, when you look at these players its like they would rather be in another place and mancini himself looks clueless. Please watch fiorentina’s first goal and look at his reaction, he just stood there doing nothing. Late substitutions, playing eder for the third match in a row out of place. Playing nagatomo who is a liability and did not manage to intercept any ball the whole match or recover any ball. Only palacio was shielding that wing. What did lijacic and jovetic do that mancini never thinks of them? They were our force back when we use to win, atleast they would create goal scoring chances. Why is persic who was on beast mode in the hellas verona match on the bench? We are all Inter fans here and I am a die hard one, I accept defeat because its normal and it happens and sometimes it allows you to learn new things that you were not able to discover but when you lose the way Inter is losing right now which is without any clear style of playing no cohesion between the players (as if they never train together)and with such naive mistakes, I mean we just came back from a match where they scored from three set pieces on verona’s match yet it happens again with bora valero’s goal , that was abysmal marking and positioning. I think we need to take a retreat like juventus have done and try to atleast change the atmosphere because things are going to reach the point of no return soon with this stubbornness but hopefully we can return to winning ways soon and just get as many points as we can. You never know we might make it to the CL but I’m sure as hell mancini should leave by then because unlike his predecessors he got his players the club really worked hard for him even in these tough conditions Inter is facing right now(debt and all) instead of the players developing we are saying eder one of the top goalscorers lost, kondogbia a shadow of himself and persic looks lost most of the time they actually became worse than their old self.
FORZA INTER
agree with everything you said, we should defintely go on a retreat and try to salvage something.
They entered a retreat till sampdoria’s match but even that with our coach stubbornness is worrying, this guy blames everyone but himself.
What did lijacic and jovetic do that mancini never thinks of them? ==> I can say the same with Santon, Biabiany, Kondogbia, etc. the way he treat them, I dont think make them more determined
Jovetic has been terrible at pressing. He is also very passive on the defensive side of the game, and by doing that he increases Icardi’s workload and (sometimes) ruins his positioning for counters. I would recommend you to read the analysis on the game against Juve in the Coppa Italia and on the game against Empoli.
True but the thing that is bugging me Mr.Thanos is why in these recent matches is why does mancini play with eder for a very long time and he is clearly out of position and never subbed jovetic or lijacic in ? And when he did it in the hellas verona match he subbed in a liajcic with three minutes remaining? How bad is lijaic’s and jovetic’s form that they are never introduced to any recent match.With regard to our pressing its what’s keeping us down the players don’t know how to position themselves hence why we are always caught out of space even when attacking we don’t know how to counter attack there is always no one upfront so they keep returning the ball back. The problem also is we have one CF and many SS. There is clearly something missing in the midfield from a playmaker to someone like motta or cambiasso who knows how to control the tempo.
I believe you Thanos, but for me, it more psychology thing. in the beginning of this season he play decent, and then what? Mancini keep saying his not fit, meanwhile Mancini keep playing Icardi. idk. that’s my opinion. if Mancio can use a different approach, I think Jojo will do anything that Mancio ask to
Santon’s form has been bad but nagatomo is worse so yeah atleast he should be given the chance he as solid at the beggining of the league, atleast biabiany is subbed in and kondogbia actually plays alot. Di ambrosio should also play sometimes, in my point of view nagatomo is our worse fb