Inter Milan Women have just qualified to the Serie A Women play-off phase (also called the Championship Round) after finishing the first phase at the third spot with 35 points, 5 points behind Juventus, 13 points behind Roma while being ahead of Milan and Fiorentina who have also qualified to the Championship Round.
This already means that Inter Milan are following the right path and are developing a lot under the management of Rita Guarino. In fact, the Nerazzurre have been able to beat Milan twice and Fiorentina once, while snatching a precious draw against Juventus at the start of the season, but losing against them at home and losing twice against Roma. Inter Milan will have to improve their performances a little bit more and aim at fixing their weaknesses in order to battle for the top two spots and therefore challenge for a UWCL spot, knowing that the actual favourites for those spots according to the first phase standings are Roma and Juventus.
In this tactical analysis scout report, we will be focusing on identifying Inter Milan’s strengths and weaknesses both from a defensive and an attacking perspective while providing alternative solutions that would help Inter Milan improve their performances and tactics even more and be able to challenge Roma, Juventus, Milan and Fiorentina with more determination and belief in their chances.
Inter Milan’s statistics compared to those of Roma, Juventus and Milan
If we compare Inter Milan’s numbers in Serie A this season and compare them to those of their rivals, we can clearly notice an improvement from last season yet there is still a lot to do especially from a defensive perspective.
Inter Milan scored 45 goals this season so far and that’s a very good number of goals. In fact, Inter Milan have got the second-highest number of goals in Serie A after Juventus during this first phase. They are therefore better than Roma, Milan and Fiorentina in terms of goalscoring statistics.
Nevertheless, the Nerazzurre concede a lot and this indicates that they are failing to find the correct balance in defence. They conceded 20 goals in 18 Serie A games this season and they have a higher number of conceded goals than Roma and Juventus, although they are still better than Milan and Fiorentina who have conceded 27 and 30 respectively.
Inter Milan’s defensive rates are generally above the average yet they still need to improve them even further in order to be more compact at the back and concede less. They have had an average of 63.8% in winning defensive duels which is a positive number. Yet, they are not very efficient in the air since they win only 53.5% of the aerial duels. And in a league where crosses and reliance on headers for goalscoring are frequent, such weakness in the air can affect the team a lot in terms of conceded goals.
However, what is a little bit comforting is the fact that Inter Milan have got better rates compared to their opponents, especially in terms of aerial duels. From an attacking perspective, Inter win 37.5% attacking duels per match, which is not really enough and they have an average of 35.8% of shots on target per 90 while Milan have 41,8%, Roma 39,3 and Juventus 42,4. This means that if Inter Milan work a little bit more on concentration in front of goal and especially on finishing, they will be capable of becoming better than their rivals in this regard since they don’t lack the quality upfront.
Attacking strengths and weaknesses
Inter Milan Women have been using mainly the 4-2-3-1 formation mainly while switching to the 4-3-3 at times. These formations rely a lot on the wingers, on the two central midfielders and on the striker Elisa Polli upfront. Moreover, Tabitha Chawinga has been a key player in Inter Milan’s attack since she contributed a lot in goalscoring and assist-making during this first part of the season. Guarino will have to further exploit this player’s excellent skills inside the final third and play her even closer to goal in order to benefit from her finishing abilities in a more frequent way and also confuse the opposing defences by adding a player to Polli inside the box.
You can clearly see in this example how Chawinga can be an extremely dangerous player inside the box even when receiving complicated passes while being marked by two defenders. In fact, she was still able to shoot and score despite the disturbance of defenders, using her left foot, which highlights the player’s excellent finishing and striker-like abilities inside the box.
Moreover, Inter Milan have got some solid midfield options, especially in Ghoutia Karchouni, Irene Santi and Gloria Marinelli who provide a lot of solutions in attack since they advance a lot to help, especially in playmaking and sometimes by scoring goals too.
Plus, having a set-piece specialist like Karchouni adds an asset to this team and Guarino would have to exploit these abilities a bit further, knowing that Karchouni proved on several occasions that she can be extremely dangerous in such situations. Perhaps the most remarkable impact she made was during the Derby where she scored a magnificent direct free-kick.
But overall, Inter Milan Women’s attacking performances are good enough to allow them to challenge for top spots. However, they will have to alternate their plays a bit more in order to not be predictable, knowing that Polli and Chawinga will surely be marked with more attention during the play-off phase. Therefore, relying more on crosses, high pressing and shots from outside the box would create alternatives for the team when failing to find solutions from the attacking players.
Defensive weaknesses
As mentioned above, Inter Milan Women will need to work a lot more on their abilities in the air in order to be able to stop teams who rely mainly on crosses and on strikers with excellent abilities in the air such as Cristiana Girelli for example. The defensive line will therefore need to be more compact and attentive during such crosses and marking will have to be tighter.
Also, being more aggressive and reactive inside the final third will be crucial because Inter Milan’s defenders usually tend to be a little bit slow in their reactions, which leads to conceding dangerous chances and goals. For instance, Inter Milan conceded the following goal from Roma simply because no one anticipated their player’s shooting attempt or tried to disturb it or deviate it. No defender tried to advance in order to close shooting angles for the opposing player, which led to conceding a goal that could have been avoided.
More importantly, Inter Milan’s defenders will need to be much more attentive when playing with a high defensive block and it will be crucial to not give away wrong passes especially when facing teams that use high pressing. The team conceded a goal simply because of a wrong backward pass when facing Como. And such mistakes can decide Inter Milan’s season if they are committed during the Championship phase.
Conclusion
Inter Milan Women are surely capable of holding one of the two top spots in Serie A Women this season if they improve both their attacking and defensive performances, as this analysis has shown.
Nevertheless, their mission will surely be complicated since Roma, Juventus, Milan and Fiorentina will also aim to improve their performances to fight for these spots. Having the right mentality and motivation when playing this phase would therefore help Inter Milan a lot in their playoff journey.
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