Serie A Special: What to expect from Leonardo’s Inter Milan?
So finally, Leonardo made the courageous decision of switching to Inter Milan after 15 beautiful years with city-rivals AC Milan. Whether or not Leonardo http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Araujo-c6435 ‘betrayed’ AC Milan is a different matter altogether but in a professional capacity, his decision
to take the hot seat of a club that has just won five trophies in a calendar year can only be applauded. It’s a challenge that will show the Brazilian’s true calibre. A single season in management – 2009-10 season was Leonardo’s first as a manager – can’t
be counted for much.
Moving on, Leonardo brought around the attacking best out of AC Milan last year by deploying a 4-3-3 formation. The football might have been eye-cayching but the balance of the team was brutally compromised on occasions; remember the 4–0 drubbing by Manchester
United? However, the coach will only take partial blame for such disasters, since the Rossoneri squad was simply not strong enough to mount a challenge on three fronts; Coppa Italia, Serie A and the Champions League. Silvio Berlusconi might beg to differ but
his opinion carries little worth since he has never managed a team. Suffice to say, Leonardo did a credible job with a squad that was aged and jaded to the core. The squad available to him in Nerazzurri colours will only be better.
Last season Jose Mourinho discarded his favourite 4-3-3, and played to the team’s strengths by adopting a counter-attacking 4-2-3-1 formation. Such tactics allowed Inter to pack the midfield and knock-out the opposition on the counters; that was evident
in their 3-1 win over Barcelona at the San Siro. One of football’s famous quote goes “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it”, Rafa Benitez’s did the opposite and his decision to tinker with a 4-3-2-1 formation brought about his downfall. It will now be interesting
to see how Leonardo utilises his troops.
The Brazilian is an intelligent individual; a man of little words but firm action. With the squad that http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/McDonald-Mariga-c25092 and
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Thiago-Motta-c34897 the Nerazzurri have four excellent defensive (ball winning) midfielders.
While the aforementioned players win back possession, players such as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jonathan-c18993 Biabiany, Joel Obi and the
more experienced http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Goran-Pandev-c15161 on the flanks, Leonardo has all the ingredients in the world to cook a 4-2-3-1 recipe.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ronaldinho-c31733 at AC Milan. Even if he fails to rejuvenate the player, Samuel Eto’o
will be more than happy to retain the central role Rafa Benitez bestowed on him. The younger blood will thus take the flanks. Lenoardo’s Inter Milan should read like this.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Julio-Cesar-c19961
Maicon/Santon Lucio/Ranocchia Chivu/Zanetti
Cambiasso/Motta Zanetti/Muntari
Coutinho/Biabiany Sneijder/Stankovic Pandev/Eto’o
Milito/Eto’o
While Leonardo might be tempted to re-enact the 4-3-3 formation he deployed at AC Milan, such a formation would be an utter wastage of Wesley Sneijder; arguably the most creative midfielder on Massimo Moratti’s books. Also, the struggles of Maicon and Chivu
at the full-back positions are well documented. Needless to say, 4-3-3 would be suicide, since teams like Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus will steamroll the Nerazzurri on counter attacks.
With Leonardo making his Nerazzurri debut in six days time - Inter Milan play SSC http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Napoli-c40003 on Thursday - the Brazilian has little time put his thinking into action. However, Araujo would do well by not taking out a leaf from Rafa Benitez’s book with Inter
Milan.
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