Marco Materazzi suggests Antonio Conte considers adopting a four-men defence at Inter: ‘He is making his assessments.’
The Inter legend released an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport to discuss the Nerazzurri’s strength and weaknesses so far.
Marco Materazzi suggests Antonio Conte considers adopting a four-men defence at Inter: ‘He is making his assessments.’
The Inter legend released an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport to discuss the Nerazzurri’s strength and weaknesses so far.
“It cannot be said that it is a brilliant Inter, they propose less game than last year. However, I may be old-fashioned, but it brings me down to see the exasperation of starting the action from the goalkeeper, which must be Beckenbauer. Now Inter create more troubles for their opponents than when they had 70% ball possession.
“Let’s take Inter-Napoli. A balanced game. Napoli were the better team after Inter's goal, but Inter won.
“Inter could have had more points in Serie A and in Champions League. If you recover from two goals down in Madrid to eventually lose, you must ask yourself some questions.
“Physical strength make the difference in every league, apart from Spain. It made the difference with the Dutchmen at Milan and when we won the treble in 2010. If you have [Milan] Skriniar, [Stefan] de Vrij and [Alessandro] Bastoni you can’t start the action from the back. If you have a strong backbone, you must build a team around it.”
Having the likes of Achraf Hakimi, Radja Nainggolan, Ivan Perisic, Christian Eriksen and Alexis Sanchez on the bench is strength or a limit?
“A strenght, ask Fiorentina. In a game you can pick up the wrong line-up three times, it must be a strength for every coach, provided that he is good in managing these kind of situations.
“When [Christian] Eriksen enters the pitch he must always play as he did against Shakhtar he hasn’t done it all the time.”
Why?
“I’ve always thought two things, the first one: God helps those who help themselves. He showed his qualities in England, he should do it in Italy as well. Second: January signings are always tricky. I think he will leave in the winter transfer window even if a lot will depend on opportunities and the clubs’ plans.”
Do Conte have a plan B?
“It’s the first thing they teach you in Coverciano, you must have an alternative.
“I think a four-men defence is the best thing, especially in Europe. Unfortunately Inter are out already. However, Inter have much more quality than the others, changing system can be useful sometimes.
“The four-men defence has already worked against Fiorentina, Torino and Cagliari. Conte is not stupid, he is making his assessments.”