Pasting directly into the forum is so useful.
Ok so Inter have probably their best first 11 and a full bench. They aren't missing anyone, really. We have Theo, Rebic, Maignan, Messias, FBT and Castillejo out. Makes it a fair game I think, would have been too easy otherwise.
We'll probably sub in Bennacer, Romagnoli, Bakayoko, Krunic and Giroud if we don't get any injuries. They have Correa, Sanchez who are great attacking options, Gagliardini, Vidal and Vecino who can give a different option in midfield and good replacements for every defensive position. We are very, very short on fullback options. It's pretty much Conti as the LB and RB first sub, but I think if we do end up with a need to replace a FB then I think Pioli would bring on Romagnoli and we'll shift to a 343.
My main worries are burnout for our wingers. Pioli usually does a great job of rotating the wingers, seeing as how they have to run their asses off all game. Leao and Saelemaekers rarely played a full 90, those two positions were usually the first to be subbed out around the 60th, as well as a CM. Both of those guys have been playing non stop for two weeks, every 3 days. I'm worrying about this more than having Kalulu in place of Theo.
Really curious to see how Hakan reacts to the crowd. It's going to be fun and he usually collapses mentally when there's a ton of pressure on him. He played relatively well last game I saw him play but this is different.
A 4231 against a 352 is a relatively simple game to try to understand who's tracking who. Both formations are pretty much a reflection of each other, so there's really no free man anywhere. That's great for us as Leao loves being isolated against a single defender (Skriniar) and if we manage to distract Darmian with Kalulu then that's what we need to do. Unfortunately it would have been a lot easier with Theo. If I was Inzaghi I would just double up on Leao by making Darmian very conservative in his movements and making sure Skriniar is never isolated, and to just leave Kalulu free. We offer no threat on the right, so if we can close off the path that Leao likes to take then Inzaghi can keep him quite and focus on Ibra. Theo was the worst choice to have a player suspended for this game. Would have rather Ibra, or any midfielder or even Kjaer or Tomori be suspended over Theo, especially as we don't have FBT ready. If FBT can play then it's a completely different situation, they need to worry about him a lot more than Kalulu (who's right footed and will be predictable).
Another point i'd like to make is that Inzaghi usually is his own worst enemy and ends up making some terrible substitutions or makes some weird decision in the second half that ends up fucking his team up. Hope that continues.
, ples
