After the final lost to Manchester City, Simone evolved and grew like no other manager
– Milan
When he arrived at Inter Simone Inzaghi was not a great coach. It was an interesting project from a great coach. He could have gotten lost, he was close to being fired. In Lazio he had signed a good cycle, but on an inevitably smaller scale compared to that of a top club. He prepared the match like few others, studied his rivals under the microscope and often identified the winning moves. Then on the pitch it was also a question of players, and Lazio certainly didn’t have those of Juve or Inter, but there was an identity. For better or for worse.
long range vision
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At Inter, Inzaghi had brought the vices and virtues of that experience, perhaps convinced that the model was simply replicable in proportion. But is not so. Marcello Lippi immediately made the big mental and personality leap once he joined Juve. The same goes for Antonio Conte in black and white, for Massimiliano Allegri, Fabio Capello and Arrigo Sacchi at Milan. Inzaghi fielded a fairly colorless, solid 3-5-2, without strokes of genius, which moved in the footsteps of his predecessor Conte. But he lacked the long-range vision in managing the tournament, in the often “man-made” changes, in the suffered turnover, in communication. The same emphasis on successes in the Italian Cup and Super Cup, which for Inter are worth a tenth of the Scudetto, betrayed a Europa League depth.
No Bluffs
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The Inzaghi “project” needed the Champions League, where bluffs are not allowed. You can reach the final by chance, but once up there there are two paths: a quick return to the ranks or the definitive transformation into another coach. More mature, aware, successful. A leap in quality that doesn’t happen overnight. The Inzaghi who had squandered the first Nerazzurri scudetto to be won, with rash decisions in the derby (and not only), was very different from the Inzaghi who managed the last season in crescendo, despite the excessive power of Luciano Spalletti’s Napoli. Another. If in the first year there was an attempt to stand out with a timid low approach, with the arrival of Mkhitaryan, Brozovic’s injury and the relaunch of all-round playmaker Calhanoglu, one of the strongest, most complete and thinking midfields of the world (it is no coincidence that the others belong to City and Real Madrid).
the moment
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Situations and randomness assembled by a technician who now knows how to seize the moment and manipulate it like clay in the hands of a sculptor. It should not be forgotten that Barella is no longer the somewhat bohemian raider of the early days, but a mature and total midfielder, definitively a leader. Not to mention Lautaro’s growth and tactical harmony with Thuram. And Darmian, Dimarco, Bastoni. Today the players grow with Inzaghi as happened with the great coaches of the past. The new 3-5-2 is a formula that hides a modern, offensive and changing maneuver: it knows how to dominate the territory or start again. Inter lose less than City, Bayern and Atletico. It’s not the same Inzaghi of three years ago who should be aiming for the Scudetto and playing his cards in the Champions League. Inter don’t have the strength of City and Real, they don’t have the recent tradition of Bayern, they aren’t as glamorous as PSG, but there is no coach who has grown like him in the last year.
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