In 2020/21, Inter Milan won the league, breaking Juventus era of dominance in the Serie A. However, due to financial difficulties, key figures including Antonio Conte, Achraf Hakimi and Romelu Lukaku all left, leaving the club on what looked like a downward trajectory. In the following season, without their key players, Inter Milan still put up a great display where they were in the race for the title until the last day, finishing in 2nd place, losing out on the Scudetto to rivals AC Milan.
Fast forward to now, Inter currently sit in 5th place in the Serie A, 11 points behind league leaders Napoli who are yet to lose a league game. With 23 games to go, Lukaku returns from injury, where his influence was key to their previous title campaign. Inter will be playing catch up, but a £100 million asset could be the push Inter need to come-back to the top of the Serie A.
From a set-piece point of view, Inter currently sit top of the table in the top 5 leagues, in terms of shot-creating actions created from dead balls with 47 shots being created from free kicks, corners, and throw-ins. I Nerazzurri are the most creative team in Europe from set-pieces, due to the brilliance of their set-piece takers, Hakan Çalhanoğlu and Federico Dimarco, aerial quality among the likes of Lukaku, Dzeko, Acerbi, De Vrij, Skriniar, Bastoni, Martinez, Dumfries and the well-drilled set piece routines set up by Inters coaching staff.
Averaging around 3 shots per game from set pieces, Inter have been a threat all season from dead balls and will hope to become more efficient from these situations, to help them climb up the league.
In this tactical analysis, we will delve into the tactics Simone Inzaghi has used to make Inter Milan so dangerous from corners and free kicks. The set-piece analysis will show the different ways that Inter have been able to get their heads first to so many dead balls. Furthermore, the analysis will look into the movement and routines used, and why this may be the catalyst to leading them into a title charge.
Creation from Corners
Inter have two main ways of creating chances from corners. The first method is through a heavy focus on overloading the front post. The aim is to make some sort of contact at the front corner of the 6-yard box, to redirect the ball across the face of the goal from where the onrushing Inter players can react to a second ball quicker than the static defenders they are up against.
During this variation of corners, five players begin in the box. Four of these start around the goalkeeper, to prevent him from coming out to claim the cross. The other player will move towards the back post to cover that area of the goal in case a shot is misplaced and bound to go off target. Lautaro Martinez always makes the run towards the front of the 6-yard box while the other three float around the 6-yard box, to react to any flick-ons or rebounds.
As seen in the image below, Martinez starts inside the goal. This allows him to begin unmarked, and he can move towards the ball, from the blindside of the opposition defence. As the defenders cant see him, he can arrive at the planned location, the front corner of the 6-yard box, without any competition for the ball. From corner to corner, the distance Martinez has from his marker depends on their reaction time after he makes the move.
If the defender tracks Martinez, he has less space available for him to aim for, which forces him to flick the ball across the goal to his teammates. However, if Martinez times the run to perfection, and doesnt get tracked by a defender, he can open up his body and aim the header towards the near post which results in a goal, like in the example below.
This sort of corner is extremely difficult to consistently perform, due to the accuracy required by the corner taker to perfectly hit the ball over the first defender, and then for it to drop onto the area where Martinez makes his rehearsed run. However, due to Çalhanoğlus set piece quality, he can consistently hit the target area, which has allowed Inter to create many chances through this corner variation.
One variation of the near post overloads is to then target the area that is left open at the back post. Teams that prepare for Inters corners are aware of their preference to target the near post. In doing so, teams often leave the back of the 6-yard box unmarked, which Inter have used to their advantage. In this variation, the runs are almost identical, to lure the defending team into marking the front post, however, the player who usually hangs at the back post instead starts around the near post. This leaves the back post completely free, and all that is required is one body feint or quick movement to create separation from their marker and arrive at the back post unopposed.
The image below shows this routi
