Inter Milan's Summer Transfers: Do They Fit In With Gasperini's Formations?

Gasperini: Many lessons to learn from Inter's pre-season

With about a month left in this year’s summer transfer window, have Inter Milan lived up to the promises made at the end of last season? Unfortunately not! Don’t get me wrong, I believe that the players Inter have signed will be useful to the club, but the biggest thing holding the team back is manager Gasperini’s formations.

We have signed two wing backs, Nagatomo & Jonathan, yet in Gasperini’s formations there is no place for wing backs, meaning that these two and Maicon will be forced to play as wingers or full backs dependent on whether we’re playing with a 3 man or 4 man defence. It’s not just the defence that is causing problems with fitting players in. Our biggest signing so far is Ricky Alvarez who plays CAM or as a winger, but so far this pre-season he’s been pushed into a deeper midfield position or as right forward which in the match against Galatasaray he looked pretty uncomfortable in. Also on the subject of midfielders out of position, Gasperini’s formations are also forcing Wesley Sneijder (one of the best trequartistas in the game) to play a deep central position, which to be fair Wes is taking in his stride and playing well in, though it’s hardly taking advantage of the talent available.

The final problem with his formations is the three forwards. The central position is fine with Pazzini, while Milito is perfect for this role. But Eto’o out wide is a problem because the Cameroonian hit man has said several times that he wants to play in the middle even though he is great on the left and this could make him make up his mind about leaving Inter. That leaves leaves Goran Pandev for the right, who in my opinion is a complete waste of space. He gets a few goals but in a squad like Inter, I’m sure even I could score a few! My main problem with Pandev is that he lacks the skill of his team mates and to me he looks clumsy on the pitch.

So what’s the solution?

First things first, a few of Inter’s squad need to be sold ASAP as they don’t have the quality to be part of the team. These players are Rivas, Chivu, Muntari and Pandev. Once these guys are gone, then Inter can look at replacing them with talented youngsters that will be back-ups to start with with a view to them replacing the older players in the future. I don’t actually think Inter particularly need any more players to be competitive, but I do believe we need one more world class center-back as that is our weakest area for cover.

The biggest transfer rumours at the moment for Inter are Sneijder to Man Utd & Tevez from Man City. After careful consideration, I don’t believe transferring Sneijder would bring any advantages to Inter. Lets face it, the money would be handy to balance the books ready for the FFPR‘s but quality players like him are few and far between, so we’d probably spend most of it on his replacement making the sale pointless. That leaves the Tevez situation. I’d be extremely surprised if it happens, but if it does I think he would be a great signing for Inter and would play brilliantly with Eto’o and Sneijder. People have said that his mercenary mentality could be an issue, but from what I’ve seen he’s like that because he misses Argentina. With many Argentinian players being in Inter though, he could possibly settle well in Milan and even become dedicated to the club. If Zanetti has got enough faith in him to suggest to Massimo Moratti to sign him, then he too must think he’ll do well with us.

So back to the question of how to solve the problem of Gasperini’s formations and how to fit in the crucial players. The ideal solution would be to return to Inter’s favoured 4-3-1-2 formation, but I believe the perfect set up would be a 4-1-2-1-2, which is just a slight variation, rotating players depending on the opponent (see below for an example)

In my formation here, one of the first things you may notice is the fact that Zanetti isn’t present. This is because I believe that it is time ‘Pupi’ handed over the captain’s armband and took a lesser role on the pitch. I’m not suggesting he should not play again, but I do think at his age he needs to be a backup. I realise this is controversial but it would be for the good of the club. In this formation, Inter would have a better coverage of the pitch than in Gasperini’s 3-4-3. When playing defensively, Nagatomo & Maicon would hold their defensive positions and Cambiasso would drop back to provide extra support for the defence when under a lot of pressure. This set-up would leave the players in great positions for setting up quick counter attacking moves. When Inter are on the attack, Nagatomo and Maicon would move up the field to provide support on the wings, Cambiasso would drop back to ensure the defence isn’t left lacking, and Alvarez and Obi would play on the wings ahead of the two wing-backs. The main job of both the wingers and wingbacks would be to provide the creativity for the attacking trio of Eto’o, Sneijder and Pazzini so that the talismanic attacking three can take advantage of their abilities to find space and work their magic.

On the left you will see the basic setup of Gasperini’s 3-4-3 formation. The first thing that stands out is the amount of space available across the pitch, meaning that the players have to do twice the work to provide the necessary cover. Note that I’ve used Zanetti in this formation in the defence, which is purely down to the fact that he is more consistent than Ranocchia, who would be the rotation player. This formation puts too much pressure on Nagatomo and Maicon, who will have to cover the majority of the pitch not only to provide wing play for the attackers but also having to track all the way back to support the defence, which was the main reason why Inter struggled during pre-season to stop the opponents on the wings. Also when Sneijder moves forward to do what he does best, it leaves a massive hole in the center of the pitch for Cambiasso to cover. The only way to combat this is for Wes to stay deeper and Eto’o and Alvarez to track back to fill the space. But in doing this, they would leave Pazzini up front alone which in itself reduces Inter’s attacking potential.

Gasperini does have the potential to be a great manager for Inter Milan. He just needs to realise that his revolutionary formations may have worked for Genoa, but for Inter and especially in Europe they could be very risky with the results being a bit hit and miss. I admire his push for attractive attacking play but it needs to be balanced with a good defence and proper control over every inch of the pitch even when the team is not in possession. I can’t stress enough that Gasperini needs to organise his formations around the many strengths and talents of Inter’s players and not make them fit the formation he has made his mind up on.