Leonardo v Benitez – Comparing Inter’s custodians

by David Swan

After witnessing his team beat Lecce 1-0 and close the gap on Milan at the top of the table to two points, Internazionale president Massimo Moratti heaped praise on the his coach, Leonardo. The Brazilian has apparently taken the Nerazzurri “above and beyond” what Moratti had dreamed of – in other words, he has managed to get the team back into contention for lo Scudetto.

Nobody else in Serie A is surprised, nor are those who follow Italian football in the least bit amazed at what Leonardo has managed to do. Inter have one of the best squads in Italy, if not the best squad, and even though they trailed Milan by more than 10 points at one point, there was always enough time for their quality to shine through and reduce the deficit.

The question that seems most appropriate to ask is how much of a difference has Leonardo made? The best place to start for an explanation is to look at the squad available to him, compared with that of predecessor Rafael Benítez. The Spaniard had a squad decimated by injuries, and as such did not have the luxury of some of the players at the disposal of Leonardo.

Thiago Motta is a perfect example. His injury problems meant he only appeared five times for Benítez – all bar one were from the bench, and in the game he did start he came off with an injury. A player who was fundamental to José Mourinho’s treble winners (he would have started the Champions League final had he not been suspended), and that has now won his first cap for Italy, rarely appeared before Christmas.

Midfield colleague Esteban Cambiasso also missed a number of games when Benítez was in charge, meaning he was without the club’s two first-choice central midfielders for important matches. Fellow Argentine Walter Samuel was injured (and subsequently ruled out for the remainder of the season) in November, but while Benítez had to make do with one less central defender, with his requests for a new one to be acquired in January falling on deaf ears, Leonardo had Italian international Andrea Ranocchia arrive in time to deal with the problems in defence.

Diego Milito is another who has missed chunks of the season under both coaches, and an attacking player was requested by Benítez as a result. The lack of alternatives saw him rely on Samuel Eto’o to perform miracles time and again, whereas Leonardo had another Italian international in Giampaolo Pazzini turn up in January to give him further options (and win him games, as he did against Lecce at the weekend).

Different personalities

In short, Leonardo has been fortunate to have a much more diverse squad at his disposal than Benítez, something Javier Zanetti pointed out upon the latter’s departure. But to explain the massive differences in their respective levels of success using the squad available would be to underestimate the human contribution of each individual.

The former Liverpool coach was, and is, aloof from his players, a modus operandi not too dissimilar from Fabio Capello. It has brought him much success with Valencia and Liverpool, but Inter’s players just did not seem to respond to his style of management. They looked like a group who were not interested in playing for their leader, and during the period of rumour surrounding a possible sacking, they were not all that vocal in their support for him.

It is in stark contrast to Leonardo, who has quite clearly energised a squad that looked incredibly despondent and given them the belief that they can catch Milan. He has made the players want to play for him, something Mourinho is particularly adept at doing and an aspect of coaching that is not as easy as it sounds. His record since taking charge reflects this – 19 games played in all competitions, 15 of them victories.

Yet, within that impressive record lays a concern for the future. Against a strong side, Leonardo does not appear to have much of an idea as to how to guide his team to victory. Whether that is down to his often talked about lack of tactical acumen, or a different reason, only he knows. He has already lost to Bayern Munich once, something which should arguably have happened twice had the Germans taken the plethora of chances they created in the first-half of their second leg match. Juventus and Udinese are the other two teams to get the better of him – the former with the necessary quality and wherewithal to produce a performance against a top side, and the latter who are the stand out team in Italy at this moment.

It is difficult to accurately compare this feature of Leonardo’s Inter to that of the team under Benítez because of the variable quality of the squad available to each man. Irrespective of that, Leo is perhaps getting away with it somewhat this season – the run-in for Serie A has only Milan and Napoli as encounters you could perhaps consider as against strong sides (to his credit, he has beaten the latter twice already this season), with Milan missing their most influential forward for that match, and in the Champions League they drew the weakest available opponent in Schalke.

Next season, however, he could find his good fortune will run out. Maybe then Italy will see how much of a difference he really makes.

David Swan is Just Football’s Italian football correspondent.

(photo credit: OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images via cvrcak1 on Flickr)

Inter Milan, Italian Serie A, Leonardo, Rafael Benitez