I'd like to see something like this
Defending
They key to controlling Inter's buildup progression is stopping 2 players.....Brozovic and De Vrij
Brozovic must have someone hounding him for the entire game, and that will probably take two players over 90 minutes considering how much ground he covers per game (2nd season in a row with the highest distance covered per game)
When you occupy Brozovic, De Vrij is very good on the ball and can step out of defence.....this is where Zlatan will have to do a serious job that I'm not sure is quite in his capability.
Force them to build play through the wider CB's and our wingers need to use their cover shadow to block passes to their wingbacks, and press them into playing it long. It'll be exceedingly difficult for them to play it to anywhere other than the head of their strikers from that position as the amount of bodies between them and the strikers will be too many for a lower pass.
I'm confident in Romagnoli to win most of the aerial challenges against Lukaku. Lukaku's strengths are finishing and running into the channels between CB and LB. He doesn't use his huge body well and he's quite big for nothing (although this season he has improved this part of his game alot). Musacchio should be thankful that he's playing against Sanchez as he will finally play against someone he can win aerial challenges against.
It is usually from the wingbacks that they play directly into the strikers and look to combine there. This is where the danger is....as we will be 2 vs 2 with their strikers and the opposite side of the field will be very open for a switch of play of which our ball far winger will need to be very aware as soon as Inter's ball near wingback gets the ball to get goalside of their ball far wingback. Samu can do this job, Rebic I'm not so sure.
Overall.....mid block, avoid a high line to negate Lukaku's pace, press their deep buildup and stop balls to the wingbacks as much as possible. We will have one or two question marks defensively re Ibra, and Rebic but we should have enough to control them decently.
Attacking
This is far easier to analyze
Attack them in the wide channels between wingback and CB as neither Skriniar nor Godin are comfortable defending these spaces. Godin lacks the mobility to face the pacy wingers that play in that zone and Skriniar has a tendency to dive into challenges so his lack of pace isn't exposed.
Zlatan should get change out of De Vrij aerially, so if they disrupt our deep buildup as I expect they will, then we will have to win the second ball after a Zlatan aerial duel.
Overall it should be an interesting game and both sides have flaws in both phases of the game that are pretty clear. Looking forward to it.
nice! I dig it
