Inter 5-3 Roma: Sneijder stars in a great game
The starting line-ups
Inter won a crazy game to move within five points of leaders Milan – and they still have a game in hand.
Leonardo played Giampaolo Pazzini and Samuel Eto’o but left out Diego Milito in order to bring back Wesley Sneijder.
Claudio Ranieri also went with a 4-3-1-2 shape – he was without Francesco Totti and David Pizarro
In stark contrast to many 4-3-1-2 v 4-3-1-2 battles so far this season, this game was very exciting. Both teams played attack-minded football and got both their full-backs and carrileros forward into attack, but also defended very poorly in the midfield zone.
Flimsy midfields
Part of the reason for the poor work without the ball was that neither side was using a true holding player to try and nullify the opposition’s trequartista. Daniele De Rossi and Thiago Motta are both deep central midfielders, but hardly Claude Makelele types – De Rossi is better when he can be more energetic, whilst Motta is a passer rather than a destroyer (with usual holder Esteban Cambiasso pushed out to the left, where he looks less comfortable).
Motta is very good with the ball but not particularly good at defending, which sums up Leonardo’s approach under Inter – all the focus on attacking. Few games will typify the ‘you score as many as you like, we’ll score one more’ attitude as well as this one. As a result of the flimsy midfields, Wesley Sneijder and Jeremy Menez got a lot of space to work in – Sneijder was much better and Inter were more creative.
Sneijder and Maicon on form
Sneijder got Inter off to a great start with a brilliant goal in the third minute – striking the ball perfectly on the bounce, and therefore generating the power his short backlift wouldn’t have provided. Having scored zero Serie A goals in a year, Sneijder netted for the second game running, and his confidence was given a boost, as he went onto have a superb game. For the goal, he had received a pass from Maicon on the right, and the right-back was the game’s other key player.
With Fabio Simplicio making diagonal runs across the pitch into attacking positions, and De Rossi wary of coming over to cover for him because he’d leave Sneijder free, Maicon and Houssine Kharja created 2 v 1 situations against John Arne Riise, and worked the ball around him easily. The situation became even worse for Riise just before half-time, when Samuel Eto’o moved to that flank and scored Inter’s second.
Full-backs
Between those Inter goals, however, Roma had scored an equaliser, through Simplicio. This also owed a lot to an attacking right-back – Marco Cassetti, who stormed forward unmarked to receive a pass in the final third, before crossing for Simplicio. The key to the goal, however, was Marco Borriello’s brilliant off-the-ball run – he started from the right channel, checked that Cassetti was overlapping, before cutting across the pitch and taking Javier Zanetti inside and opening up space. An important aspect in the exciting game was that movement upfront – unlike many 4-3-1-2 v 4-3-1-2 battles, the forwards here all showed good movement, dragging their centre-backs around and providing width.
The sides stayed the same for the second half, though Ranieri instructed Mirko Vucinic to move out the left more (as he did for the majority of last season) to pin back Maicon. This worked quite well – but Inter were still the better side with Sneijder pulling the strings. He dropped deep and sent a great ball over the top of the defence for Pazzini, who was brought down by Nicolas Burdisso. Burdisso was off, Eto’o scored the penalty, and at 3-1 and 11 v 10, the game appeared over.
11 v 10
Ranieri had to introduce another centre-back, so called on Simone Loria, removing Menez which meant Roma had little creativity after the red card. However, he also replaced the two carrileros – Rodrigo Taddei came on for Simone Perrotta and Leandro Greco replaced Simplicio, which meant Roma had energy in midfield despite having fewer players.
Motta headed in for number four, and Leonardo brought on Yuto Nagatomo for Sneijder, with Inter apparently safe. However, two goals from set-pieces got Roma back to 4-3 and a crazy few minutes ensued, but Inter managed to relieve the pressure by giving the ball to their full-backs (who had no direct opponent with Roma 4-3-2) and telling them to take it forward – Nagatomo bombed down the left, whilst Zanetti showed incredible energy having moved to the right. As Roma sent men forward, Cambiasso slid in the final goal of the game to make it 5-3.
Conclusion
A great tactical battle early on descended into a somewhat farcical (if wonderfully entertaining) game late on. Inter were the better side and maximised their advantage down the right in the first half, whilst Sneijder was back to his best in the centre.
Roma were slightly disappointing when they had the ball – Menez wasn’t on his game, and the 4-3-1-2 demands a big contribution from the trequartista.
Inter 5-3 Roma: Sneijder stars in a great game
Vucinic tended to move out to the right more in the second-half.
Love it when Cordoba gets a game, he’s one of my favorites even though he’s always had people competing with him for the starting spots…
Amazingly, despite it being on the tube I only looked up to see a goal go in and missed much of the build up play throughout. Bad mistake on my end choosing to do some work while such a quality game was unfolding. Cheers ZM for filling in the blanks. Cant wait for the derby della madonnina.
Motta isn’t a bad defensive player, he’s a great (if occasionally clumsy) tackler, and he does a good job winning the ball. What he lacks is Cambiasso’s anticipation and ability to organize the team, but he’s a capable defensive midfielder. That being said, I’d prefer him to switch with Cambiasso, whose passing isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, and he tightens up the midfield. Motta is a fantastic ‘first line of defence’ to challenge the ball just before Cambiasso claims it, but it is less stable the other way around.
In fact, the main culprit for Roma’s first goal was the lack of a midfield. It was Maicon-Ranocchia-Cordoba-Zanetti versus Vucinic-Cassetti-Simplicio, Cordoba had to step up and pressure Vucinic, Ranocchia covered for him (effectively eliminating him from the rest of the play), then it was Zanetti vs. Cassetti and Maicon vs. Simplicio. Inter’s midfield was nowhere to be found, while Roma had a midfielder and a right-back making late runs.
With Pazzini cup-tied and Milito now injured for the first Bayern match, I wonder whether the next best option becomes playing Coutinho in Eto’o’s current role and Eto’o as centre-forward.
Certainly sounds more appealing than Pandev.
I would love to see a report of Arsenal being demolished in the last minutes.
Not sure those last 40 mins had anything to do with tactics. If they were Pardew would definitely be managing a better team than Newcastle thats for sure.
LOL at 7:39 at the vid. The guy has completely mistaken the word “play”
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I watched it on ESPN3, the online network of ESPN, and was astonished at the quality of the commentating. They nailed most of ZM’s major points, giving special emphasis to Ranieri’s moving Vucinic wide to contain Maicon, the attacking threat and defensive liability of Riise, and the fluidity of the attacking trios. When Menez flopped to the ground looking for fouls, they called him out on it, but didn’t make too much of a stink about it. Good in-match commentary is almost unheard of, and I was pleased that the pundits matched the quality of the game in this case. I’ve only seen Inter play 3 times this season, yet i’ve seen great games each time. The second Bale game (3-1 Spurs), the game where Hernanes and Zarate had masterclasses (3-1 Lazio) and this game.
I do have one curiosity though. How has Sneijder taken so many shots yet scored so few goals this season (2 goals from 70 shots)?
His form at start of season was very poor. He also has a bad habit of losing patience and taking too many hopeful shots from distance when the game does not go his way.
I’m surprised too about him not scoring that many goals as his shots are almost always well struck and powerful. Its not like he is doing a Rooney who has completely forgotten how to score from distance.
At the start of the season, he was always very tightly marked. Benitez played him in a rather deep position, basically a central midfielder, other teams found him easy to pick up. Now, he’s back to being a trequartista, other teams suddenly struggle to mark him, he has more time and space to line up a shot.
Plus, a lot of his shots came from free kicks, and the quality of his free kicks this season has been low.
This was a very entertaining game. I think Eto’o switching to the right was a key moment that you’ve maybe understated here. Riise was clearly having a terrible game (or is he actually this bad now?), and Inter sensibly took advantage. I don’t think Eto’o would have been able to score his first goal coming in from Cassetti’s side – Riise just didn’t seem interested in closing down Eto’o in the box, which is just stupid.
As an Inter fan I’m loving our recent results, but I still think that Leo needs to become a better tactician if we are to replicate our achievements from the last few years. Our defending from set pieces continues to be abysmal. Really hope that ZM covers some more Inter games in the coming weeks! cheers
Here is the individual highlights of Wesley Sniejder’s performance if anyone is inter-ested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdu71-lUato&feature=player_embedded#
The second Roma goal – it almost seemed as if he meant to blast it straight at Vucinic as he reacted so quickly to just tap it in. Maybe a training ground set piece or just very good reactions from Vucinic?
Thanks for the analysis ZM, much appreciated as always! Cambiasso being played slightly on the left was a mistake in my opinion, but its one of those things which can go either way. In theory the Motta-Cuchu partnership should function well, but even when Mourinho was at Inter, i dont think he got the best of it. Passer-Destroyer, although both are a bit good doing both, I think they get into each others’ way from a tactical perspective. Cuchu is patient, a reader of moves and anticipator of opposition. Motta can keeps the team ticking, but he’s a bit rash and in my opinion not really sure whether he’s a European 6 or 8 or Latin 5 or 8, because he can almost do all 4 positions! anyway, its good to see Motta performing again, which i think he hasn’t done since the Milan derby last season in which he scored. oddly enough it was Sneijder’s first game and a good one too.
ZM, Italy-Germany or is it too low-key with so many B teamers? how about France-Brazil, new faces systems and enthusiasm
In a 4-2-3-1, Cambiasso and Motta can operate as the “2″ and form a midfield partnership as you suggest. This was Mourinho’s preferred starting formation in CL last season and it worked beautifully.
This season, however, I think Leo has largely settled for a 4-3-1-2 formation. Only one of Motta and Cambiasso can be the middle of the “3″. Leo chose Motta to play in front of CBs so Cambiasso was forced out to the left. It is a risky move for Inter because Motta is not a superb ball winner like Cambiasso, but it makes better use of Motta’s superior distribution.
yes, everything you said is correct, but its not my point. you’re talking about the positions he takes in midfield, whereas i’m interested in his role on the pitch. when Xavi was injured prior to Spains game vs Scotland, the playmaking duties fell on Iniesta. you see where i’m going? we all know what Inista can do, but with no Xavi, regardless of his position, Iniesta has a new role. same with France, a lot of debate on who should be the chief, Nasri or Gourcuff. vs England, it was Nasri, and we all saw what a difference it meant in the way France set-up attacks…sorry to drag you into this confusion, but a player’s role often goes unmentioned, and we all get carried away with the number game