Filippo Inzaghi Tactics At Pisa SC 2024/2025: Perfecting The 3-4-2-1 Formation – Tactical Analysis

Filippo Inzaghi has led Pisa to their first promotion from Serie B to Serie A in 34 years, a massive achievement for the club and their fans.

Before this, Inzaghi did not have very successful periods with the clubs he coached after he retired from playing football.

He coached Milan, Venezia, Bologna, Benevento, Brescia, Reggina, and Salernitana before joining Pisa this season and leading them to Serie A.

His previous achievements include leading Venezia from Lega Pro to Serie B and ensuring the promotion of Benevento from Serie B to Serie A as Champions with seven games remaining.

In this tactical analysis, we will explore Inzaghis footballing philosophy and tactics with I Nerazzurri.

This head-coach analysis will shed light on Pisa’s remarkable strengths and Inzaghis effective implementation of the 3-4-2-1 shape.

Filippo Inzaghi Attacking Phase

Inzaghi’s Pisa SC have had outstanding attacking numbers this season, with an average of 1.63 goals per match.

This means that Pisa has scored at least one goal per match this season and are always capable of scoring more.

Inzaghi relied on a single formation throughout the season, which helped him and the team find their balance and be very organised in both defence and attack.

He opted for this 3-4-2-1 formation because it also suits the available players’ abilities and best positions on the pitch.

The 3-4-2-1 formation guarantees Inzaghi more defensive protection with two close lines of defence.

At the same time, it suits the former AC Milan striker’s attacking ideas since he likes playing with one or two strikers and advanced playmakers behind him/them.

He prefers this attacking organisation to playing with wingers and a striker and avoiding the use of an advanced playmaker.

Since the available team squad has more strikers and offensive midfielders’ profiles than wingers, Inzaghi leaned toward using the 3-4-2-1 and sometimes the 3-4-1-2 more often.

Even when he wanted to use wingers occasionally, he did not change the defensive organisation and played according to the 3-4-3 formation.

Mattéo Tramoni, Alexander Lind, Henrik Meister, and Stefano Moreo were Inzaghi’s most-used weapons on the wings and in the striker role.

These players had better shooting abilities, pace, dribbling skills, and tactical maturity needed to press high on opposing defences.

Inzaghi relied on fast counterattacks and encouraged individual penetration efforts while supporting the penetrations of the other attacking players, who usually presented passing options.

Furthermore, he succeeded in using set-pieces efficiently and dangerously, putting a lot of work into these actions and varying the set-piece plans to surprise opponents.

More importantly, he instructed a powerful physical player like Idrissa Touré to always be present during such set-pieces and be ready to receive second balls or beat his direct opponent in the aerial duel.

Idrissa Touré Role In Set-Pieces

Idrissa Touré was crucial for the team on key occasions.

He scored very important goals with shots from distance and second balls won inside the box during set-pieces, making his impact tangible in his team’s promotion to Serie A.

The following goal example highlights Touré’s crucial role during set-pieces and his ability to always find a way to receive the ball in key areas that give him more chances to score.

He uses his outstanding and powerful shooting skills to finish the actions inside the net.

Pisa can still rely on Touré’s set-piece roles next season in Serie A, but they will need to alternate their set-piece strategies further to allow him to confuse opposing defences and avoid being marked.

This will be very important mainly because Serie A teams will surely study Inzaghi’s set-piece ideas carefully and try to limit his weapons by man-marking Touré on each occasion, unlike in the above example, where Cosenza applied a sort of zonal marking rather than strict man marking.

Inzaghi