Why Conte’s Inter Couldn’t Be Conte’s Chelsea
We know Conte’s first seasons are famous and lastly he showed to us in 2016/17 season. He won Premier League Title in his first season in the Premier League. Initially his team is not good. His team drew against Swansea City in away, lost against Liverpool in home and when they lost 3-0 against Arsenal in away, Conte thought to change somethings. And he changed 4-2-3-1 formation with 3-4-3 formation. He backed up Oscar and Ivanovic, also gave a chance Moses and Marcos Alonso in first 11.
Then they won 27 of the remaining 32 league matches. Also he managed to defeat Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City both in the home and the outside in the league.
Now, he is Inter’s manager and all fans want to win league. Inter has not even won a trophy since the 2010/11 season. Now fans have hope because they have the king of the first seasons.
Inter won first six league matches and everybody started to think: Can they win league title in this season? Inter lost Perisic and Icardi but won Conte. In this season Inter really want to win league title. They are in the champion race and they have a chance.
But some factors affect Inter and Conte’s team couldn’t run to league title. In this article, I tried to explain why Inter couldn’t dominate the league.
1) Unlucky Injuries
Inter won his first six league match and then they have a big match against Juventus. Inter lost match in their stadium and more important, they lost Sensi. Sensi was injured in 34 minutes and slowly Inter’s sharpness ,was going down. Inter couldn’t use him next 4 matches. And when he improve recovery, again he was injured and he can’t play next 6 matches.
Of course this ‘going down’ didn’t happen suddenly but as a result, they lost their sharpness. Because Sensi’s role is very important for Inter. When they attack, a centre midfielder comes to support the strikers as they attack. And Sensi was in this role and he could fulfill it.
Sensi has the 5th highest place in Inter in xG stat this season with 1.7 and also he has the 5th highest place in Inter in goal with 0.37 and assist per 90 minutes stat with 0.25.
When he was injured, Conte looked his other options for play in this role and he chose Vecino. Vecino is a great player, he knows how he can run in the penalty area and his physique is better than Sensi but his tecnique is not as good as Sensi. And his tempo is not good enough for coming back to defense after support to attack.
If we need to talk about Barella, his role is adding aggression and tempo to the team. Also supporting strikers like Sensi (or Vecino). And when he supports to attack he can come back to defense because he has high tempo.
When Barella was injured like Sensi, they couldn’t use him 6 matches and they lost their tempo and aggressiveness. Barella has 28 tackled in this season Seria A and he won 19 tackles. In club, his place is 5th about these stats- behind 3 centre backs and Brozovic. Also, his place is 3th in pressures stat with 310.
Conte played Gagliardini or Valero instead of Barella. If Valero played, they would have a high tecnique and extra gamemaker. And Valero is better then Barella about scoring goals. But also they lost their aggressiveness and high tempo and when opponent team started a counter attack, he can’t come back to defense like Barella. Whoever plays in this role, Conte wants high tempo and aggressiveness. And he also supports attack. Valero did third matter but he couldn’t do first and second matters.
If Gagliardini played, they would have a great physique player but they lost their aggressiveness and high tempo. Also Gagliardini is such a slow player and Conte doesn’t like him.
If we talk about Asamoah, he was injured too early in this season and Conte couldn’t use him. If he had not have an injury, perhaps there would be no left wing back problem at all.
Asamoah played 8 league match in this season and he produced 1.4 kes pass per match. He is 5th about this stat in Inter. Also about tackles per match stat, he has 7th place in his club with 1.3 and only one wing back’s (D’Ambrosio) stat is better. In interceptions stat, he has 5th place in his club with 1.1 and no wing back is better about this stat.
When Asamoah was injured, Conte played Biraghi for left wing back position and actually Biraghi’s defensive stats and key pass per match stat is not worse than Asamoah. His key pass per match stat is only 0.1 worse. Also his tackles per match stat is 0.2 worse and interceptions per match stat is 0.4 worse.
So, seemingly no difference but in the pitch, Biraghi’s performance is not good. If we look dribbling per match stat, Asamoah has 1.5 dribbling per match stat and he is best in Inter. So, Asamoah could take the ball and move with the ball. He could do different things in left wing but Biraghi couldn’t do it.
2) Conte hasn’t Kante and great wing backs
When Conte was Chelsea’s manager, in 2016/17 season, he used 3-4-3 formation, not 3-5-2 because he had Kante. 3-5-2 formation’s weakness is sides. Opponent team can have an advantage in sides because your team has only 1 player in the sides. So your wing backs should be great players and have high tempo because they should support defense and forward.
3-4-3 formation’s weakness is centre. Opponent team can have an advantage centre midfield because your team has 2 players in the centre midfield. So your midfielders should be able to play both sides of the game and their tempo should be high.
Naturally, Conte preferred the 3-5-2 lineup in Inter. Maybe Barella could be effective like Kante but he was young. Also he bought Lukaku and he has 2 first class strikers. But he has another problem and the problem is wing backs.
I said if you prefer 3-5-2 formation, your wing backs should be great players and support defense and forward. When Conte was in Chelsea, Moses gave him extra strength and Marcos Alonso gave him extra direct score contribution.
In Inter, he usually used Candreva and Biraghi for wing back positions but Conte didn’t like both of them. Candreva isn’t great about defending and Biraghi isn’t great about attacking.
In Chelsea, Moses isn’t a natural wing back. Normally his position is right winger, like Candreva but Conte used him for a wing back. And Moses’ defensive performance was enough. He won 42 tackles in Premier League and in Chelsea, his place was 3rd.
If we compare Marcos Alonso with Biraghi, his total shots stat was 46 (3rd in Chelsea) and scored 6 goals (5th in Chelsea). In this season, Biraghi’s total shot is only 4. In squad, his place is 17. And he hasn’t scored a goal yet.
So, last transfer window he added to team Ashley Young and Victor Moses. Maybe, when coronavirus is gone, we see his wing backs can be effective.
3) Conte is not happy with his squad
When he was in Chelsea, he had 3 great goal scorers: Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Pedro. They were meeting the team’s need for goals. In Inter, he has two first class strikers-Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez. But it’s not enough for him. He needs one more player.
Probably, firstly he elected Sensi for this ‘3rd scorer’ but when Sensi was injured, his plan went pear-shaped. And he couldn’t find any players for this role. He bought Eriksen last transfer window and maybe finally, he can find his ‘3rd man’.
I told about wing backs. He has too many players for these positions: Candreva, Biraghi, Asamoah, Lazaro, D’Ambrosio and Dimarco. Firstly, he played Candreva in right wing back position but then he didn’t like his defensive abilities and then played D’Ambrosio but he saw, D’Ambrosio’s abilities were not good for wing back position and again played Candreva.
In left wing position, he played Asamoah but he injured 3 times in this season and he couldn’t heal to play. So, Conte tried Biraghi for left wing position but he didn’t like him.
When he was in Chelsea, he had more great players in his squad. He usually used Fabregas (16 times), Willian (19 times) and Batshuayi (19 times) for substitution. All season, Willian scored 8 goals and he is 4th about this stat in Chelsea, Fabregas was best about assists with 12 assist in his club and scored 5 goals, also Batshuayi scored 5 goals too.
And now, in Inter, he hasn’t great squad like Chelsea team. His first 11 is good but he hasn’t players who can take the match for him. If we have a look at Conte’s substitutions in this season, he used Politano (9 times), Alexis Sanchez (7 times) and Valero (5 times). Politano hasn’t any goals or assists and so Conte made him go on loan to Napoli last transfer window. Alexis Sanchez scored only 1 goal and he had only 1 assist. Valero scored only 1 goal too. You can see the big difference.
4) Strong Opponent’s
Let’s have a look at Conte’s opponents in 2016/17 Premier League season. Pep Guardiola came to Manchester City and it was his first year in the Premier League so, he was adapting Premier League and designing his game plan. Manchester United wanted a great manager who could make them win Premier League Title again and they got in Jose Mourinho but firstly, he had too many things to do in his team. Liverpool was going up but they didn’t have great defense so, they were too unbalancing. And still they were in adapting process. Arsenal was going down every year and they couldn’t find a solution. Only Pochettino’s Tottenham could be a strong opponent and every year they were going up and developing their play but players’ abilities were not high level and they could be great opponents but they couldn’t stand until the end of the race. I mean Conte was lucky in his first Chelsea season so, he could win Premier League Title a little bit more easily.
In this season, his job is more difficult because he has 2 strong opponents: Juventus and Lazio. We know Juventus is one of the best teams for years. They have been winning the league since the 2011/12 season. Before this season they changed manager and Sarri came to Juventus. Sarri is still trying to improve his game plan and it’s an advantage for other teams but they have a very powerful squad and they have great status in Seria A.
The most surprising factor is Lazio. They haven’t enough great footballers and if we compare teams about total market value, Lazio’s place is 6th in Seria A. Their total market value is only €268.85m. If we look at Inter’s and Juventus’ total market value, Inter’s is €498.02m and Juventus’ €553.23m. But they have a great manager Simone Inzaghi and they have a great game plan.
Last seasons they were proving their play but they were not a 1st class team. But in this season they are in the champion race. Nobody hopes that but this year they can win the title. So, it’s bad timing for Conte’s Inter.