De Boer's Juventus lesson
Stefano Pioli has done an incredible job, but Richard Hall thinks when facing Juventus, Frank de Boer’s approach is worth revisiting.

For Inter to hire Frank se Boer, they needed to realise they were changing a philosophy that would develop over seasons. Sacking him after 11 games proved that they had missed the point. Now as we enter February he is barely a memory in Milan, as Stefano Pioli’s Nerazzurri march on, disposing of all before them. This run is the opposite to the Dutchman’s before he faced the ‘Old Lady’, yet his approach in that single moment of glory should perhaps not be ignored.

Back in September De Boer had approached the Derby d’Italia in disarray. He had in fairness had no pre-season and was struggling to find his team, tactics and rhythm. A shambolic display and defeat to Chievo was followed by a bore draw with Palermo and a clumsy but improved win against Pescara. The midweek Europa League game against Hapoel Be’er Sheva ended in an unforgettable defeat, which was the worst preparation he could have hoped for. This left the Dutchman with a headache asking how he would approach the Juventus match.

Before the game De Boer realised he was in a ‘Catch-22’ situation, as he had seen some progress against Pescara. Now would he have to change everything for this game? He had started with a high tempo last time out, but was wary to do this against Juventus. Surely, they would not allow him and his team to tap the ball around their area. De Boer had been using his old Ajax play book and this may have started to work against inferior teams, but the Bianconeri were certainly not in that category.

The 46-year old Coach looked back to his days in Amsterdam again and to a Champions League game against Real Madrid. Here he employed a 4-3-3 in principle, but this would revert to a 4-6-0 out of possession. It would rely on the two wingers dropping very deep and the defensive midfielder shielding the defence, they would then break en masse, but would it work against the Champions? You could've made a mint with football betting on those odds.

One thing Inter did well was press hard from the first whistle. They used Eder instead of Ivan Perisic and in said press almost looked like they were in a 4-2-4. This disrupted the defenders playing out from the back, but also cut out build-up play through the midfield. Whilst out of possession in more defensive positions, Inter also took risks for space to be exploited against them, but it paid off. They tried to make the field of Juventus’s play as small as possible. This resulted in the ball going out of play on many occasions and broke up the tempo, playing to Inter’s advantage. With this high-risk policy, they had to use Gary Medel as a deep-lying midfielder so that if The Old Lady broke out of this space, they were covered.

Finally, as Juventus played a back three that day, Inter switched the play very well when in possession, which meant the field opened up for them and allowed them space they are not usually accustomed to when the smaller teams retreat behind the ball. This in the end paid dividends in the 2-1 win.

As Inter travel to Turin with Pioli’s seven round winning streak intact, they can take heart that Pioli’s tag as ‘the normaliser’ has been elevated to the ‘difference maker’. Whilst De Boer was in poor form heading into the Juventus fixture, nothing could be further from the truth for the Nerazzurri now, but they have to be careful not to pay The Old Lady too much respect. This Inter side does press well, yet they have been guilty of doing it only later on through the first half and have started slowly on occasions. It is true Pioli brings a new character to the team and a never say die attitude that they should keep at all costs, but the blueprint of De Boer’s Inter should not be ignored.

Admittedly it may have been a happy accident that the Dutchman fell on or an underestimation from Juventus, but it worked. Pioli has a much more solid structure, core and unity in this bunch and his tactics are not too dissimilar to the way De Boer set himself up in the game in September. The blueprint is there and whilst Pioli doesn’t have to copy it, he needs to at least take note of the opening passage and start quickly in Turin against Juventus.
--
FROM 101.5.176.*