Chelsea are looking to revamp their squad over the summer and are understandably linked to a number of players from the Serie A because of Antonio Conte’s familiarity with the league. Ivan Perisic seems to be the latest name to be linked with the Blues after having a good first season with the Nerazzuri.
Gazzetta dello Sport‘s Matteo Brega has linked Croatian Ivan Perisic, who was arguably one of the brightest players of Inter Milan’s 2015-16 season, with a move to Stamford Bridge. It is rumoured that incoming Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is an admirer of the Croatian, who recently moved to Inter from Wolfsburg for a fee of €16 million and a contract worth €2.7 million per year till 2020.
His crossing and his ability to run tirelessly down the wings has been very useful for Mancini’s Inter side. However, Conte has not been known to make use of such advanced attackers, instead preferring to utilise galloping wing backs who can track back and contribute to the defensive part of the game. Besides, Chelsea boast a number of advanced wingers in their team like Eden Hazard and Willian.
Inter Milan’s reluctance
Perisic has played over 34 league games this season, registering 7 goals and 6 assists to help Inter to a fourth-placed finish. However, the Serie A giants might be reluctant to sell their top assets. Fellow Croatian Marcelo Brozovic is already the subject of intense transfer speculation and the Nerazzuri will be keen to build on a season that began promisingly for them.
Perisic remained non-committal about his future at the club some weeks ago when the initial reports of a Chelsea link first surfaced, saying if the right opportunity and offer came along, he would have to weigh his options.
The Croatian winger is currently away on national team duty preparing for Euro 2016, and Chelsea is perhaps the last thing on his mind. Croatia have been drawn with Spain in one of the toughest groups in the tournament.
Possible ways of utilising Perisic
Perisic brings a different set of skills and attributes than the more orthodox kinds of advanced wingers that Chelsea already have in the form of Pedro, Willian and Hazard. Perisic is more of a compromise between an advanced winger and an overlapping wing back. Croatia legend Davor Suker hailed him as a “playe(r) who can make the difference”.
The 26-year-old wide man formed a formidable partnership with Mauro Icardi this season, providing several key passes, assists and crosses. At Inter, his hard work and tracking back to win and intercept balls relegated Adem Ljajic, who is incidentally an orthodox advanced winger, to the bench.
1. 3-5-2
The 3-5-2 formation has been Conte’s recipe for success during his years at Juventus, where he dominated the first tier of Italian football. English fans will grunt and grimace at the prospect of this formation because of Manchester United’s football under Louis van Gaal, but Conte continues to adopt this formation for the Italian national team with a moderate degree of success.
Perisic is not exactly tailor-made for this formation, but the nimble winger will have to adapt. In fact, Kwadwo Asamoah, who was a central midfielder, was converted into a wing back at Juventus by Conte, and the Italian boss could do the same with Perisic.
2. 4-2-4
Perisic is by far more adaptable than any of the wingers Chelsea currently have. If Conte were to try his unconventional 4-2-4 formation with Chelsea as he did with Bari, the Croatian can play as one of the wingers flanking the two out and out strikers. However, the likelihood of Conte trying out such an experimental setup which hasn’t been tested at the highest level is very small.
3. 4-3-3
The 4-3-3 is the likeliest formation that Conte will adopt at Chelsea given the range of players he has at his disposal. In his first two years with Juventus, Conte was eager to try this formation out, but the lack of quality on the wings and the continual disappointments in the transfer market with the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Juan Cuadrado changed his mind. Perisic will feature as a part of the front three like he does at Inter under Roberto Mancini.
