Milan in retreat, Inter not: the derby and the opposite approach of Allegri and Chivu

The two worlds are close – Milanello and Appiano are separated by just about twenty kilometers – but they belong to different galaxies. Yes, of course, Milan and Inter are designing the new stadium together, but otherwise they are traveling on different paths. In the market choices, in the Italian share in the squad (and above all on the pitch), in the overall management of the respective properties. Even the game system has a profoundly different development despite being theoretically 3-5-2 for both. So it is not surprising that substantial differences also emerge in the approach to the derby. Yes, because the week of Milan and Inter, or rather the work program drawn up by Allegri and Chivu, was decidedly different. And the fact that Inter were involved in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final last Tuesday is only a partial explanation.

Christian innovator

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Let’s start with the Nerazzurri because they are the extraordinary ones. Attention: extraordinary in a strictly literal sense, that is, out of the ordinary. How come? Simple: Chivu released the team on Thursday, three days before the derbies. Of course, with the Italian Cup on Tuesday evening there wasn’t much of a choice, but breaking ranks seventy-two hours before such a delicate challenge has a certain effect. Not so much because the players go wild in who knows what bacchanalia (Leao’s “everyone at home this week” is a message that we imagine they will also put into practice at Appiano, not just at Milanello), but for the tactical preparation for the match. In other words, the “real” training sessions for the Nerazzurri in preparation for the derby will be only two: on Friday and on Saturday. An oddity? Up to a certain point, observing Chivu’s management throughout the season. What particularly stood out was the day off granted by the coach on the eve of the home match against Lecce in mid-January. Players rested the day before a championship match: from memory, a choice of which no precedent can be remembered. Chivu had decided to give his team a few hours of freedom because he had seen them a little tired mentally, also because Lecce fell on a Wednesday and on Sunday evening the Nerazzurri had faced Napoli. And it was against the Campania team that the coach had made another particular decision: before the first leg match against Maradona, scheduled for Saturday, the day off had been Thursday. Here too an uncommon choice, on the eve of such a delicate crossing, with the aim of strengthening the physical resources of his boys.

the football of the past

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Then there is the aspect relating to withdrawals. Which, quite simply, do not exist at the Nerazzurri. In the current season it happened only once, at the beginning of December, before the home match against Como. On other occasions (obviously excluding away games, which start the day before) the players were always able to sleep at home and then show up in Appiano on the morning of the match. The team is obviously very happy with this management, and Chivu too: he is firmly convinced that pre-match retreats belong to the football of the past, that they are basically wasted time, taken away from the affections and interests of the players. This time too, therefore, the team will be released after training on Saturday and will return to Appiano on Sunday morning for the very last field tests and the preparation for the derby.

tradition max

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Milan in this context is absolutely more regular. Let’s say that Allegri is a traditionalist. Even when the team plays at home, the players sleep in Milanello the night before. It will happen this time too, as usual. On the eve of Saturday, the team will train in the afternoon and then remain in Carnago, ready for the very last training session on Sunday morning. Throughout the week, as always happens when the weeks are free from commitments, Allegri also had a double session (Wednesday), divided between the gym in the morning and the field in the afternoon. More generally, Allegri considers Milanello one of the greatest glues for a group returning from a last season where – among other problems – the sense of belonging was lost. Max therefore (re)put Milanello at the center of the Rossoneri world. A second home to be fully experienced, with clear and rather strict rules, all based on team spirit and collegial sharing of spaces. Allegri’s only seasonal “oddity” occurred in the long lead-up to the match against Bologna on 3 February, when Max’s two days off were not consecutive, but separate: one on Monday and the other on Friday.