In the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-finals, Inter drew 0-0 away to AC Milan. To be sure, it wasn't a great derby, and it could even be said that it was a worse quality draw. For Inter, five winless games in all competitions and four consecutive 0 goals have fully demonstrated their decline. Taking this derby as an example, the Nerazzurri are not only completely "eaten" by the opponent, but also leave a "template" for future opponents to attack themselves: high-level pressing and rapid impact.
Milan's method is very clear, that is, to strengthen the high pressing, and to improve the speed of the defensive attack. They aimed at a major shortcoming of Inter: weak assault capabilities, and a significant decline in offensive propulsion efficiency in the face of oppression.
In the first half of the league, Inter ranked 16th in the league in terms of successful passing. In contrast, Milan, Juve and Napoli are all at the top. After losing 2-0 at home to Sassuolo in the last round, Inter's statistic has slipped to 19th place, just better than Sampdoria. Recently, against Napoli and Sassuolo, Inter's attacks have been destroyed by opponents using high positions to force dismemberment.
To put it bluntly, it is in the devil's schedule after the winter break that Inter further enlarged this shortcoming because of fatigue.
Compared with last season, the top king of Inter's squad is Lukaku, followed by AlexIs Sanchez. But the team's most outstanding this season is the back of Brozovic, and it is outside the 50th place (22 times) in the Serie A player list. After the weak assault capability and the lack of confrontation points in the front, Inter's previous effective coordination and promotion will also be greatly reduced.
More critically, the tired Inter are no longer able to withstand the impact of the other side.
Milan are younger and more energetic, and that's their strength. In the Milan derby on February 6, Inter suffered a defeat at home, essentially because the team completed a high consumption in the first half with the rhythm of Milan. Despite taking the lead in the first half and leading 1-0, the loss of physical strength of the core players still caused Inter to lose the chain. Pioli was replaced with fresh blood like Diaz at that time, and suddenly hit Inter's midfield, and finally DeFolai, who could target Olivier Giroud's single-point attack, scored 2 goals in a short period of time to complete the reversal.
In this game, Milan is still playing according to this strategy. Their attack on the ball is very sharp, and the impact of Inter's midfield is very large. From the data point of view, the starting Leo in 67 minutes, 8 passing attempts were all successful; Inter, the key link Brozovic was over 5 times, Barrera, Defrey and Shk were each passed 2 times.
Theo, Saler Markles, Leo and others all got better scoring opportunities in the rapid defensive turn attack.
Without tactical optimization or personnel improvements, inter will be difficult to change the current decline. The team is almost transparent in front of the opponent. A veteran of 12km per game, Zheke, has seen a significant decline in efficiency and force under the overwork situation. The lack of the ability to carry the ball in the midfield will further deplete the physical strength of the midfield's rebound confrontation. How Little Inzaghi will adjust, we will wait and see.