The secret behind Inter's Champions League success: Simeone Inzaghi's contenders are no fluke

Simone Inzaghi's Inter had a solid start to the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League season and have big chances now to end up in the top eight of the league phase. The Nerazzurri have 13 points after five Games (one draw against Manchester City and four wins in a row) and showed some impressive results, also rotating some of the big stars in key Games against Arsenal and Pep Guardiola's side in the opening act of the campaign. On Tuesday, the Nerazzurri were able to win their fourth Game in a row after beating RB Leipzig 1-0 at home. 

Inter are comPeting to win their back-to-back Serie A title but also aim to do their best in the European tournament after reaching the final in 2023 before losing to City, 1-0. After that disappointment, the whole environment felt that they could actually make it again. This season, while other big teams such as PSG, Real Madrid and Man City are struggling, Inter are pushing hard from the beginning of the tournament to show they are comPeting for it. 

It's not a coincidence that the Nerazzurri have won four out of the five Games played, including a 1-0 win against Arsenal, and still haven't conceded a goal so far in the five matches. Also, coach Inzaghi has been a master in the rotations between the two comPetitions played. If we look at the players who played the most minutes in both completions and we exclude the starting goalkeeper Yann Sommer, the five players are different in both. 

In the Italian Serie A, Henrikh Mkhitaryan is leading the group, with Marcus Thuram, Alessandro Bastoni, Federico Dimarco and Lautaro Martinez following him. In the European campaign, there are not even the two top strikers in the top five names with more minutes as Mehdi Taremi is the leader after Sommer, with Denzel Dumfries, Piotr Zielinski, Stefan de Vrij and Yann Bisseck after him. 

These rotations are the reason why Inter look fresh every three days and this is how Inzaghi explained it to Sky Italy after the Leipzig Game.

"We have tools to understand who can play and who can't. These tools tell us who has recovered and who hasn't. This helps us. Sometimes we use them a lot, sometimes we don't want to do without that player and we look at them less." 

Inzaghi is working magically at Inter and he's able to rotate his players in the best way possible. If anything carries them to glory domestically or abroad, it will most likely be that undeniable depth that has helped them get to where they are so far.