BEVERLY HILLS, April 10, (THEWILL) – The Serie A is witnessing another revolution by the coach who began the previous one and, because of him, Inter Milan are all but certain to end a decade-long Scudetto drought. On Sunday, Serie A’s league leaders were not at their best, but they displayed that resilient drive coach Antonio Conte had grown in the side to earn their 11th consecutive win in a 1-0 victory over Cagliari.
With the victory, Nerazzurri maintained their 11-point gap over their city rivals AC Milan, who also won on Saturday. Now, that there are only eight matches of the domestic season left and no major competitor to challenge Inter’s ride to the title, it is obvious that the coach, who began the process that brought Juventus to a dominant force in Italian football is about to end it.
The initial prediction that the trophy was heading back to Milan from the Turin base of Juve, where it had become domiciled since Conte’s first rodeo in Serie A was accurate but with a slight flaw. It was believed to be headed to Stefano Pioli’s Milan, especially as the ageless Zlatan Ibrahimovic inspired the I Rossoneri to dream again.
But the Milan form failed to endure. In the wake of their gradual decline, their Nerazzurri rivals grew to a crescendo, at a time of the season when they often crumbled. But, Conte was available this time to keep them in tiptop shape and challenging every game like a final. The irrepressible Romelu Lukaku also kept them threatening in every game, with the clinical shape of his play.
There are arguments that can be had about how different the race for the Scudetto this season could have been and how much difficult to wrest from the grip of Juventus the title contention could have gone if a more experienced coach than the senior managerial debutant that is Andrea Pirlo took the reins from the fired Maurizio Sarri after he claimed the 2019/2020 title.
wever, hypotheticals aside, the fact of the reality currently is that a season-length of home and away matches have arrived at this point where the title win is all on Conte. He arrived and locked on the targets he needed to prosecute the job for which he was tasked. The money was well-spent and brought in the quality needed, which, conjoined with the dip in quality of Milan and the flailing form of Juve, all made Conte’s tactical plan a success. Now, it has become his second change of the football landscape.
His initial revolution began at the Turin home of Juve. The team was still held back, in many ways, by the calciopoli scandal of 2006, it was inconsistent in the domestic league and needed fresh ideas that could turn around their fortunes and make them into serial winners. That was the responsibility Conte was given when he took over in 2011. He wasted no time in achieving that, with no holidays in between.
In his first season, he got the Old Lady’s crown back. And, to demonstrate that it was no fluke, the Italian defended it twice. In that time, he showed the extent of his tactical depth when he toppled the genius of Massimiliano Allegri’s Milan side and overcame the treble-winning Inter of the renowned 2009/2010 campaign. With this foundation set, he established Juventus on the track from which they remained serial domestic champions until now.
Before walking away with his head held high, he had proved he could accomplish what highly-rated tacticians such as Claudio Ranieri, Ciro Ferrara, Alberto Zaccheroni and Luigi Delneri failed to do. He returned Juve to their perch in the aftermath of disgrace, and set the wheels in motion for a decade of relentless glory that has been hard to undo before he returned to the Serie A with Inter.
Now, the man who made it come to be is he who is undoing it. Conte arrived at Inter in May 2019, with the managerial chops that is his forte, with the exciting experience of English football as an added bonus. He infused these into the Inter game and gradually reaped the benefits of the improvements that came with it. Last season’s second-placed finish was seen as a failure but it was the perfect excuse for Conte to request for the financial infusion needed to build his perfect winning team.
One ideal transfer business was bringing Achraf Hakimi into the side. It became the tipping point as the wing-back slotted in perfectly to Conte’s 3-5-2 pattern of play. Signing Hakimi allowed the team to feed off the talismanic partnership of Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez, while the rebirth of Christian Eriksen has got Inter through some tight matches in this winning season.
As a result, Conte withstood the challenge of a Cristiano Ronaldo-led Juve and a Zlatan Ibrahimovic-fuelled Milan to the Matchday 30 point and still is enjoying that golden period where everything slots into place and every player responds well to his methods. Especially in Sunday’s poor but still victorious triumph over Cagliari by one goal to nil.
Apart from the end of their UEFA Champions League run, which was unexpected, everything else has gone Inter’s way this season. And, when they lift the Scudetto come May, there will not be one player in the Nerazzurri squad thinking of their UCL exit. It had taken them a decade of waiting to come within breathing distance of the Serie A title and the man, who seized it for Juve, is about to bring it to Inter, at Juve’s expense.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
