Internazionale – Juventus: Catenacci-No! (4-4)
It was the former Interista, Annibale Frossi, who coined the phrase “The perfect result to a football game is 0-0.” In which case, he would have been traumatized by the Derby d’Italia’s most recent events.
Tactical analysis and match report by Joel Parker.
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Frossi represented many Italian clubs as a player and a coach, but out of the giants, he would only play for Internazionale. Many would go on to represent both Inter and Juventus, but how many would go from being immortalized at one club, to managing the other? Thiago Motta was part of Inter’s finest hour at Camp Nou; to go and manage one of their biggest rivals was certainly a controversial move on both sides of the coin.
Motta’s time in Turin has not been without its growing pains: in the Champions League, VfB Stuttgart took the control away from Juve, who missed both Manuel Locatelli and Andrea Cambiaso rotating in the middle. A bad result to head into the Derby d’Italia, but Juve has shown they are very hard to beat (or even score against) in Serie A.
Inter has returned to getting winning results, but these have come in very attritional circumstances. A struggling Roma team still got chances against the Scudetto holders, but Lautaro Martínez scored an excellent goal to win in the capital. They left it even later against Young Boys in Switzerland, Marcus Thuram in the last minute to save a poor result. Injury problems in midfield have led to this attritional form for Simone Inzaghi, the right playing field for Motta to consume more control?
The big omission for Inter was Hakan Çalhanoğlu, whose performance in the last game against Juve proved pivotal. Piotr Zieliński was the replacement, but it was not clear who the midfielder dropping between the center-backs was going to be. Francesco Acerbi was also out, he was replaced by Stefan de Vrij, whilst Denzel Dumfries came in to replace Matteo Darmian as the right wing-back.
Motta has always prepared his teams well in the big games, but his changes included some big surprises. Kenan Yıldız was on the bench, replaced by Timothy Weah on the wing. Both Manuel Locatelli and Nicolò Fagioli were included in the midfield, whilst Andrea Cambiaso would start from the right fullback position, Juan Cabal was the chosen fullback to come into the team.
Runs behind Cabal cause issues
Milan had already shown how much a passive 4-2-4 formation could stifle the fluidity of Inter’s buildup, so Motta had prepared a similar look with some characteristic changes. The forward line, with Fagioli next to Dusan Vlahović, was a little more confident in actively stepping up towards the Inter center-backs, although maintaining the shape was always the priority. When Inter had got the ball towards the halfway line, Juve’s wingers were prepared to drop deeper when the pass was made to the wide center-back/wing-back holding width, which perhaps aided Motta’s decision to start with Weah over Yıldız.
Motta’s concern for his left side was reaffirmed early on when Inter began to target that channel. Even when Weah pressed towards Dumfries, two minutes into the game, Cabal was in a narrow position to cover Nicolò Barella, but space was open for Marcus Thuram to move into, clattered by Danilo in the process.
As Inter circulated in Juve’s half, Cabal kept a close distance on Dumfries and the responsibility of filling the spaces around was a little mixed from Juve’s point-of-view. Thuram and Lautaro Martínez had lateral runs into the zone behind Cabal, Locatelli and Danilo the two players shuttling the forwards away from turning back towards goal. Both Juve players were comfortable in these spots, but when Benjamin Pavard underlapped from the first line of buildup, responsibility was handed to Weah, tracking back to cover.
12th minute: Buildup to Inter’s first penalty. Cabal was dragged far away from his defensive position by Dumfries and Pavard made an underlapping run into the space behind. Although Weah was in a good position, Pavard had the momentum to get past his marker and put the ball back into a dangerous zone.
Twelve minutes in, Weah’s body position enabled Pavard to sprint inside of him and Barella put the ball down the channel. Pavard knocked the ball into the area and Danilo booted Thuram in the process, a clumsy penalty to concede so early. Zieliński converted and Inter got the ball rolling in perfect fashion.
Juve keep their fullbacks wide
In possession, Cambiaso has been used as a positional chess piece by Motta, capable of stepping into midfield from either flank. However, against Inter’s 5-3-2 formation, Juve had arranged themselves in a 2-3-2-3 shape, Locatelli as the single pivot and the fullbacks keeping their wide spots, only stepping more central to make the switch more accessible or speed the tempo.
Fagioli and McKennie positioned themselves behind their opponents’ midfield three but had very different forward movements. When the ball circulated to the right, Fagioli would come from the far side and position himself in the space between Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zieliński. The Italian midfielder covered far more distance laterally, occasionally stepping into the wide-left channel, which saw Weah make a curved forward run. Whilst Fagioli was flexible, McKennie joined the forward line much more frequently than his partner.
18th minute: Buildup to Juve’s first goal (part one.) With Inter defending with a narrow midfield three, the Juve fullbacks became integral to progressing the ball. Both fullbacks kept their wide positions and switched to attract pressure. In the midfield, Fagioli laterally moved across from the far side, whereas McKennie made more direct forward movements.
Although Juve’s circulation was not penetrating through Inter at the start, they were more than comfortable moving the ball from fullback to fullback, to try and bait Inter out of its more conservative shape. Down the right, the agility of Francisco Conceição was very reliable in gaining territory and Juve had a move in mind to create chances. As the ball moved to Cabal, McKennie made his run into the box from the inside-right to meet these crosses, their first attempt did not connect, but the second brought them the equalizer five minutes after conceding. Once the ball had reached Cabal, De Vrij (the left center-back in this situation) had not tracked back after stepping out and Zieliński allowed McKennie to move behind him towards the box. The connection was made and McKennie knocked the ball back across goal for Vlahović to finish.
19th minute: Buildup to Juve’s first goal (part two.) Inter’s wide center-back stepped outward to stop the ball from being moved in the halfspace, but Zieliński allowed McKennie to keep his place behind him and remain onside. The space between himself and the recovering De Vrij was too big and the run was made from McKennie to get onto the cross.
The game started to transition more into Juve’s control, both in and out of possession. Dumfries did not follow Weah inside and this allowed him to make some close connections with Locatelli and Vlahović around Zieliński. When Juve attacked on the right side, Cambiaso moved inside of Conceição, which gave the Portuguese winger more one-versus-one situations with Dimarco/Mkhitaryan, a duel that he had more of the advantage of.
Off the ball, Juve’s 4-2-4 formation not only mirrored the buildup approach of Inter but also flooded the central zone where Martínez was attempting to receive short. Five minutes after the equalizer, Zieliński played inward to Martínez, and both Danilo and Locatelli were triggered. Danilo moved the ball to Vlahović, already positioned behind Mkhitaryan, and space opened for Cambiaso to join the attack. Conceição was left one-versus-one with the Armenian, faking the left to shift the ball onto his right and square the ball back to Weah, a few yards from the goal. Within eleven minutes of Inter’s opener, Juve had completely flipped the game on its head.
Transitions lead to more madness
Inter may have had possession spells, but Juve had found its feet and had a platform to launch fast attacks. As Zieliński joined the defensive line, distances between Barella and Mkhitaryan grew and Juve had both Fagioli and Vlahović already between the lines to knock clearances too. Even without turnovers, Juve could catch Inter out as they retreated from their high block into its medium, with the narrow movements of McKennie and Fagioli delaying the response from one of Inter’s midfielders to step up. However, just as this game began to follow a script, it completely switched in another direction.
Juve had phases where their defensive shifting/triggers swatted down any threat, but these movements were not always as strict. Just after the half-hour mark, McKennie became attracted to Martínez dropping deep down the left channel and Inter found a route in which they could exploit Juve’s 4-2-4 system. With Pavard positioned inside, which occupied Locatelli, Mkhitaryan became free behind the forward line and Juve allowed far too much space to open up. Zieliński passed to Pavard, Mkhitaryan combined with Thuram before the Armenian finished an excellent move for Inter to grab an equalizer of their own.
From kick-off, Dumfries followed Weah inside and his tackle sparked an Inter transition forward. Barella moved the ball back to Thuram, but the sliding challenge of Weah knocked the ball back into the danger zone. As Pierre Kalulu tried to clear, he brought Dumfries down in the process and Inter was awarded a second penalty. Zieliński converted once again, and Inter scored the fifth goal of the game before half-time.
41st minute: Inter’s out-of-possession structure changed situationally. Barella closed the distance on Cabal more often and Dimarco joined the first line of pressure to step up in a 4-2-4/man-to-man approach, that closed the space that Juve’s fullbacks had. Despite Juve playing through, McKennie’s heavy touch saw Inter transition back.
From this point onwards, both teams were attacking a little more frantically as both teams could transition against one another. Inzaghi slightly tweaked his team’s out-of-possession structure as the game progressed: Barella closed the distance between himself and Cabal more consistently, but changes were more obvious when Dimarco, situationally, began to move higher on Cambiaso, earlier in the buildup phase, to stop Juve’s fullbacks from switching to one another.
On the one hand, this did give Juve what they were aiming for, with Locatelli more than capable of wrapping the pass around his shoulder to progress the ball up the field. However, the man-to-man nature of Inter’s adapted approach and the fullbacks’ tendencies to underlap the winger meant that Inter could work themselves into a two-versus-one on the transition back.
Inter set plays versus Juve runners
Inter may have started to transition more, but their second-half threat came in the form of their dead balls. This came after Martínez had slipped the ball past Kalulu into Dimarco’s path, a shot saved by Michele Di Gregorio, but the rebound was completely missed by Dumfries inside the box. A few minutes later, Inter had grabbed their fourth of the game: Zieliński’s in-swinger forced everyone into the six-yard box, flicked away to Dumfries’ path and the ball trickled through the crowd, a poor goal for Juve to concede.
Inzaghi appeared to have cracked the code and Inter looked more settled in a deeper block, with Dumfries stepping into the midfield line and Mkhitaryan moving out wide to stop the Juve fullbacks from receiving in so much space. Juve could still work the ball up the field through Conceição, but from Weah’s goal to the hour mark, their shot output had flatlined.
Inter continued to knock after Dimarco’s drilled free-kick was saved by the goalkeeper and led to a series of dead ball situations. Barella’s deflected shot was tipped over the crossbar, whilst De Vrij and Martínez had narrow attempts from corners.
Motta corrects to change the game again
On the hour mark, Motta made a double change: Fagioli and Weah were replaced by Nicolò Savona and Yıldız. One of these changes was like-for-like, but the other saw one of the more flexible midfielders being replaced by a more rigid right-back. What this enabled was Cambiaso operating inside and even though Inter was still threatening on transitions, a return to the structure that Motta had been aiming for still enabled Juve to hold the ball in the opposition half.
Cambiaso was now making the flexible movements that he usually does when he inverts from the fullback positions, with Savona often on the same line as Danilo and Kalulu for protection. Dynamics also changed on the left side as well, Cabal now had more of a license to move up the chain and for Yıldız to move into the halfspace, McKennie ahead of the Turkish attacker, making runs between the center-backs. Inter had enough chances to put the game to bed, but with twenty minutes left, Juve found a response to close the gap. As the ball deflected away from Inter’s press, Cambiaso poked the ball past Barella and McKennie fed the ball to Yıldız’s path. Dumfries backtracked, but Yıldız opened his body and his low, driven shot found the far bottom corner.
Motta responded with another ambitious double change: Danilo and Vlahović out for Federico Gatti and Samuel Mbangula. Gatti was more comfortable taking the ball a few meters further up from his center-back position, whereas Mbangula (who is usually positioned on the wing) kept his central spot in the attack. Nevertheless, the new dynamics for Juve led to more flexible positions being taken up, and with less than ten minutes left, Juve found their dramatic equalizer.
80th minute: Buildup to Juve’s fourth goal. As the ball is circulated back, Juve filtering out the center of the field created room for adaptation. Cabal was free to step inside to open the passing lane to Locatelli and his touch took the ball around Frattesi. As Cabal moved the ball more centrally, Cambiaso was still in plenty of space to support laterally.
As Inter applied pressure down Juve’s right channel, Locatelli entered the space between Savona and Gatti, with the passing lane opening between him and Cabal. The left-back’s touch took the ball around Inter substitute Davide Frattesi and Cambiaso was free to support between the lines. The ball funnelled to Conceição, who clipped the ball towards the center of the box. Yann Bisseck, who also came on earlier, flicked the ball away, but Yıldız was free to take the ball down and despite Yann Sommer getting a strong connection, it was not enough to keep Juve from pulling the scores level once again.
Takeaways
A crazy game at the San Siro, in a fixture that often brings low-scoring and cagey affairs. Neither team had a heavy momentum swing in their favor, but both teams had phases where they could clearly exploit one another. Inter does not have many problems going forward (their set play routines do go underappreciated – excluding the penalties, ten of their other sixteen shots came from dead-ball situations) but they do appear to be leaking goals again and appear weak on the defensive transition.
Juve benefitted from Inter’s vulnerabilities and Motta showcased his strengths as a coach by adjusting his team accordingly. After a disastrous performance in the Champions League, to remain unbeaten in Serie A after playing Inter is certainly a good bounceback. Nevertheless, the real winner appears to be an ex-coach of both clubs, who has made a new home down south.
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