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There is a mythical figure in the equestrian world, the main character of a novel by Nicholas Evans, whose gift is to talk to horses in such a way that they respond with huge enthusiasm to his commands. That novel, "The Horse Whisperer," was later adapted into a successful Hollywood movie, directed by Robert Redford. Looking at the career of Antonio Conte, and his similarly rare ability to communicate with and thus resurrect the fortunes of various footballers, it seems fair to call him "The Calcio Whisperer." Just look at Conte's Inter team and the list of players whom he has imbued with fresh life. Alexis Sanchez, Diego Godin and Ashley Young are a trio whose peaks can decisively be said to be behind them. When Romelu Lukaku left Manchester United, he did so as a forward who looked sluggish and unsure of himself, and Christian Eriksen, before his sale this spring, had long since lost the confidence of supporters at Tottenham Hotspur. - Serie A LIVE: Stream Juventus vs. Inter, 3/8, 3:45 p.m. ET (U.S. only)
- Serie A to resume matches this weekend behind closed doors However, in just a few weeks and months, these players have shown that they may yet prove decisive in Inter's Serie A title challenge. (They're eight points out of first place heading into Sunday's back-on-again match with Juventus albeit holding two games in hand over league leaders Lazio and one game over Juve.) Sanchez is not starting but seems to have recovered a great deal of his zest coming in as a substitute. Godin is presiding over the best defence in Serie A. Eriksen has become a significant playmaking asset and set-piece threat since his arrival in January. Young has already scored and is providing assists, while Lukaku has utterly been reborn, with 17 goals in 24 Serie A matches and 22 in 33 appearances overall. So what is Conte's secret? There are perhaps two main answers. The first is that his preferred tactical system, a back three with five players in midfield: it's a supremely pragmatic one that minimises the flaws of his otherwise gifted players. The back three means that not all of the defenders need to have extraordinary speed; there is always room for two of them to provide insurance if one of them is off the pace. The wing-backs don't need to be elite defenders, merely diligent ones. The hard-working midfielders give the playmakers creative freedom, which they generally use to devastating effect. If Conte's 3-5-2 formation were a piece of clothing, it would be a set of dungarees; not particularly elegant or easy on the eye, but a practical outfit offering great comfort and mobility. The second and most important answer is the extraordinary intensity that Conte demands from his players, along with an unquestioning loyalty to his methods. That intensity is what makes him an exceptional coach at both club and international level -- a rarity, since few have mastered both forms of management -- and helps to explain why he rarely lasts more than two or three years at each post. At Chelsea, it is arguable that his key strength -- the ability to make the best of the talent at his disposal -- also led to his downfall. Few could maintain the standards of focus and physicality that he demands, which requires that his squad needed to be replenished at the start of the summer. A problem perhaps was that his superiors, having grown accustomed to his success on a relatively small budget, seemed loath to provide him with the funds necessary to rebuild, confident that he might still be able to get by. Conte wasn't satisfied with that and so, in May 2018, the two sides parted ways despite the Italian delivering a Premier League title and FA Cup in two seasons at Stamford Bridge. In the end, just because you can work within your means doesn't mean that you should. If there is a key criticism of Conte, it may be that he relies too often upon a central cast of players and does not rotate them enough, meaning that they are susceptible to fatigue in the closing months of the season. At Chelsea, for example, thanks to a mixture of excellent training techniques and a little luck in avoiding injury, he had a core of footballers who were present throughout most of the season. He has taken a similar approach with Inter, relying heavily upon Lukaku, Milan Skriniar, Marcelo Brozovic, Stefan de Vrij, Lautaro Martinez and Samir Handanovic in goal; each of them have started at least 19 of Inter's 24 league games so far. The worry for Inter is that, of late, they have lost two of their key recent matches; they were defeated 1-0 by Napoli in the first leg of their Coppa Italia semifinal and lost 2-1 in a league match to leaders Lazio. They will look to arrest that trend against Juve. A win in that match, against the side with which Conte won five Serie A titles as a player and three as a coach, will put them right back in the mix. Yet, in the grand scheme, these critiques might seem small. Perhaps Conte is merely the epitome of the modern coach; one who, against the backdrop of an increasingly impatient fanbase, is expected to come into a club and enact a renaissance from his first week in the job. It is no surprise that, whenever a club loses its coach and is in a state of particular disarray, his name is one of the very first to be mentioned. The only question remaining is where, once he has inevitably run his course with Inter Milan, will he take his unique brand of man-management? (The thought of him and Diego Simeone swapping places, with Conte leading Atletico Madrid's charge in La Liga and Europe whilst Simeone returns to his other spiritual home in the San Siro, is particularly appealing.) For now, though, we can only watch and enjoy as, in this three-horse title race, he tries to whisper yet another modest roster to a title.
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