Inter have made a strong start to the Serie A season under coach Antonio Conte. Conte,
who has won Serie A three times as a manager with Juventus, as well as the Premier League
while at Chelsea, has instituted the three man defence that served him well at both his
top flight title-winning stints. After seven games, Inter have scored the third most goals,
behind Atalanta and Napoli, but conceded the fewest, as Conte has built his defence around
incoming veteran Diego Godin, talented ball-player Milan Skriniar, and Stefan de Vrij.
Inter’s 3-5-2 usually sees top men up front, Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez, with two
dynamic midfielders ahead of a sitting midfielder. These are flanked by wing backs, generally
Kwadwo Asamoah on the left and Andrea Candreva or Daniele D’Ambrosio on the right. The
sitting midfielder, a role in which Marcelo Brozovic has so far excelled this season,
is there to drop deeper and help build-up, especially against teams who look to press
the centre backs.
Inter generally attack dynamically, rather than through a patient build-up involving
the pivot, although his role in spreading play or helping the centre-backs bring the
ball out should not be understated. In Lukaku and Martinez, Inter have two excellent and
complementary forwards who thrive on direct balls. Lukaku especially can be used to win
aerial out balls, hold up the ball, or drop off. Inter can and will play very vertically,
especially if the centre backs can bring the ball out and then look to play the strikers
in directly.
Otherwise, Inter look to use width to create chances. This functions in several ways. Candreva
is more of a natural winger or midfielder than Asamoah on the left, and so he often
looks to push high and isolate his opposite man. The inside midfielder will then push
outwards to create overloads in the wide areas of the pitch, assisted by a striker dropping
off – the other striker and midfielder are then available to make runs against the opposition
centre backs, either to collect the ball for shots from the top of the area, or to make
deeper runs into the box. Stefano Sensi, who has been superb this season, scoring three,
is a particular beneficiary of this approach pushing up from midfield.
Inter will also look to attack this way on the left, as Asamoah has the ability and engine
to attack and defend his flank very capably, but Candreva is more naturally suited to the
attacking side of the game.
Against AC Milan, Conte also withdrew a striker during the match to bring on the winger Matteo
Politano – he effectively played up front but wide on the right, which further allowed
Inter to overload that flank and target AC Milan’s left-hand side of defence, creating
more space centrally by forcing AC Milan to adjust. It’s a good example of how Conte
intelligently adjusts a basic pattern to exploit specific opposition weaknesses.
Defensively, Inter’s 3-5-2 will become a 5-3-2 during the game under periods of sustained
pressure, and Conte is also happy to start with this deeper line against some teams,
as he did away to Barcelona in the Champions League.
Generally, Inter will look to press man for man higher up the pitch, and often try to
shepherd the opposition into wide areas by allowing the opposition full backs some space
and leaving them as the easiest options for a pass.
This allows Inter to stuff up the middle of the pitch, making them hard to play through,
and also means when they do engage the press out wide, there is often space behind the
opposition full backs into which they can attack. It’s a similar ploy to that which
Conte used at Chelsea, and it’s particularly effective against teams that play 4-3-3 as
Inter can go man for man easily across the pitch and then counter into space out wide
once the ball is won back.
And with Conte’s typically formidable and organised defence keeping things tight at
the back, Inter have an extremely solid foundation from which to attack.
In Nicolo Barella, Roberto Gagliardini, young defender Alessandro Bastoni, and Sensi, Conte
has talented young Italian players – Gagliardini is the eldest at 25 – supported by experienced
leaders like Godin, Asamoah, and Handanovic, while Martinez and Skriniar are also excelling.
The summer acquisition of Lukaku already looks smart and the squad has enough depth to sustain
the title challenge, especially in midfield. While Juventus in recent years have seen Lo
Scudetto as theirs by right, Conte’s Inter will push them all the way this season and
could well have enough to take the title.