The 2024/25 Serie A title race is heading towards a dramatic climax with the 2023 Scudetto winners Napoli hot on the heels of current champions Inter Milan, with just nine games to play.
Three points separate Simone Inzaghi’s Inter from Antonio Conte’s Napoli and these two masters of the tactical game will pit their wits to the very end. I Partenopei won a first Scudetto in 33 years in 2023 and few neutrals thought Conte could bring them so close again, and so soon. Meanwhile, Inzaghi has picked up two Coppa Italias and the 2024 Scudetto since his arrival from Lazio in 2021, and the latest Serie A 2025 betting odds here at SBOTOP say the title is Milan bound again this season.
But there will be twists and turns to come and even Atalanta, who are trying to gatecrash the title race are only three points further back than Napoli; but six points is a lot to make up on the relentless Nerazzurri and La Dea suffered a 2-0 defeat to Inzaghi’s men just before the international break.
At the beginning of March Napoli and Inter Milan drew 1-1 and that gave us a chance to see two distinct styles, with some similarities, come face to face.
Inter’s fluid philosophy
After years of Juventus dominance Inzaghi has moved I Nerazzurri into a position where they can take the Serie A top spot for the second season in succession. He honed his tactical and strategic coaching methods in five years at Lazio and, while it took Inzaghi a little while to get Inter moving, they certainly are now. His philosophy revolves around a solid defensive base and then fast moving attacking fluidity.
Typically playing a 3-5-2 formation, Inzaghi uses two speedy wingbacks, usually Netherlands international star Denzel Dumfries and Azzurri star Federico Dimarco. With Benjamin Pavard also available the manager is blessed with players who can exploit space on the flanks and that, in turn, makes room for the central players to thrive. With Nicolò Barella and Piotr Zieliński operating in the middle, both being fluid players who can work out wide, the dazzling skills of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Hakan Calhanoglu added make it easy to overload opposition defences. And when the opportunity arises, strikers Lautaro Martinez and Mehdi Taremi are two of the best in the business.
Conte’s mental strength
Over the years Antonio Conte has been held up alongside the likes of Jose Mourinho as one of the hardest coaches to beat in the game; and his haul of four Scudettos as a manager, three with Juventus and one with Inter, tells its own story. Like Inzaghi he works with a back three system but Conte often switches from 3-5-2 to 3-4-3 to swamp the middle of the park, and the recruitment of midfield general Scott McTominay from Manchester United has proved to be a masterstroke. He uses a tight defensive structure while ensuring his players press high and aggressively at the other end of the pitch. Turning over possession high up, as well as fast breaks out of defence, have enabled centre forward Romelu Lukaku, who worked with Conte at Inter Milan, to thrive. And the Belgian striker has rediscovered his mental toughness and winning mentality under his coach.
The worry for Conte is the fall off in results in Serie A 2025 results since the departure of Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to Paris Saint-Germain in the January transfer window. Last time out, while Inter were beating Atalanta, I Partenopei missed a chance to stay within a point when they drew 0-0 away to struggling Venezia. After a run of draws Napoli have been trying to pick up wins again but, while they had 15 shots on goal they registered their fifth stalemate in seven outings.
The departure of ‘Kvaradona’ in a £59m move to Paris has probably hurt Napoli more than Conte had hoped. His superb dribbling ability and eye for an assist or goal gave Napoli the star quality and he clearly had a big influence on output. When the Georgian star left the Naples club they immediately moved six points clear at the top of the table thanks to a 3-2 win over Atalanta, but since then things have tailed off. In the first half of the campaign Napoli picked up 2.35 per game but since his departure that has dropped off to an average of 1.55, and Conte needs to find a way of pushing that ratio back up and well beyond 2.00 goals per game, otherwise he can say goodbye to the title, because Inzaghi’s Inter show no sign of slowing up.
One thing we can guarantee is that Napoli won’t lack the organisation or commitment, the question is…do they have the quality to match I Nerazzurri?
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