Serie A Preview: Inter

Inter is one of the biggest clubs in Europe, never mind Italy, and they have finally returned to the Champions League. Going into the 2018/19 Serie A season, Inter have strengthened their squad and looks set to challenge Juventus for the title. In this piece, I look at their summer recruitment and how they might set up. Of course, theres also tactical analysis of Inters style of play.

Coach

Luciano Spalletti continues on the Inter bench after successfully guiding the club back to the Champions League last season. It will be Inters first season in Europes finest competition since 2010/11. That season they were defending champions; this season they will be an underdog. Spalletti has a decent record in Europe and should do well enough. In Serie A his tactics have shown to work well but he is yet to win a Scudetto. The hope at Inter is this year might be the one.

Transfers

Sporting director Piero Ausilio has had a brilliant summer and strengthened the team and squad in all areas of the pitch. Incredibly, hes even managed to turn a profit so far. Players like Radja Nainggolan, Lautaro Martinez, Stefan De Vrij, Kwadwo Asamoah, Sime Vrsaljko and Matteo Politano has come in at Angelo Moratti Sports Centre. The total cost? €72.5m. They have sold previously loaned out players like Geoffrey Kondogbia and Yuto Nagatomo, squad players like Davide Santon and Eder as well as a bunch of young players for a total of €72.7m. That is tremendous business from Ausilio. With the new players coming in, Inter looks ready to challenge for the Scudetto if they can balance the league with European football.

Tactical analysis: How will Inter play?

Inter normally sets up in a 4-2-3-1 formation which becomes 4-4-1-1/4-4-2 in defence. In Serie A last season they also started to shift towards a fluid shape which saw one winger move inside to create numerical superiority in midfield. Well look at this later. Spallettis game plan focuses on progressing the ball forward quickly through vertical pass combinations. He uses the classic up-back-through which means a pass is played forward then returned backwards before played through an opponent line. The attacking play last year was extremely wing-focused with Ivan Perisic and Antonio Candreva the key players down either side. The pair would then look for the devastating striker Mauro Icardi with crosses, often hit low and hard. Perisic also repeatedly makes movements towards the back-post when Candreva prepares to cross from the right.

One problem Inter often encountered was that their attacking structure became very static and rigid. When opponents figured out how Inter played they often dropped low and Inter lacked ideas to break teams down. The players remained in their positions and looked to the wing-players for chance creation but every opponent was ready for this. Inter endured a quite long slump from mid-December onward as they fell from top of the league to fifth. Spalletti then made some important changes. The signing of Rafinha gave the coach a creator centrally behind Icardi and gave Inter another option than just simply attacking down the wings. Spalletti also trusted the bit-part player Marcelo Brozovic as his playmaker in central midfield. The Croatian flourished and was Inters best player in their push for fourth. Lastly, Spalletti made the team more fluid in possession by changing the rigid 4-2-3-1 into a 3-2-4-1 in attack. The new team structure in attack can be seen below.

As you see in the above image, Candreva (blue) would move inside from the right wing and position himself in the right half-space. Rafinha would move across slightly towards the left and the double pivot of Gagliardini and Brozovic helped create a midfield box centrally. The left-winger Perisic (black) kept width on the opposite side where the left-back, often DAmbrosio (white), stayed deeper with the centre-backs. The right-back Cancelo pushed into the space vacated by Candrevas inverted movement. This fluidity created issues for opponents as Inter recovered their top-four spot, but only in the last game of the season.

Inter were solid in defence throughout the season, conceding 30 goals in the league. That made them the fourth best defensive team, despite suffering injuries to important defensive players. They often defended in a mid-block where the front-duo would initiate the press ahead of two solid banks of four. The defence and midfield kept a compact shape and forced opponents wide, as seen below.