When Matteo Darmian signed for Inter Milan in October 2020, no one turned up to greet him.
You were more likely to find Manchester United fans who wanted to see with their own eyes that the man who had fallen out of favour under Jose Mourinho had secured another move to a top club.
In the case of Inter fans though, there was growing discontent among supporters, having missed out on the Serie A title by a point a few months earlier and with worrying rumours of financial difficulties at the club.
As such, the arrival of 30-year-old Darmian in a £1.8m move from relegation candidates Parma came with little fanfare.
Four years later, Darmian has just made his 150th appearance and is a key figure in Europe’s best defence. Italian champions elect Inter have conceded just 13 goals all season in the league, fewer than any other team in Europe’s top five leagues, and no defender has played more minutes for them than Darmian.
“Antonio Conte insisted on Matteo Darmian between the first and the second season he was there,” Inter expert and host of the Italian Football Podcast Nima Tavallaey Roodsari tells i.
In typical Conte fashion, the manager had presented the board with an uncompromising list of names that summer, including Arturo Vidal, Alexander Kolarov and Darmian.
“He wanted Darmian because he was this utility man. He could play him as a right wing-back, he could play as a left wing-back, right, centre-left of defence, and he would always do a good job for him.”
Conte left in 2021 to be replaced by Simone Inzaghi, which might have spelled the end of Darmian’s mini-renaissance. Far from it though, as Inzaghi’s “dance-like” system played to the Italian veteran’s strength.
Although he starts at wing-back, it is the centre-backs who more often make breaks forward, with Darmian tucking in as cover in defence or midfield, meaning the lack of pace that often meant he was turned inside out of his United shirt is rarely exposed.
“It is a dance the way that Inzaghi has these positional changes and that’s what makes [Inter] so damn difficult to defend against,” Roodsari adds.
“So Darmian’s utility man characteristics become really, really handy in this system.”
It’s not just Darmian’s footballing abilities that are shining through either. In Italy, they call senior figures in the dressing room “senators” and Darmian has certainly become one at Inter.
“He has a formidable level of attention [to detail] and that’s exactly what I appreciate about him,” says Mattia Zanotti, one of Inter’s highly-rated youngsters.
“I truly see myself in him.”
And in Inter’s times of need – whether when Milan Skriniar was stripped of the captaincy and then needed back surgery, or when Denzel Dumfries came back from Qatar carrying an injury – Darmian has been the man to fill in, playing whatever position was required when deputising for two quite different players.
“Matteo is one of those players that every coach would want in the team,” said Inzaghi before Christmas.
“In one match he played right wing, then left, then defending on the right, then at left. We are very happy to have him.”
Hearing that, United fans can probably barely believe their ears. In Darmian’s last two years at Old Trafford, he started just 10 league games, with most of his minutes coming in cup competitions in one of the club’s more tumultuous periods. He spent more than a year trying to manufacture a move back to Italy before finally leaving in 2019 for a minimal fee.
Perhaps with the perspective of time, he looks back fondly on his time there.
“I have to say thank you to them [United] because if I’m the player and person that I am, it’s also because of them,” Darmian said after helping his side to the Champions League final last season.
“I just have to say thank you, but now I’m an Inter player and I give everything for Inter.”
So what makes Inter, with their fluid, underlapping tactical system, so strong defensively? Instinctively, such attractive attacking football should afford opportunities on the counter-attack.
“They attack and defend as a unit,” Roodsari explains.
“Eleven players help out in attack, 11 players help out in defence, their press is cohesive. It’s as a unit. When they lose the possession, the entire team is balanced and structured in a way that when they win the ball back, it is like a wave coming against the opponent.
“Same way when they attack, it’s wave after wave after wave. And the reason they’re able to do that is because he’s got 11 players who are very, very versatile and can do a little bit of everything.
“It really is a unique brand of football that I’ve never seen before. This is Simone Inzaghi. What I saw with him at Lazio was the embryo of this but since coming to Inter and this season, he’s really built something unique. I’ve never seen in Inter’s history them play more beautiful football than they are doing right now, while also being defensively solid.”
Their dominance of Serie A – they lead city rivals AC Milan by 16 points with 10 games to go – has plenty dreaming of going one step further than last year’s Champions League final defeat to Manchester City.
“There’s no doubt that anytime an Italian club can reach a final of a European competition, given how in terms of revenue and finances, there is a Grand Canyon of abyss between them and the Premier League sides, it is impressive,” Roodsari says.
“I’m seeing Inter play, without a doubt, the best football in Europe attacking-wise. You can’t show me any other metric. Break it down in stats if you want. But show me where City played better football. How? City have a better striker maybe in Erling Haaland, they have world class players, they paid for them dearly.
“But when I’m talking as a unit, attack, defence, there is no team right now in Europe that plays better than them.”
Matteo Darmian, Italian and European champion? The fans will turn up for him then, in their thousands.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/Rr21dfN
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