No matter how Simone Inzaghi twists his Rubik’s cube in the Champions League, the surfaces always show blue and black. It is the trait of a coach in complete control of his squad.
Inzaghi made five changes to his starting line-up for Inter Milan’s win against Arsenal on Wednesday. They did not, on paper, strengthen the team. On the contrary, the side he put out on a foggy night at San Siro was the sort Inzaghi might be expected to field in the early rounds of the Coppa Italia in December. Except for midfielder Davide Frattesi, Inter’s national-team core was either out injured (as was the case with Erling Haaland muzzler Francesco Acerbi) or wrapped up on the bench (Alessandro Bastoni, Federico Dimarco and Nicolo Barella). Keeping the trio company was top scorer Marcus Thuram.
It was a big call from Inzaghi. When he played Marko Arnautovic instead of Thuram against Young Boys a fortnight ago, the Austrian missed a penalty. Thuram then came on and scored the only goal of the game in stoppage time. It brought back memories of last season’s quarter-final first leg against Atletico Madrid when Inter dominated and should have won by a far bigger scoreline than 1-0. Arnautovic scored that night but only after a couple of glaring misses. He had come on for Thuram, whose injury in the first half against Atletico felt, in retrospect, like a major turning point in the tie. Ever since, leaving him out has been viewed as a risk.
Mehdi Taremi, a free transfer from Porto in the summer, joined as an upgrade on Arnautovic but his Inter career has yet to take off despite a goal and two assists in last month’s 4-0 win against Red Star Belgrade.
Nevertheless, Inzaghi trusted his gut and his players against Arsenal. He shuffled two-thirds of his back three and did the same in midfield. Things changed but remained more or less the same. Inter won again in the Champions League and kept a fourth consecutive clean sheet against Arsenal.
Simone Inzaghi and his Arsenal opposite number Mikel Arteta (left) gesticulate at San Siero (Piero Cruciatti/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Aside from the opening salvos when Denzel Dumfries rattled the frame of David Raya’s goal and Hakan Calhanoglu hit a trademark long-distance shot just past the post, Inter were not their slick, interchanging best. Calhanoglu’s penalty in first-half stoppage time, the 19th in a row converted in his Inter career, was their only shot on target.
“The result is all that matters,” Inzaghi said afterwards, but other aspects of the performance were significant.
Defender Yann Bisseck has looked talented but raw since Inter signed him from Aarhus in Denmark a year ago. Inzaghi has placed more faith in the 23-year-old this season and has not always been rewarded. Lapses in concentration by the former Germany youth international have made wins against Udinese, for instance, too close for comfort. Wednesday felt like a breakthrough.
Bukayo Saka was stifled against the physicality of Bisseck, who Inzaghi cleverly on the left. Bisseck is right-footed and that facilitated him when Saka looked to come inside. The choice of the more conservative Matteo Darmian over the flying Dimarco at wing-back also ensured help was never far from Bisseck, who put in a man-of-the-match performance.
“Inter won all’Italiana,” Clarence Seedorf said as a pundit on Amazon Prime in Italy; the old school, ‘catenaccio’ way. It was a compliment.
Yann Bisseck shone against Arsenal (Michael Regan – UEFA via Getty Images)
“There came a point when they locked the door, threw away the key and said: ‘No one’s getting through here’,” Seedorf continued. While the style doesn’t reflect who Inter have been these past four years under Inzaghi, they got the job done. Napoli are up next in a top-of-the-table clash. Antonio Conte’s Serie A leaders aren’t in Europe and can spend the week resting, recuperating and game-planning. Inzaghi does not possess the same luxury and needed his alternates to pick up the slack against last year’s Premier League runners-up.
The fact he kept his powder relatively dry for the weekend and still beat Arsenal with a heavily shaken-up team is a testament to Inzaghi’s squad management. “When I say that we have 23 starters, it’s not bombast: I believe it,” he said. Getting them all to lock in, though, is easier said than done and Inzaghi achieved it.
He has done a remarkable job in making Inter credible again in Europe. They have been a force to be reckoned with every year under him.
Inzaghi got them out of the group stage for the first time in almost a decade in his first season. Then, in his second, he guided Inter to the Champions League final for the first time in 13 years. Last season, Inter could and should have made it all the way back. In terms of going deep in Europe for a sustained period, this era resembles the 1990s, when Inter reached four UEFA Cup finals. By contrast, the treble in 2010 came relatively out of the blue. Irrespective of Jose Mourinho’s presence and the feeling Inter had been building towards it, at least domestically by winning five league titles in a row, no one spoke about them as among the favourites. They were disappointing in Europe. Not anymore.
Hakan Calhanoglu celebrates his match-winning penalty (Piero Cruciatti/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Inzaghi believes the shift in mentality happened when Inter beat Liverpool at Anfield in the spring of 2022. A year later, they returned from losing the Champions League final to Manchester City in Istanbul convinced they were every bit as good as them and could have beaten a team that had just made history. This season, Inter held the same opponent 0-0 at the Etihad and beat Arsenal with a starting XI featuring four free agents, the €6.9million (£5.7m; $7.4m) Yann Sommer in goal, and €7.2m Bisseck doubling up on Saka with the €3.3m Darmian.
No one should doubt Inzaghi’s ability to do it in the Premier League.
But, as was the case at Massimiliano Allegri’s peak, his language skills and brand could still use further amplification. Inzaghi spent time in London while his son Tommaso, now an agent, attended the University of Westminster, but his English remains rudimentary and you wonder if he will follow Allegri and Luciano Spalletti in missing the Premier League train caught by Conte, Carlo Ancelotti, Claudio Ranieri and Roberto De Zerbi.
“All coaches would like to (test themselves in England),” Inzaghi said this week. “The football there is fascinating. I’m not going to deny it was a possibility recently, both when I was at Lazio and at Inter, but I was happy at Lazio and I’m happy here. It intrigues me. I like it. But I’m at Inter, one of the best clubs in Europe.”
(Top photo: Gabriel Bouys/AFP via Getty Images)
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