It was only necessary to have a little patience with Cristian Chivu before being able to witness the first real tactical changes in this Inter compared to the previous era. The Romanian coach, as he explained several times in his first months at Appiano Gentile, had no intention of overturning the concepts instilled in the group by Simone Inzaghi, but rather to improve them by eliminating their flaws.

Among these, Chivu worked a lot on the defensive phase and on some attitudes that he wanted to completely correct. As explained by La Gazzetta dello Sport this morning, the coach has implemented a real “revolution in defense”, raising the line by almost 8 meters: “in 2024-25 the average height of the defensive line was 26.8 meters, now it is much higher at 34.7.”

The Romanian coach has worked a lot on the concept of “immediate aggression” with the aim of gaining more ground. According to the rosea, Chivu would like to go even further: “In the starting trio Akanji-Acerbi-Bastoni he sees room to further increase the level of aggressiveness of the entire defensive unit and push the line to new heights. The same confidence also in the others destined to enter the rotations, such as De Vrij, Carlos Augusto and, above all, Bisseck: among them all, the big German has the physical means and mindset to climb even more meters up.”

Other numbers that testify to the revolution brought by Chivu concern the average team position, which has risen from 51 to 55.9 meters, and the average height in ball recovery from 38.1 to 40.4 meters.