Date: 01/04/2016

Venue : Stadio Olimpico

Competition : Serie A 2015/2016, Matchday 36

The starting line ups:

Roberto Mancini chose Samir Handanovic, as aways, as his starting GK behind a defensive line that included Danilo D’Ambrosio, Yuto Nagatomo, Miranda and Murillo. In front of them sat Gary Medel and Kondogbia as the double pivot, with Ivan Perisic and Brozovic, who had a more free role, also moving centrally to help his team move the ball upwards, on the wings. Up front Jovetic and Icardi had another match together, but without managing to combine successfully throughout the ninety minutes.

Simone Inzaghi on the other side started with Marchetti under the posts who was protected by Konko, Gentiletti, Bisevac and Basta in defense. Biglia played as the DM, protecting the CBs and covering the spaces that were created between the defenders due to their man-marking and consequent dragging out of position. Some metres in front of him Onazi and Lulic played as the CMs, having Candreva and Keita on the wings next to them and Klose up front as the lone striker.

It was one of the worse, if not the worst, performances for Mancini’s squad this year, especially after considering that the opponent was not, for example, the in-form Juventus, but a very problematic Lazio, that throughout the whole match was showing their weak points which of course Inter never managed to take advantage of.



Lazio’s defense and Inter’s attacking problems

The above picture shows how Lazio tried to defend against Inter, during the nerazzuri’s build-up. The wingers moved in relation to Nagatomo and D’Ambrosio but instead of following their runs towards higher up the pitch they were trying to cut the passing lanes towards them (this happened during build up, when the ball was on their defensive third they did followed them). The problems, however, were present due to the CMs’ positions high up the pitch and towards Inter’s double pivot, that combined with their lack of covering of passing lanes led to a lot of opportunities for vertical passes directed behind them and in an area that Biglia was not able to cover in it’s entirety.

A good example of how Inter had the opportunity to take advantage of that problem is presented below.

Jovetic has just dropped deeper and to the left, dragging with him Biglia and creating a clear passing lane that enables Kondogbia and Icardi to connect in front of Lazio’s CBs.

However that was not always the case as pretty much every time the ball was on Medel’s, Nagatomo’s or even Murillo’s feet, the ball was not moving forward, forcing Inter to play a sterile and full of lateral, not dangerous passes.

Let’s take a look at some of those examples:

Lazio’s CMs are caught very high up the pitch, far from their DM, Biglia. Icardi has the opportunity to receive the ball and probably combine after a movement towards him by either Kondogbia or Perisic, however Nagatomo never passes to him deciding to send the ball back to Murillo.

Jovetic drags Lucas Biglia with him towards the left flank, a big space is created in which either Medel or Brozovic can receive the ball, Nagatomo though again never passes to them.

Again, a clear passing lane towards Icardi is created, but Murillo decides to pass the ball to the much less dangerous wing.

Lack of movement was also evident for Inter’s offense.

Theoretically, a good chance can be created out of the above situation. Perisic can move more centrally and towards the ball, while Icardi makes a run towards Marchetti in order to drag with him the two defenders, creating space for the Croatian to run into or even a passing option.

What happened in the end was none of these. Perisic never made a run towards that space, thus Icardi moved there inviting pressure from the defenders behind him that did not give a lot of time and space to their opponents to combine and allowed their teammates to move into a more solid defensive structure.

But even when those vertical passes were actually present, supporting movements in order to combine with the ball receiver were not.



Inter’s defensive problems

The problems, however for Inter, did not only occur in the offensive part of the game but during the defensive one also.

Lack of concentration, miscommunication as well as other psychological aspects played their part in these problems, together with , probably, fatigue (that is not only caused by continuous matches but also from nit carefully planned training regimes) for players such as Medel, who seems like he lacked his usual unlimited energy, or Kondogbia during the latter pats of the game. These problems, led to lack of protection by the second defensive line (the midfield line) and huge spaces between them, as well as uncoordinated movements when someone pressed the ball carrier.

The first evidence of these problems, led to a goal.

After a cross from a foul, Lazio managed to find space between Inter’s midfield and defensive line. Miranda reacts naturally, leaving his defensive line in order to confront and mark Lulic, but D’Ambrosio doesn’t move quickly to cover the space created behind him. Furthermore, neither Brozovic follows Lulic’s run nor Medel follows Klose.

Seconds before this screenshot was taken, Inter was sitting in an organized 4-4-1-1/4-4-2 shape. When the ball moves to Biglia, however, both Medel and Kondogbia move towards him, where Jovetic is already there to mark him, creating a huge space behind them and in front of their CBs.

Below, you can see another occasion of very bad covering from Inter. First Kondogbia applies pressure to Biglia who passes the ball to the wing, where Biabiany moves, nobody however has moved to cover the spaces behind the two Frenchmen, leaving a huge space for Lulic to receive the ball after a Konko pass.

Conclusion

Whatever Mancini’s tactical plan was for this game, and no matter how clever or theoretically sound and correctly though out was, it was executed in a terrible manner, that let Lazio leave the pitch as deserved winners.

For more Inter and non Inter related Tactical Analysis, you can follow me on Twitter, @ThanosChelas.