Last week, Simone Inzaghi was officially confirmed as Internazionale’s new head coach, replacing the Scudetto-winning Antonio Conte at the helm of the nerazzuri. After several impressive seasons at Lazio, which included success in the shape of the Coppa Italia in 2019 as well as two Supercoppa Italianas in 2017 and 2019, Inzaghi has definitely earned this chance at a big club. This tactical analysis will look at the tactics he has used at Lazio and how those suit his new squad at Inter.
Inzaghi’s attacking ideas – 3-5-2 versions and verticality
Throughout his five full seasons in charge, Inzaghi has implemented versions of a 3-5-2 formation. Sometimes, it has been a classic 3-5-2 with two out and out strikers such as Ciro Immobile and Felipe Caicedo. On other occasions, Inzaghi has used a 3-5-1-1 with a number 10 playing just behind the striker. This was the case in Inzaghi’s early seasons when Luis Alberto played as a 10 in front of a midfield of Marco Parolo, Lucas Leiva and Sergej Milinković-Savić. The image belows highlights the staggering of Inzaghi’s Lazio team and illustrates the passing triangles and diamonds that open up thanks to their positioning in a 3-5-1-1.
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A third version of the his preferred 3-5-2 has been the structure highlighted below. In this setup, the team defended in a 3-5-2/5-3-2 but, in attack, one central midfielder would drop in alongside the defensive midfielder while the other pushed forward as a right-sided ten (more on that here). To balance the dropping movement of one central midfielder, one striker would drop in as a left-sided ten to create a very fluid 3-4-2-1 in possession. This setup has often been used when Lazio have encountered build-up issues and Inzaghi opted to use Alberto deeper to aid progression of the ball.
Inzaghi has also used interesting rotations in the first line, such as the one below where the left-sided centre-back (Radu) moves wide and the central centre-back (Acerbi) moves to the left to facilitate the dropping movement of Leiva. As you’d expect, the left-sided wing-back pushed high.
Whatever attacking positions Inzaghi has implemented, the aim has normally been the same: move the ball forward quickly, with control, and attack the space behind the opponent’s defensive line. In that sense, Inzaghi’s Lazio never had a great focus on controlling games through possession. Rather, they used a very vertical possession style where they wanted to draw out the opponet to press them and then hit early passes behind the defence for Immobile, in particular, to run onto.
Two common methods of attacking that space can be seen below. The first one (yellow) involves the ball being played wide to the wing-back to draw out the opponent full-back to press in the wide area. The wing-back would then play the ball into the vacated half-space channel.
The other (white) was based around central progression as a central midfielder would hit early passes into the runs of Immobile. These could be over the top of the defence or along the ground. Crucially, both methods had the same purpose: find Immobile in behind the defence with early passes.
Immobile has been central to everything Lazio have done under Inzaghi and he would often pull away from the right-sided centre-back to gain some space on the outside of the defender. Therefore, when Lazio switched play from right to left, the team would look to hit early diagonals from around the right-sided half-space into the path of Immobile. This was very effective since full-backs would often be orientated towards Lazio’s left wing-back, granting Immobile some extra space to run into. Again, the verticality is obvious.
In the attacking third, Inzaghi often opted to push both central midfielders into either half-space between the lines of the opponent’s midfield and defensive lines. This created a front six, as seen below. With four central options, combination play around the box was always a big weapon to break low-blocks down.
This combination play could look different based on the personnel and the situations on the pitch. Below are a few examples. For instances, the two strikers could look to combine amongst themselves (yellow arrows) or they could look to bring one of the tens (the pushed forward central midfielders) into the game (white arrows). When picking up back passes from the strikers, these midfielders could then look to play the striker through or involve the attacking wing-backs to then attack crosses from the sides.
Regardless of whether Lazio counter-attacked or had control of possession in their own half, the aim of Inzaghi’s side was to hit the ball into the space behind the opposition as quickly as possible. This was logical, considering Immobile thrives with that type of ball, but Inzaghi also had other options up his sleeve with the central combination play and crossing from wide areas, often looking for the towering Milinković-Savić in the box.
Flexible pressing and defensive height
Out of possession, Inzaghi has demonstrated an ability to coach high pressing, mid-blocks as well as low-blocks. This will work in his favour at Inter, who have been very flexible out of possession under Conte too. In the image below, we can see one of Inzaghi’s pressing schemes when pressing high. His high pressing is man-orientated and this particular example highlights the two strikers picking up either centre-back while the two central midfielders are orientated towards the double pivot of the opposition. In the wide areas, the wing-backs are in split positions: they could go and press the opposition full-back if the ball is on their side, but if the opponents play out on the other side they can drop in to create a back-four behind the press.
Against teams with a very important pivot, Inzaghi has usually opted for the setup in the image below. This sees one of the strikers focus on either marking or cutting passing lanes into the pivot with his cover shadow. As a result, one of the central midfielders will push up to press the free centre-back.
Against back-threes, a similar press has been used. The two strikers were orientated towards two of the centre-backs while a midfielder would push up and press the third if the ball was moved there. We can see this setup in the image below.
Mostly though, Inzaghi has been comfortable with allowing teams to have the ball. Therefore, Lazio dropped back into a mid-block or even low-block 5-3-2 with an extremely dense and compact central focus. The image below highlights this as Lazio have eight players defending the central areas and preventing progression of the ball there. When the ball was inevitably moved wide, the wing-back would press and the ball-near centre-back and central midfielder would provide cover on the wing-back’s inside.
Obviously, when you invite teams to move higher with the ball and thus moving their defensive line higher, you automatically have more space to counter-attack into. Given Lazio’s immense quality in attacking transition, this defensive tactic has yielded glorious results for Lazio on a collective level and Ciro Immobile, in particular, on an individual level.
How will he set Inter up?
Given Inter just won the league title playing a 3-5-2 that was very similar to Inzaghi’s, there is no pressing need to revolutionize the club. Instead, Inzaghi can tweak the existing system to get his ideas across piece by piece whilst retaining the overall structure of Conte’s tactics. If we look at the squad, the back-three of Milan Škriniar, Stefan De Vrij and Alessandro Bastoni will remain and Inzaghi will probably be delighted to work with defenders of that calibre. After all, he had to use wing-backs in his back-three at the back end of the season for Lazio as the squad depth wasn’t enough to cope with injuries. Inter might lack back-ups if the contracts of Danilo D’Ambrosio and Andrea Ranocchia are allowed to expire, but I would expect Piero Ausilio to adress this.
At wing-back, Ivan Perišić will be a contender to start on the left while it remains to be seen what happens on the right. Matteo Darmian signs permanently on 1 July while Achraf Hakimi looks on the way out. Ashley Young also has an expiring contract. This is an area where Inter should look to improve. Inzaghi’s former players Adam Marušić and Manuel Lazzari have been linked with moves to the Giuseppe Meazza. An exciting option would be Udinese’s 23-year-old Nahuel Molina who contributed five assists in his first Serie A season.
In midfield, Inter are well stocked. Marcelo Brozović will probably be fielded as the defensive midfielder while Nicolò Barella, Arturo Vidal, Matias Vecino, Roberto Gagliardini, Stefano Sensi and Christian Eriksen will battle it out for the remaining two spots. Sensi and Eriksen would also be options to play as the ten if Inzaghi opts for 3-5-1-1 rather than 3-5-2.
Up front, Romelu Lukaku will stay and he will be key. His ability to run into the channels to attack from out to in is vastly underrated and the Belgian will probably play a similar role to the one Immobile played at Lazio. Next to him, Lautaro Martinez is the obvious partner, but Alexis Sanchez will also get a lot of games as he can play as a striker but also as a ten.
Do Inter need any additions?
In short, yes. Inter will sell some of their most saleable assets and then they must sign players to stay relevant. If Hakimi does leave, Inter will need a replacement that offers an attacking threat from the right. That’s where Molina comes in. The Udinese wing-back looks like a real prospect and should make the transition to Inter seamlessly. Inzaghi’s former charge Lazzari would be a good option too. Inter might need options on the left too, and then Marc Cucurella from Getafe, Sassuolo’s Giorgos Kyriakopoulos and Moreirense’s Abdu Conté would be smart investments to provide cover and competition for Perišić.
Inter also need more options at centre-back, particularly if D’Ambrosio leaves. At centre-back, Lyon’s Joachim Andersen has returned from his loan at Fulham and could be available for a return to Italy. The young Hungarian Attila Szalai has impressed at Fenerbahce and would be a shrewd investment to provide cover for Bastoni at left centre-back.
Conclusions
The appointment of Simone Inzaghi makes a lot of sense from Inter’s point of view. He has impressed at Lazio, won titles, led them into the knockout round of the Champions League (which Conte failed to do), has a tactical philosophy tht suits the players and is not too different from his predecessor. It’s an excellent appointment. The hard work is shaping his squad for next season. Players will leave and players will arrive and if Inter have a squad on par with this season’s, Inzaghi should expect to challenge for another league title.
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