Inter 1-1 Milan: Milan should have been out of sight by half-time
The starting line-ups
Inter upped their performance after a terrible first-half display.
Andrea Stramaccioni gave a rare start to Ricky Alvarez on the left, after his impressive performance against Cluj in midweek. Diego Milito is out for the season, so Antonio Cassano and Rodrigo Palacio started upfront together.
Max Allegri made changes from the victory over Barcelona – Mario Balotelli, cup-tied in Europe, returned in place of Giampaolo Pazzini, while Riccardo Montolivo played in Massimo Ambrosini’s deep-lying role to allow Antonio Nocerino to play.
Stramaccioni managed to alter things to get his side back into the game, but only Milan profligacy and another fine Samir Handanovic performance prevented the ‘away’ side from victory.
Pattern
Milan derbies can settle down into a slow, scrappy battle, but this was a fast-paced game between two sides both trying to play good football.
Inter actually started well, with good possession close to the Milan penalty box, but slowly Milan asserted their dominance on the game. In particular, Milan’s pressing at opposition goal-kicks meant they won possession quickly high up the pitch, and Inter lacked a midfielder with time and space to start attacks.
Inter open between the lines
Inter’s lack of shape in the first half was horrendous, and yet not shocking to anyone who witnessed their 4-1 defeat at Fiorentina last week. There, Stevan Jovetic and Adem Ljajic kept finding space between the lines, while Borja Valero and Alberto Aquilani shuttled forward to record three assists between them.
That gap between the defence and the midfield was again obvious. Here, Inter were being pulled in two different ways. Esteban Cambiasso and Walter Gargano were being dragged up the pitch into battle with Nocerino and Sulley Muntari, but the centre-back duo of Andrea Ranocchia and Juan Jesus were terrified of Mario Balotelli’s pace, so tried to sit deeper. The result was a huge area of space for someone to exploit, and the first time Kevin-Prince Boateng ducked inside into that zone, he provided the pass for Stephan El Shaarawy’s fine opener.
Milan allowed to start moves from the back
Milan were playing well at both ends – pressing from the front, passing from the back. Inter’s lack of discipline high up the pitch was surprising – Palacio and Cassano had been told to take turns in marking Riccardo Montolivo, and when they stuck tight to him, they forced a couple of rare errors in possession. However, the longer the game went on, the more Montolivo was given space to hit passes towards the flanks.
A secondary problem was that Inter made no attempt to stop Cristian Zapata and Philippe Mexes moving forward with the ball. Zapata did this more regularly but Mexes did so more notably, charging into the final third with possession at one point.
De Sciglio overlaps
But Inter’s major problem was with De Sciglio, who turned in an excellent performance from left-back. He continually charged past Fredy Guarin, who tried to track his runs but never quite managed to stop him – finding it difficult to watch man and ball at the same time. De Sciglio was constantly played in by Muntari, who played penetrative passes in behind the defence, and he provided some excellent crosses – most notably for Balotelli, who should have found himself on the scoresheet.
De Sciglio’s freedom down that flank was assisted by the movement of El Shaaraway, trying to run between Nagatomo and Ranocchia in behind the defence. Yuto Nagatomo was dragged extremely narrow, leaving space near the touchline, and should probably have passed El Shaarawy onto Ranocchia more readily, in order to keep a wider position.
Second half Inter switches
Despite being battered in the first half, Inter managed to get back into the game, and dominated the second period. There were three things Inter changed for the second half.
First, Stramaccioni switched his two full-backs, as Nagatomo went to the left, Javier Zanetti crossed to the right. In fairness, that’s probably their more natural positions anyway, so while Stramaccioni’s decision to swap them worked, it was his initial decision that had backfired in the first place.
Surprisingly, this seemed to work very well. Zanetti dealt with El Shaarawy more effectively, and was cleverer in his positional play – not being dragged too narrow, and coping with De Sciglio on his (admittedly rarer) charges down the touchline.
Second, there was more of an attempt to close down Montolivo, who made some good interceptions in the centre of the pitch but was surprisingly sloppy when he was closed down. Milan stopped building passing moves from deep, and the centre-backs had less freedom to get forward.
Third, Stramaccioni introduced Ezequiel Schelotto on the right, and he scored the equaliser. Cambiasso had been withdrawn, with Guarin moving into a central position. The goal wouldn’t have arrived without the changes – the assist was provided by Nagatomo, bursting forward from left-back to cross with his right foot – as he did so effectively at the Asian Cup a couple of years ago, convincing Inter to sign him from Cesena. Schelotti’s winner was a powerful header, and Milan have looked nervous against aerial attacks in recent weeks (Barcelona, of course, don’t provide that type of threat).
Milan sloppiness
But while Inter deserve praise for coming back into the game, Milan were disappointingly tame after the break – almost as if they’d become too complacent and expected to dominate the second half without really trying. There were fewer forward runs from full-back, Boateng was less involved and Balotelli failed to consistently test the Inter centre-backs, despite both being on a booking.
Milan also lacked a proper holding midfielder – Ambrosini, or the injured Nigel de Jong – to keep a solid position ahead of the back four. One deliberate foul from Montolivo, when he’d been caught too high up the pitch, summed up the problem.
Conclusion
Inter were battered for the first half of this match – Milan found space between the lines, played out from the back comfortably, and constantly got De Sciglio free on the overlap to cross.
But they fought back bravely, with the full-back switch helping, and the side becoming more disciplined overall – but Milan shouldn’t have given them the opportunity to take something from this game.
It was predicted a draw, check in VeqSport http://www.veqsport.com/Artikulli.aspx?id=3645
De Sciglio is my new favourite full back.
His crossing was ridiculous.
After their 1st half dominance, Milan got sloppier as the second half wore on. Having played a mid-week match against Barca, it was plain to me that the Milan side simply got worn out from playing two huge matches in a couple of days. Why Allegri waited until the 81st minute to make substitutions is beyond me. And before anyone mentions Inter playing mid-week as well, let’s compare opponents…. Barca vs Cluj.
Milan may not have a lot of cover in midfield, but certainly Ambrosini could’ve played more than just extra time for Muntari who had looked exhausted since the 70th minute. Boateng looked dead around the same time, but wasn’t subbed until the 81st. I didn’t have a problem with El Shaarawy being subbed so late as he still looked more energetic than Muntari and Boateng, but when your side (after having dominated the first 45 minutes) starts looking slow and lethargic, you don’t wait until the game is pretty much decided to make changes.
Allegri has turned Milan around this season, but I still feel as though he’s best suited at taking low to mid-table teams and making them competitive, which is why Milan’s performance worked against Barca. They were underdogs and knew they had to play like it. It wasn’t a typical European Milan performance in that they didn’t play like an elite european club.
I agree with everything you stated about the game, even that Allegri probably waited too long to make those subs. However, I don’t understand much of the complaining about Allegri. Milan should be having a down year after the player departures that happened pre-season. Instead, he has them picking up more points than any other Italian team in the league after an, understably, poor start. They aren’t playing like an elite european club because for the most part, they’re talent is not at an elite level. The main attacking options are 18, 20, and 22. The defense consists of not 1 player who would be considered world class. Yet here they sit, deep into the CL with a great opportunity to move to the next round, and are battling for a top 3 spot in the league. He wasn’t just competitive when the talent was there, he WON the league. I think his biggest ‘problem’ is that he is not the ‘personality’ that wins over journalists and fans. His track record, though short, can’t be argued.
Completely agree with the analysis, Milan should have won the game in the 1st half, Inter just didnt deal with De Sciglio on the overlap, it was ridiculous the damage he was causing down the left. Stramaccioni took too much time reacting, it was clear that SES was dragging Nagatomo inside to create space, it was also clear Montolivo was hitting balls to that side of the pitch, Inter were lucky they werent hammered, Milan should have been 2 or 3 goals up by half-time. Their aggression level dropped too much in the 2nd half and they gifted Inter a way into the game (maybe they were tired after their excellent performance vs Barcelona), but Milan is still in much better form and I’d back them to get 3rd place come the end of the season.
Milan did have a 5-10 min period in the second half where they should have scored a goal. They still were winning the numbers game in the middle of the pitch it just wasn’t as evident because of Inter’s greater motivation. I still thought inter were tactically inept in the second half.
Milan should have won, but Inter did well to control the game in the second half.
I don’t see any reason to start Naga and Zanetti where they started. Typically, Zanetti is moved from the right side if the other team has a particularly dangerous player elsewhere on the field (if the other team has a Messi on the right side, Zanetti switches to the left to neutralize him). Alternatively, if Nagatomo’s constant overlapping would really cause some damage on the right, he plays there. In this case, they were both more useful on their more usual sides; El Shaarawy is Milan’s go-to player and is very much a target player for Zanetti. On the other side, Alvarez’s drifts across the field would have been far better exploited by Nagatomo overlapping. It just doesn’t make sense on any level.
After Schelotto came on, I saw Inter playing a back 3 for a short while, with Zanetti as a CB/RB hybrid depending on El Shaarawy’s position. It worked, Inter held the ball well, better than they have for a while (these days, Inter loses the possession battle against everyone).
As an Interista, I still struggle to see what Inter’s best ‘all purpose’ lineup is. The upside is that Stramaccioni can (on a good day, ie not lately) bust out any formation and the team would look comfortable with it.
This formation, at certain points, looked better than anything Inter have played in the last few months. Alvarez drifting across the field to combine with Guarin/Cassano/Gargano almost opened Milan up on a number of occasions, but typically Gargano would lose the ball before anything dangerous would come of it. Still, there was more fluidity about the team, and more willingness to attack. Inter’s undoing lately has been an over dependence on tw or three players in attack, sending them out against a packed defence and hoping to score from there. The winning streak usually used four players in attack (with the occasional surprise fifth), with a strong enough defensive base that the four attackers tended to be enough. Now, the defensive organization is gone, and the attacking squad is one player weaker.
This lineup, a 4-4-1-1 with Alvarez on the left, seems like the next step for Inter. Although I’d be happier with a 4-5-1 (Kovacic and Guarin as the advanced CMs), keeps a solid defensive shape and spans the width of the field in attack.
Inter can’t deal with fast tempo and are lazy at pressing players in possession. Just watch the torino game as an example, absolute joke!
Did Strama ever watch Zanetti vs Kaka few years ago? He’s more than capable to nullify trickery speedy wide striker. Cambiasso did little contribution lately, it’s time to demote him to bench and let someone fresher dan more motivated like Kovacic and Benassi, it will help Gargano who is better for ball battling but has mediocre passing skill. Guarin should watch City vs Chelsea game to see how Advanced CM played (Yaya Toure role)
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