A real football revolution took place in the Italian championship.
After nine years of triumph, Juventus Turin resigned, yielding to Scudetto to Milan Internationale.
Four rounds before the finish, Antonio Conte's team turned out to be mathematically unattainable for the pursuers - and interrupted the dominance of competitors, which, by the way, was launched by the specialist himself.
In the 2011/12 season, he led the black and white to gold medals, after which Massimiliano Allegri and Maurizio Sarri achieved victories with the Turin club.
On Sunday, the circle was closed: Conte turned Inter into the 19-time champion of the country, earning the first title for the Lombardians since 2010.
The winning experience helped Conte
The head coach truly became the architect of the Black and Blues' success, as he had a winning experience that surpassed that of any competitor. Only in Italy, Conte won four golds - only more than Giovanni Trapattoni, Fabio Capello, Marcello Lippi and the aforementioned Allegri. But there was also a Serie B triumph with Bari and a fantastic season with Chelsea in the Premier League. By the draw-2020/21, the specialist has formed clear principles that guarantee the achievement of the result. And for two seasons, he assembled at Inter exactly the lineup that most closely matched his philosophy.
In the last draw, Nerazzurri didn’t have enough to crush Juventus due to covid restrictions, performances on several fronts (the team reached the decisive stages of the Europa League) and the lack of several players for the depth of rotation.
Whereas in the 2020/21 season, the winning mechanism started working at full speed: Inter won the most, conceded the least and stumbled only twice in 34 matches.
The problems of rivals made it easier for Inter to win
Conte's team looked the most even and stable when direct competitors were in serious trouble. Juventus appointed Andrea Pirlo as head coach, who did not work a day at the helm of a professional club. The club complicated the task for the debutant, leaving Cristiano Ronaldo in the composition - a unique one in essence, but completely incompatible with any modern system in terms of characteristics. Pirlo tried to equalize the imbalance with tactical experiments, but they confused Juventus even more. Therefore, Turintsy, due to problems in defense and ineffective pressure, run the risk of finishing outside the Champions League zone.
Roma was knocked out of the rut by constant injuries, the conflict between head coach Paulo Fonseca and forward Edin Dzeko and a radical change in the tactical vector. If the mentor started with possession, pressing and active use of forwards on the flanks, then he ends up - due to a limited resource - playing on counterattacks. It was quite convincing at times, but the glasses lost on the way and the constant pressure of expectations cost the Romans too much.
Milan Stefano Pioli was blown away by the second round as the motivating coach had exhausted his resources. In addition, Zlatan Ibrahimovic's injuries left the team without a leader and a main goal scorer for a long time. In addition, the attitude of the opponents to the Rossoneri changed: they began to prepare more seriously for the matches against Milan and diligently cut off the key players of the middle line from the rest of their partners. Pioli did not have a Plan B, as it did not exist in the previous teams of the specialist.
As for Atalanta and Napoli, they simply did not have the quality to fight on two fronts and keep the intensity of the game short.
While Conte's team averaged 2.27 points per round, the pursuers stumbled.
This was especially clear against the background of fatigue in the second round, where Inter scored 41 points out of 45 possible.
The emaciation of rivals when compared was striking in the second half: after the break, the black and blue scored 51 goals - at least eight more than any other representative of Serie A.
Lukaku and Martinez did a perfect attack
During the championship, the press never tired of praising Romela Lukaku. The Belgian became the first player in 16 years to score at least 20 goals in the elite Italian division with 10 assists. However, the beauty of today's "Inter" lies in the fact that it is completely independent of the universal striker. Even in the absence of the striker, there were performers who effectively completed combinations. As many as nine footballers have distinguished themselves at least three times in the championship (Serie A record), among whom Lautaro Martinez stood apart. He surpassed 15 strikes in a season and formed a bunch of goalscorers at Inter that have not been seen since the 1958/59 season.
In the fight for the Scudetto, such skillful finalizers of attacks are vital, since the Italian championship is quite open when it comes to the density of the defense.
Accordingly, implementation often comes to the fore.
For the Nerazzurri, this figure was 15%, which made them stand out from the others.
The atmosphere in the dressing room united the players of Inter
The internal integrity of Inter also positively influenced the team's course in the distance.
After all, the atmosphere in the locker room was heating up among the pursuers one way or another.
AC Milan could not sign a new contract with Gianluigi Donnaruma - and this provoked another wave of negativity towards the goalkeeper from the fans.
For a long time, Atalanta decided who was more important to them - head coach Gian Piero Gasperini or the cult player for the region, Papu Gomez - and this put the team on the ears.
There was dissatisfaction with Pirlo's methods of work and communication at Juventus. "Roma", as already mentioned, broke off relations with Dzeko - and gave the press a reason to "fire" Fonseca almost after every defeat. It definitely didn't add to the calmness of the players. In Lazio, backstage dissatisfaction with sports director Igli Tare was growing - his purchases did not give the club the necessary progress and strengthening.
“Inter” somehow avoided global conflicts or skillfully concealed them. Christian Eriksen's dissatisfaction with the amount of playing time turned into a revival of the Dane in the final stage of the season and his "golden" goal against Crotone. The stagnation in the growth of the young Andrea Pinamonti, who sat on the bench because of the star competitors in the attack line, was compensated by Conte's support in the spring. The youngest president in the history of Inter, Stephen Zhang, undertook to solve the financial problems of the Chinese investors of the club - and at the age of 29, he skillfully turned the pressure on the club in his direction.
Even Conte, always dissatisfied with his second seasons of work at the club, in 2021, although he annoyed many at press conferences with the rhetoric “we did not buy players suitable for solving top problems,” did it less often than usual. Moreover, only in those moments when "Inter" skidded a little, due to which the next morning the press discussed, for example, not the weak play of Ashraf Hakimi, but the next passage of the coach. Antonio is used to criticism in his address. And therefore, as if deliberately relieving the players of unnecessary pressure.
The integrity of Inter was also facilitated by the creation of a cohesive team inside the locker room, which was helped by the active use of Italians in the cage. Eight people with local football citizenship at once actively helped the team to get the Scudetto, which has not been seen in Serie A from the Lombardians for the last 32 years. The integration of foreigners into the team was facilitated by the polyglot Lukaku, who speaks seven official languages and Flemish.
The strength of the inner spirit of the Milanese is also confirmed by the decision of the team to refuse additional bonuses relying on the conquest of the title. The players expressed their desire to help the club deal with the financial difficulties caused by the pandemic. This is something out of the ordinary for modern football, but the Lombardians took it for granted. Thus, they demonstrated that the respect for Inter in this team is higher than any material wealth.