Serie A 2018/19: Juventus vs Inter

The Derby dItalia is always highly anticipated in Italy and Fridays clash between Juventus and Inter was no different. Inter put up a good fight but Mario Mandzukics header proved enough to stretch Juves lead over their rivals to 14 points. This tactical analysis looks at the tactical trends of the game.

Teams

Massimiliano Allegri once again chose what seems to be his preferred XI in a fluid 4-3-1-2, except for Alex Sandro who was missing out with injury. This meant Mattia De Sciglio came in at left-back with Joao Cancelo at right-back. Paulo Dybala played just behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Mario Mandzukic.

Luciano Spalletti chose a 4-3-3 for Inter where the big news was Joao Mario starting in midfield instead of Matias Vecino and Miranda replacing Stefan De Vrij alongside Milan Skriniar at center-back.

Inters pressing

Inter started the game well and impressed in the first half. Their pressing stood out early on. As usual the pressing was man-orientated but it was a quite flexible style of man-orientated pressing. The below image indicates how Inters two advanced central midfielders press Pjanic and Matuidi. In the center circle we can see the role of Brozovic; he covers the other midfielders and didnt defend in a man-orientated fashion.

Inter were flexible in the way they pressed the closest player and they were always ready to follow the pressing action of a teammate. One such example can be seen below. Perisic has left the wing and presses Bentancur. Asamoah then reacts and move higher to press against Cancelo. We can again see the covering role of Brozovic (yellow).

With Juventus four vs three numerical