Eternity RPC Board
11-25-2017, 02:57 AM
''Nervosismo''
![[Image: LV3T4XU.jpg?1]](https://i.imgur.com/LV3T4XU.jpg?1)
After picking up my season with Inter Milan again after a while, I faced a number of big games: AS Roma (away), Fiorentina (home), Juventus (away), AC Milan (away), and Napoli (away). In true Italian fashion I claim this is a conspiracy of the Italian Football Federation against Inter to give it such a tough schedule.
AS Roma was a bit of a difficult game. The team was reckless with its scoring opportunities, and gave away a goal to AS Roma. It was in the 93rd minute that Inter finally equalized from a free kick by Candreva. Fiorentina was a relatively easy victory, but then they had to confront Juventus. Two days later, they'd have to play the Derby della Madonnina, the game against city rivals AC Milan.
The club atmosphere at Internazionale has always been one of nervosity, ''nervosismo'', as opposed to that of AC Milan which has a long tradition of dominant football, international success, and the accompanying of a sense of self-confidence and pride. The Nerazzurri have suffered a lot more bad luck in the years that the Rossoneri dominated Italian and European football, leading to an all-pervading inferiority complex, a deep sense of insecurity, impulsive management, bad results - and a neverending stream of coaches to be appointed and sacked five months later. The pressure of the boardrooms, media and the Tifosi resting on the shoulders of the Inter Milan players led to nervosity and fear on the pitch. Some of the best players in the world could not deal with it: Dennis Bergkamp, Roberto Carlos, Clarence Seedorf, Andrea Pirlo - none of them could deal with the pressure and their performances suffered. They fled Inter Milan when they could, and they all played as reborn for many years to come.
This nervosismo also got a hold over me when looking at these fixtures, despite all the success in the season so far. Fabio Capello, the Italian football coach, and several Italian football players commented that this psychological element is unique to Italian football culture. In South America, players want to have fun on the pitch. In England players want to work hard on the pitch. In Spain the players want to perform on the pitch. In Italy, the players don't want to be on the pitch at all. They're under pressure, they're frightened, and they're insecure.
Brutti e Sporchi
Before the match started, I was told AC Milan would deploy a 4-3-1-2 formation. I therefore abandoned my own standard 4-4-2 shape. Being well-known with the 4-3-1-2 formation, I knew how devastating it is against teams playing 4-4-2, so I did not want to take that risk. My solution was to employ the same formation myself, since it is already the standard alternative of my team. But AC Milan turned out to have adopted the 4-2-3-1.
From the start of the match, it was a brutal game with lots of fouls. Inter Milan gave away two free kicks within the first two minutes, and continued to kick, punch, push and hold up AC Milan players. AC Milan too at some point began to start kicking back, having no intention of allowing itself to be bullied into submission in front of its own crowd. Then it started raining yellow cards, and that was the point for me to signal my players to tone it down a bit. My Inter Milan, from the start, had not the slightest intention of playing a nice game of football. All energies were directed at frustrating AC Milan. If we had the ball, the players had to lose it as quickly as possible. Usually they simply knocked it forward to Eder or Icardi.
Our focus was on stopping AC Milan from playing. Inter used a rigid man-marking scheme to control the centre of the pitch and to avoid AC Milan from gradually building up their attacks. By marking Romagnoli, Kuco, Montolivo, Fernandez, and Bacca, AC Milan was forced wide where its wingers were isolated against my defenders.
Our negative play was rewarded in the 37th minute, when Santon attacked down the right flank. Instead of crossing the ball into the box, he passed it back to Kondogbia, waiting at the edge of the penalty box. From there he had room for a shot, and scored thanks to a slight error by the goalkeeper.
At half-time I noticed that AC Milan had a trick up its sleeve: they had abandoned their 4-2-3-1 in favor of a narrow 4-3-3 shape. The trick is in the 3 central attackers deployed by this system: it is almost impossible for a 4-man backline like I have to contain 3 central strikers, because it creates a central overload. AC Milan would always be able to have at least one of its central attackers free and without marker. I changed around my own marking scheme to control the midfield, and then see how that goes.
After Joao Mario picked up an injury however, and AC Milan created some dangerous situations for my team, I seized the moment to come up with a tactical answer. I removed Joao Mario, and replaced him with Miranda, a central defender. We switched to a 5-3-2 system, enabling three central defenders to play 1v1 against Milan's three attackers. The combination of man-marking and having superior numbers in defence helped to stabilize the situation at the back, until the 77th minute. Jeison Murillo, who had already been booked since the first half, took a second yellow card and was sent off. I therefore took off Eder, a striker, and added Andreolli, another central defender to keep my 5-man backline for the remainder of the match.
At 80 minutes, AC Milan went all-out on the attack. Inter, in a defensive 5-3-1 shape, retreated further and further, until we arrived at the parking lot outside the stadium. Virtually all players were tracking, marking, and harassing their immediate opponents, while Icardi, my lonely striker, was doing all he could to hold up any ball he got to delay the game. Before the final whistle AC Milan was given a corner kick, but it was easily intercepted and the game was over. 0-1 for Internazionale! It was a scandalous display, with both teams barely being able to complete 70% of their passes. Inter Milan had a meagre 5 attempts on goal throughout the entire game, while AC fired a total of 17 shots. The Evil Spirit of Catenaccio had taken over me and my Nerazzurri, but it makes the victory taste even better.
After picking up my season with Inter Milan again after a while, I faced a number of big games: AS Roma (away), Fiorentina (home), Juventus (away), AC Milan (away), and Napoli (away). In true Italian fashion I claim this is a conspiracy of the Italian Football Federation against Inter to give it such a tough schedule.
AS Roma was a bit of a difficult game. The team was reckless with its scoring opportunities, and gave away a goal to AS Roma. It was in the 93rd minute that Inter finally equalized from a free kick by Candreva. Fiorentina was a relatively easy victory, but then they had to confront Juventus. Two days later, they'd have to play the Derby della Madonnina, the game against city rivals AC Milan.
The club atmosphere at Internazionale has always been one of nervosity, ''nervosismo'', as opposed to that of AC Milan which has a long tradition of dominant football, international success, and the accompanying of a sense of self-confidence and pride. The Nerazzurri have suffered a lot more bad luck in the years that the Rossoneri dominated Italian and European football, leading to an all-pervading inferiority complex, a deep sense of insecurity, impulsive management, bad results - and a neverending stream of coaches to be appointed and sacked five months later. The pressure of the boardrooms, media and the Tifosi resting on the shoulders of the Inter Milan players led to nervosity and fear on the pitch. Some of the best players in the world could not deal with it: Dennis Bergkamp, Roberto Carlos, Clarence Seedorf, Andrea Pirlo - none of them could deal with the pressure and their performances suffered. They fled Inter Milan when they could, and they all played as reborn for many years to come.
This nervosismo also got a hold over me when looking at these fixtures, despite all the success in the season so far. Fabio Capello, the Italian football coach, and several Italian football players commented that this psychological element is unique to Italian football culture. In South America, players want to have fun on the pitch. In England players want to work hard on the pitch. In Spain the players want to perform on the pitch. In Italy, the players don't want to be on the pitch at all. They're under pressure, they're frightened, and they're insecure.
Brutti e Sporchi
Formations:
![[Image: fbBUawX.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/fbBUawX.jpg)
Before the match started, I was told AC Milan would deploy a 4-3-1-2 formation. I therefore abandoned my own standard 4-4-2 shape. Being well-known with the 4-3-1-2 formation, I knew how devastating it is against teams playing 4-4-2, so I did not want to take that risk. My solution was to employ the same formation myself, since it is already the standard alternative of my team. But AC Milan turned out to have adopted the 4-2-3-1.
From the start of the match, it was a brutal game with lots of fouls. Inter Milan gave away two free kicks within the first two minutes, and continued to kick, punch, push and hold up AC Milan players. AC Milan too at some point began to start kicking back, having no intention of allowing itself to be bullied into submission in front of its own crowd. Then it started raining yellow cards, and that was the point for me to signal my players to tone it down a bit. My Inter Milan, from the start, had not the slightest intention of playing a nice game of football. All energies were directed at frustrating AC Milan. If we had the ball, the players had to lose it as quickly as possible. Usually they simply knocked it forward to Eder or Icardi.
Our focus was on stopping AC Milan from playing. Inter used a rigid man-marking scheme to control the centre of the pitch and to avoid AC Milan from gradually building up their attacks. By marking Romagnoli, Kuco, Montolivo, Fernandez, and Bacca, AC Milan was forced wide where its wingers were isolated against my defenders.
Our negative play was rewarded in the 37th minute, when Santon attacked down the right flank. Instead of crossing the ball into the box, he passed it back to Kondogbia, waiting at the edge of the penalty box. From there he had room for a shot, and scored thanks to a slight error by the goalkeeper.
At half-time I noticed that AC Milan had a trick up its sleeve: they had abandoned their 4-2-3-1 in favor of a narrow 4-3-3 shape. The trick is in the 3 central attackers deployed by this system: it is almost impossible for a 4-man backline like I have to contain 3 central strikers, because it creates a central overload. AC Milan would always be able to have at least one of its central attackers free and without marker. I changed around my own marking scheme to control the midfield, and then see how that goes.
After Joao Mario picked up an injury however, and AC Milan created some dangerous situations for my team, I seized the moment to come up with a tactical answer. I removed Joao Mario, and replaced him with Miranda, a central defender. We switched to a 5-3-2 system, enabling three central defenders to play 1v1 against Milan's three attackers. The combination of man-marking and having superior numbers in defence helped to stabilize the situation at the back, until the 77th minute. Jeison Murillo, who had already been booked since the first half, took a second yellow card and was sent off. I therefore took off Eder, a striker, and added Andreolli, another central defender to keep my 5-man backline for the remainder of the match.
At 80 minutes, AC Milan went all-out on the attack. Inter, in a defensive 5-3-1 shape, retreated further and further, until we arrived at the parking lot outside the stadium. Virtually all players were tracking, marking, and harassing their immediate opponents, while Icardi, my lonely striker, was doing all he could to hold up any ball he got to delay the game. Before the final whistle AC Milan was given a corner kick, but it was easily intercepted and the game was over. 0-1 for Internazionale! It was a scandalous display, with both teams barely being able to complete 70% of their passes. Inter Milan had a meagre 5 attempts on goal throughout the entire game, while AC fired a total of 17 shots. The Evil Spirit of Catenaccio had taken over me and my Nerazzurri, but it makes the victory taste even better.