Daryl's Notebook: What I learned from Italian football last weekend
Leaving Goaltoberfest in Germany is tough, but the beautiful country of Italy keeps calling me with their overlapping centre-backs and Catenaccio football. Someone has got to answer the call, right?
I feel kinda bad to leave Germany when the country are preparing for Oktoberfest and when the Bundesliga are having a Goaltoberfest themselves. But alas, our journey must continue and the charm of Italian football keeps drawing me towards them. While Italian clubs have not had much success on the continental stage besides Atalanta last season, they are still a league worth watching with up-and-coming coaches and historic teams with some modern touches. Without further ado, let’s take the trip to Italy!
Atalanta 2-3 Como
Reason for choosing: Even though this match was not played last weekend, it was on my watching list for last week and it worked well with this week’s theme so I decided to include it here! Atalanta are one of the teams that I have been following for a long time thanks to their progress and shrewd dealings on the transfer window, and that’s not mentioning the tactical side that Gian Piero Gasperini has done with the team. On the other side, Como look interesting on paper with a decent team for a newly-promoted side and, particularly, Cesc Fà bregas on the sideline. Yet, they have not had the best of start to their Serie A season and were still looking for a win before their trip to the Gewiss Stadium.
Quick thoughts:
Atalanta entered this match with an expected out of possession style of going man-to-man pressing inside Como’s half and forced the away side to give up possession by clearing the ball. A similar style did not work well for Heidenheim against Freiburg as I pointed out in last week’s edition, but Atalanta were well-drilled with this style and it looked quite good for them in the first 30 minutes of the match. However, I was not that impressed with their in possession style since it was basically sending the ball to either flank, particularly Raoul Bellanova’s right-hand side, and making crosses into the box for Mateo Retegui.
The reason why I was not impressed was because Como’s low block did well to neutralise the crosses that came into their penalty box. While Bellanova and Davide Zappacosta managed to get past Como’s full-backs and wingers and get to the byline multiple times, the defenders dealt with the crosses well and did not concede too many dangerous chances, besides from a decent volley on the edge of the box from Zappacosta that came from a corner.
Como started the second half very quickly and they looked like they were overwhelming Atalanta as the host could not do much. Though needed a bit of individual efforts, they scored three goals in the span of the first 15 minutes of the second half. These attacks were led by Gabriel Strefezza and Nico Paz through their on-ball individual efforts, which included a good assist to Alieu Fadera for Como’s third goal. Can’t also forget Sergi Roberto’s (yes, ex-Barcelona’s Sergi Roberto) contribution from midfield too.
Cesc must have learned something from Mikel Arteta because they did not look too stand out with any noticeable tactical points, but his Como side managed the game well after they started the second half fast and then slowed the game down after the 60th minute and their third goal. Atalanta tried to chase the game by bringing on Ademola Lookman, but they still could not create anything meaningful in the second half.
It was not until the second half that Cesc noticed that Atalanta preferred to attack down both flanks since he did ask the wingers Fadera and Strefezza to close down Atalanta’s wing-backs whenever they had the ball. When Edoardo Goldaniga came on as a substitution, Como basically changed to a back five from a 4-1-4-1 to deal with Atalanta’s wing attacks. But I felt the away side brought on Marco Sala for Strefezza a bit too late because Sala did not have the chance to make much impact and allowed Strefezza to rest a bit more.
Overall: In a match that felt fairly interesting, Como prevailed thanks to game management, individual efforts, and decent defensive work. They managed to shut out Atalanta’s attacks and limited the host to not-so-dangerous chances, mostly from outside of the penalty box. Meanwhile, Atalanta have shown once again that they are better-suited as the underdog of the tie. Their out of possession tactics are great, but they do not seem to have a good in possession plan, especially when that only plan is figured out by the opposition.
Udinese 2-3 Internazionale
Reason for choosing: Both Udinese and Internazionale are currently enjoying a good start in the Serie A so their clash was already a promise to be a fascinating one. Udinese surprised me more considering they have constantly underperformed in the past few seasons. But under current coach Kosta Runjaić, who I know him for his unspectacular time at 1860 Munich, they are doing way better than many expect them to.
Quick thoughts:
The first half was the case of two immovable objects facing each other. Both Udinese and Internazionale set up in a 5-3-2 mid-block with a high defensive line when they did not have the ball. This matchup caused some problems for the in possession phase as both teams had a very tough time finding a way into the final third.
For the host, they opted to move the ball wide and used crosses to target Keinan Davis inside of the box, or gave the ball to Florian Thauvin and let the Frenchman did his own thing. Internazionale, on the other hand, tried to bait Udinese to shift to one side of the pitch and used switch passes to find Federico Dimarco on the left. With Dimarco’s outstanding crosses, Internazionale were able to find Marcus Thuram and Lautaro MartĂnez inside of the penalty box or Davide Frattesi who made late runs into the box. They also utilised long passes over the top of Udinese’s defence to encourage runs in behind from both Thuram and Lautaro.
While they did not create plenty, the away side were more clinical with their chances and some of Dimarco’s crosses put his teammates into good goal-scoring positions. If either Lautaro or Thuram managed to convert their chances better, Internazionale could have been up by three or four goals heading into the break.
Another reason that Internazionale were able to control of the match was the timing of their goals. Frattesi’s opening goal came just 47 seconds into the match, then Lautaro scored right before half time, and Frattesi wrapped up the win just 2 minutes into the second half. It might have been coincidental, but those timings just did not allow Udinese to comfortably settle into the half since they already found themselves on the backfoot.
The remainder of the second half was uneventful to say the least. Besides from a good individual effort by Lorenzo Lucca to pull Udinese back to a single goal lead, nothing much happened since Internazionale controlled the majority of possession while did not create too many chances from that.
Overall: I will have to be honest, it was not the match that I was hoping for. Given the slightly defensive style of play from both teams, the match was decided by small margins and small moments. Internazionale had more possession and they managed to create dangerous chances, even though those chances came far few in between, and they were slightly clinical to convert those chances. Meanwhile, Udinese were not bad, but they were also not good. The host just were not very impressive when they had the ball, but at least they did force Internazionale back for most of the time with their discipline mid-block.
P/s: It is a short Notebook for this week as I focus on a long project for the remainder of October, and possibly for the majority of the month. While there is going to be a bit of inconsistency with the number of matches that I cover for each Notebook, I will try my best to keep this series going throughout October and return to normality once the project is done! Thank you for your understanding.