Simone Inzaghi

[CafeCordoba]

Marotta's reactions in the stands told the same story yesterday.

 

[ADRossi]

For the second time in a week Marotta said Inter concede too many goals and coach needs to find a solution

Water is wet. The sky is blue.

 

[DiegoMilito22]

We weren't buttfucked by Juve in any fashion. Come on now

We lost by 2 goals while their clear goal was also cancelled. How weren't we buttfucked?

 

[CafeCordoba]

We lost by 2 goals while their clear goal was also cancelled. How weren't we buttfucked?

The result hides the actual game being played there on the pitch. They scored from two counters, second one scored while our risk levels were a lot higher (obviously). We had chances to score, didn't convert them. We controlled the ball, had more shots etc.

Buttfuck as a term has experienced quite an inflation if that match is described as buttfuck.

 

[junkie]

We lost by 2 goals while their clear goal was also cancelled. How weren't we buttfucked?

what clear goal? am I missing something?

 

[bubba zanetti]

The result hides the actual game being played there on the pitch. They scored from two counters, second one scored while our risk levels were a lot higher (obviously). We had chances to score, didn't convert them. We controlled the ball, had more shots etc.

Buttfuck as a term has experienced quite an inflation if that match is described as buttfuck.

You are wrong, this was buttfucking my friend, fast and hard from behind. In the end of match we def looked like their bitches lol

 

[DiegoMilito22]

what clear goal? am I missing something?

Danilo's goal. De Vrij had locked his arm.

 

[interman]

If he want to improve the defense this is the best time, there will be no other.

 

[#NotForMe]

Good things first, we got 3 points, and we won from behind second time this season (I think), which is a good sign of mental toughness improvement, too bad it is the WC break. Improvements in the details, De Vrij's and Skrinar's yellow actually were both crucial, more midfield interception in the second half due to how Alanta plays the game, and we were also exploiting the spaces differently since they were doing whole field man marking and no zonal at all, can't list them all; we didn't control the match, but I would say we did the right things in the detail along with some luck. Most important we were LESS wasteful.


I think there are ways to improve the defence without switching up the play too much, e.g. more set piece defending exercises & drills, I feel like this has always been one of our weak links, even last year or with Conte, we just didn't get exposed too much, but you still see it. e.g. when we played against Liverpool at home our defence was tremendous, except when it comes to set pieces, we looked extremely inferior.

I also think that how aggressive our WB determines the frequency of our goal conceding risks occurring, and how well our defence plan adapt the opponent.

I don't question the potential quality we have in our defence, else the game against Barca will be very different. I also lean towards it is mental/focusing thing instead of the set up in general.

 

[Javier'sSon]

That Barca game was definitely an outlier, sadly. Hell of a defense that match.

 

[YoramG]

Brozovic does an invaluable (and often invisible) job in defence, so that'll help. Can't give enough props to Hakan for stepping in like he did, but Brozovic is a different animal.

Lukaku being back (fucking LMAO) will also paradoxically make it a bit easier to defend, as he tends to force opponents' defensive lines a bit further back, so we won't be as asphyxiated by pressing/they'll have more distance to cover if we give the ball away.

Other than that, we need to fix up on fucking set-pieces. We defend worse than Serie C teams from free kicks and corners. I know a lot of it is down to concentration, but when it happens this often the system is also a culprit.

 

[CafeCordoba]

Yeah, we've been conceding so many goals or chances from the setpieces this season. They need to fix that shit ASAP.

 

[brehme1989]

We have no defensive midfielders, Brozovic is the most capable defender we have and he's still inadequate, we have no defensive presence from the wing backs and one of the strikers doesn't press hard, while apart from Barella we're losing Hakan who is good at pressing because he needs to sit deeper.

But sure, we have three class center backs so it should work nonetheless...

 

[CafeCordoba]

Yeah that's a good point. Mhkitaryan is a lot worse defensively than Calhanoglu and Dimarco is not good at defence (soft) so the left side is very weak for us.

 

[.h.]

someone remind me the last time we had a proper defensive midfielder? cuz we've been doing hakan-barella-broz last year as well and the defense was much better then, before that we had eriksen-barella-brozocvic and again the defense was much better. Hell, in Conte's first season we didnt even have Perisic, Biraghi-Candreva, Barella-Broz-Vecino/Valero and our defense was much better...

 

[brehme1989]

someone remind me the last time we had a proper defensive midfielder? cuz we've been doing hakan-barella-broz last year as well and the defense was much better then, before that we had eriksen-barella-brozocvic and again the defense was much better. Hell, in Conte's first season we didnt even have Perisic, Biraghi-Candreva, Barella-Broz-Vecino/Valero and our defense was much better...

Read the whole post, understand its point and then make a counter argument, please. Don't nitpick, it's annoying.


I mentioned three different things.
Wing backs. We have the worst defensive quality in that aspect.

Center midfielders. You named trios that include both Brozovic and Barella whilst Hakan and eben Eriksen was able to press the opposition. You don't need a defensive midfielder, but Hakan is shit at man defending and Mkhitaryan sucks defensively. We're playing with a hole in the middle and sides now.

Third aspect, attackers not pressing. Wasn't an issue since Lukaku never bothered and neither Dzeko/Correa did much there but at least it wasn't on top of the defensive hole.
Which is also why Sanchez worked better with Lautaro, they were both pressing high.

We concede goals not because we're overrun but because we aren't formidable at the back as a whole and we're caught off guard. The only bad aspect is failing to defend set pieces but we always had that issue ever since Godin stopped being around.

And you forgot to mention that under Conte we were sitting outside our area. When we attempted to play higher we conceded over 2 goals per game.

 

[.h.]

Yes, and I addressed those points:

1 - Wing backs - one of our solid defense seasons recently also didnt include Perisic as a left back. Infact, I'd argue Candreva-Biraghi is the worst set of WB pairings we've had in recent years. Perisic has been vital, dont get me wrong, but clearly we coped without him a few years ago.

2 - My point, again, is that (aside from Mkhi/Brozovic injury replacement), this is the same midfield it was last year, and pretty similar to the ones the years before as well.

3 - Sure, this is hard to disagree with. It clearly has some impact, but I dont get why you're so keen to blame literally anyone but Inzaghi and our 3 CBs for their defensive contributions/failings.


Liverpool in the 80s (fine, its a long time ago) used to drill 4v7 in defense, Inter has always been built with a strong reliance on a couple of solid CBs and as soon as we moved away from that - e.g. Ranocchia - things really fell apart.

I dont get why anyone thinks the first port of call with our defensive issues doesnt start with the three centre backs (and the tactics implemented for them) who get criticised for giving away amateurish goals most games.

This is one of the worst Inter defenses I can think of in recent decades in terms of performances, our guys are clearly playing well below their levels.

 

[brehme1989]

Anyone who played or coached football at any level will tell you that defense is a team quality and it starts from the attackers.

At least anyone not stuck in the 80s.

 

[.h.]

brill, then we can sell our 120m of CBs next summer, get 3 shitters in, and just get a couple of attackers who press more. Problem fixed.

 

[Il Drago]

Regarding set pieces, that's something that is very easy to fix. You just need to work on it in training.

As for the defensive issues in open play, that will be a lot harder to fix.

Defensive set up has always been a flaw in Inzaghi's system. The problem has just been aggravated this season. While no one disagrees Mkhi is a defensive black hole we were still conceding a lot when Brozo was fit so his return won't be enough to fix the problem. For me the biggest issue this season is the lack of defensive contribution from wingbacks, which leaves our side cbs exposed, while last season season we had a defensive monster in Perisic and Dumfries in much better form.