The return of Wesley Sneijder has been a long awaited moment for the Nerazzurri fans. After struggling for fitness following an injury he suffered in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup, the Dutchman finally made his first Serie A start in last weekend’s clash at the San Siro against AS Roma.
This was Sneijder’s second appearance for the Nerazzurri since his injury after he had made a substitute appearance in the previous week against Bari, as well for the fact that his opening goal against Roma was his second in as many games. What is most interesting about Sneijder now is the new environment that Leonardo has set him in.
Under Jose Mourinho, Sneijder played the trequartista role but further up the pitch in the Portuguese tactician’s 4-2-3-1. In Leonardo’s setup however, Sneijder plays the same role but a little deeper in a 4-3-1-2 formation. Now although it might sound a moot point to quibble over the differing nuances between the two formations, as they are both but variations of the all-encompassing 4-3-3, it does bear pertinence to say that it affects the relation of space to movement for whoever plays in the trequartista role.
In fact, Sneijder has much more space in front of him to drive towards and can thus burst into the box from a deeper position. It also makes him a constant presence in and around the two arcs (the one at the center circle and the other being at the top of the penalty box) when Inter press the opposition, as opposed to playing so closely to the striker in Mourinho’s 4-2-3-1. It is not particularly disadvantages for Sneijder to play so high up the pitch of course; it simply made him fit better in Mourinho’s tactical setup.
In fact Mourinho’s Inter team [and indeed most of his teams] emphasize quick and short passing in and around the final third of the pitch. This is much easier in a 4-2-3-1 when the four most advanced players play so close to one another. Furthermore, Mourinho’s decision to push Sneijder so far up the pitch also had to do with stifling the Dutchman’s propensity to shoot from outside the area instead of looking for a pass.
In effect Sneijder has always had a habit to shoot when he got sight of goal more often than to look for a pass. Through coaching and playing him higher up the pitch and closer to his teammates, Mourinho was able to change that aspect of Sneijder’s game without making him think too much about it.
The transformation of Sneijder becomes all the more evident once the aforementioned change has been understood. During his season under Mourinho Sneijder only scored four Serie A goals, of which only one was from open play. A statistic that indeed bears weight when we look at his last season at Ajax when the Dutchman netted 18 times in the Dutch Eredivisie and nine times in his following season for Real Madrid (his second season was one marred by injuries and thus will not be taken into account). Under Leonardo however, Sneijder has already hit two in two games and this has all to do with how the Nerazzurri playmaker features in Leonardo’s system.
The biggest difference between Leonardo’s system and Mourinho’s is that the Brazilian has done away with the double pivot midfield of Thiago Motta and Javier Zanetti to only play with a single midfield pivot in the form of Motta. The difference is far more crucial much beyond the fact that it offers less defensive cover. What this creates is a midfield environment where Sneijder has passing options all over the pitch. In the game against Roma both Esteban Cambiasso and Houssine Kharja flanked Motta and had freedom to move forward and support the attack.
Along with Samuel Eto’o and Giampaolo Pazzini ahead of him, the two midfielders offered extra out-balls at either sides of Sneijder. The marauding Maicon on the right offered yet another option farther out wide, while Yuto Nagatomo (once he breaks into the squad) will supply yet one more passing option in the same manner as Maicon does but on the left flank.
The conclusion I am getting at thus becomes an obvious one: Sneijder is able to operate in this deeper [and indeed more natural] trequartista position because he has passing options everywhere on the pitch. Furthermore, Leonardo seems to have liberated Sneijder a bit as well, prompting him to shoot more from long-range, which was apparent in the match against Roma when he managed six shots (with only one off-target) including the one he scored from.
It is undeniable that Leonardo has somewhat re-invented Sneijder. Although saying that the Brazilian has ”re-invented” him may also be slightly misleading. It would be more accurate to say that Leonardo has returned him to his former self, by allowing him a much freer role than under Jose Mourinho. In Leonardo’s new setup, Sneijder is able to take advantage of his great passing range due to more of his teammates making runs forward as well as he enjoys more space to shoot from outside of the area thanks to the space created by his teammates’ runs that stretch and pull opposition defenses.
We have to stress that Mourinho’s decision to play Sneijder in his 4-2-3-1 was not flawed however. The Portuguese is very demanding of how his teams play and this was simply the way to get the best out of Sneijder in his formation. In fact Mourinho did start out the season playing a 4-3-1-2 formation with Sneijder as the trequartista.
The Dutchman ultimately struggled however as Mourinho retained the double pivot system and thus left Sneijder isolated in midfield and unable to influence the game due to heavy marking. Therefore – with the pressures to succeed from Massimo Moratti’s own European ambitions and the Inter supremo’s heavy financial backing that season – Mourinho switched to the 4-2-3-1 that pushed Sneijder farther up the field and away from the heavy and congested Serie A midfields in order to facilitate and accelerate his adapting to Serie A.
The switch proved a masterstroke as Sneijder went on to lead Inter to a treble of trophies. We must after all remind that Sneijder proved the most influential player domestically and in Europe for Inter in his very first season in Serie A, leaving Leonardo with a tough act to follow in his interpretation of the Dutchman’s trequartista role [as either a fourth midfielder or a third attacker] in his Inter side.
Join Forza Italian Football on Twitter and Facebook.
