Man with a plan

Skrevet d. 18/09/11 15:40 af Agurk

Endnu en rigtig god og skarp blog fra sitet Football-italia.net.

Denne gang efter weekendens møde mellem Internazionale og Roma.
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They went into San Siro with very similar issues on Saturday evening, as both teams had started the season with embarrassing defeats in Serie A and Europe, while new tacticians struggled to squeeze patience out of demanding fans and media. Once they went head-to-head, it became clear Gian Piero Gasperini and Luis Enrique were in different situations after all.

The Spaniard was drafted in to bring the Barcelona style to Serie A, full of possession play, weaving a web of passes and attacking with all elements. One certainly cannot doubt Enrique’s bravery in introducing wingers Rodrigo Taddei and Simone Perrotta as full-backs in a do-or-die match, not to mention throwing Under-21 international Fabio Borini into the mix. Daniele De Rossi is also reinvented as a Sergio Busquets-style character without the diving, as he sits in front of the defence to both stop opposition attacks and spark new ones. There are precious few, if any, top Italian clubs who would do the same on such a big stage.

Enrique has always been entirely clear from the start and never wavered. The 4-3-3 is his structure and the team will pass its way into the box. You can see the players gradually learning this new style, although they retain the age-old Italian problem of a sluggish tempo and are horrifically open to the counter-attack. The ideas are clear, consistent and have promise, even if it could take an awfully long time to get there, assuming they manage it at all. Luis Enrique is a man with a plan.

Gasperini, however, is all at sea. It was well known he was way down the list of candidates to replace Leonardo, so with each refusal from other options Inter eventually just grabbed the ex-Genoa Coach like the cereal box closest to you at the supermarket check-out. Even with that in mind, one has to wonder what on earth is going on in his mind.

So far this season, Gasp has played with the 3-4-3, the 4-3-3, a 4-3-1-2 and last night the 3-5-2. He tested Wesley Sneijder as a deep midfielder for the entire summer, then last week declared he saw the Dutchman as “a forward” before putting him in a 3-5-2 against Roma in an even more de-centralised role. Inter’s tactics are increasingly like a Magic Eye picture – stare at them long enough and you might begin to see Gasperini as Edvard Munch’s The Scream.

The fans are rushing to blame their new Coach, but he is desperately trying to mould himself into the man Inter want. Did the club do no research whatsoever before signing him? Why bring in a tactician who has played 3-4-3 his entire career and within two games publicly tell him he has to use a four-man defence?

When Roma struggled, the club stood firm because they saw the plan Luis Enrique wanted to follow. As soon as Inter hit problems, the club demanded Gasperini tear it all down and begin again. This is why the two Coaches are not in the same boat after their San Siro showdown.

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