If Gian Piero Gasperini was considered “the revolutionary” during his brief spell in charge of Internazionale in the summer, then Claudio Ranieri must surely earn the moniker “the normaliser”. Despite a 4-0 weekend loss to Roma, Ranieri is bringing balance back to the Nerazzurri and helping the club to regain their spot back in the upper echelons of Serie A.
After the unsuccessful experience of handing the reins to Rafael Benitez and former AC Milan player and manager Leonardo, president Massimo Moratti opted to offer an opportunity to Gasperini, who grew up as a coach with Juventus’ youth teams and then enhanced his budding reputation at Genoa.
Gasperini likes attacking football and usually sets up his sides with a 3-4-3 system. This was unusual for Inter, who have been brought up with a back four defensive line and a midfield full of combative players.
Inter lost the Italian Super Cup in Beijing in August against rivals AC Milan and then capitulated at Palermo and Novara in Serie A. In the Champions League, the side which had won everything under Jose Mourinho in 2010, lost at home to Turkish outfit Trabzonspor. All in all, Inter’s stars showed a distinct lack of confidence in, and compatibility with, Gasperini’s system. Moratti, in late September, backtracked on his original vision and installed Ranieri as the new coach.
The former Chelsea boss is a “less complicated” manager, not obsessed with tactics; Ranieri instantly brought in a simpler and widely understood 4-4-2 formation. He rehabilitated Giampaolo Pazzini up front – Gasperini had preferred to play with Diego Milito as a centre forward, with Argentine Mauro Zarate and Uruguayan Diego Forlan alongside him – and reinstalled a back four, playing Walter Samuel and Lucio as central defenders, with Maicon on the right and Yuto Nagatomo on the left.
In Milan, confidence slowly returned to the Nerazzurri, who began to up their performances on the pitch. “I remember when I was manager at Roma that every time we played Inter we saw some blood in the eyes of the Nerazzurri’s players”, Ranieri revealed. “You could see in their eyes what the Argentinians call ‘the garra’, the spirit to face all the difficulties and try to win every time. Well, I want to see those eyes again.”
Ranieri’s Nerazzurri began to win again, in the Champions League first, triumphing in a crucial match in Moscow against CSKA, and then in Serie A, where, until losing at Lecce at the end of January, they recorded a seven-game consecutive winning streak.
Before Christmas, Inter could consider themselves lucky to beat Genoa and Cesena, two victories away from home that threatened to be anything but after relentless pressure on the pitch. But the Nerazzurri destroyed Lecce (4-1) and Parma (5-0) before handing a tactical lesson to Massimiliano Allegri in the Milanese derby.
On the night of 15th January, 2012, Inter faced the Rossoneri, sitting eight points behind Milan in the table. Ranieri fortified his defence, adding midfielders such as Esteban Cambiasso, Thiago Motta and Javier Zanetti, who protected the back four. Milan were blocked on the wings (thanks to Maicon and Nagatomo) and in the centre too, where Zlatan Ibrahimovic was defused by Samuel and Lucio. The Rossoneri controlled the midfield in the first half, but had only a few chances to find the back of the net. In the second period, Inter took advantage of an Ignazio Abate error and scored through Diego Milito. Then, for the remaining 35 minutes, played defensively, stymieing the likes of Ibrahimovic, Robinho and Kevin-Prince Boateng.
Ranieri had won his tactical battle with Allegri (in a very Italian way) and Inter reduced the gap with their cousins to just five points in the process.
The following week, Inter won again at home to Lazio, and yet again were not the best team on the pitch. The Biancazzurri’s football was superb, and the capital club scored first through Tommaso Rocchi, but Diego Milito and Giampaolo Pazzini (with a goal that appeared offside), overturned the deficit and handed an unlikely three points to Inter.
In the last few months Claudio Ranieri has not transformed the Nerazzurri into a spectacular team, but Inter are now more balanced, tighter at the back and more potent than under Gasperini. Ranieri is fond of repeating that, at this point, the club’s only realistic objective is to book a spot in next season’s Champions League.
Inter may have stumbled a little in recent weeks, losing 1-0 at Lecce at the end of January before going down to Roma 4-0 on Sunday, however Ranieri has brought stability and reminded Serie A that the Nerazzurri of old may not be as dead as previously thought. The side which won a breathtaking treble under Mourinho still have the winning confidence and mentality from the Portuguese’s era. For Milan, and the rest of Serie A, this makes Inter a dangerous prospect still.
