Saturday’s derby between AC Milan and Inter will of course be remembered by the final result, but the build-up continues to centre around the various fascinating sub-plots.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (as seen below) takes a look at the battle between Marcelo Brozovic and Theo Hernandez. Although the pair are defensive midfielder and left-back respectively and therefore are unlikely to be locked in many direct duels, the paper thinks that they are the key to the tactical mechanisms of each side.
They compare the stats, noting that Brozovic has 22 appearances in the league compared to 19 for the Frenchman, with 1838 mins for the former and 1543 mins for the latter.
Despite playing further back, Theo comes out on top in goal contributions as he has 4 goals and 4 assists while Brozovic from his holding midfield role doesn’t have a goal but has 1 assist.
Nonetheless, the Croatian has 25 chances created versus 24 chances created for the Frenchman. The former Dinamo Zagreb man has 1538 forward passes – which are his key weapon being the attacking quarterback – while Theo has 35 crosses.
