Federico Dimarco: The Rise of Inter Milan's Left-Flank Machine

Federico Dimarco is an Italian left wing-back who plays for 20-time and current Serie A Champions Inter Milan. He is a vital cog in the Internazionale team because of his creative and attacking ability. Furthermore, with 24 caps for the Italian National Team, the 26-year-old is one of the stars of Italy and will be the key to any future footballing success for the National side.

Dimarco is a product of the Inter Milan academy and he made his debut for the senior team in 2014 at just the age of 17. However, he was still a raw talent needing first-team football so Inter decided to loan him out. From there he enjoyed 6 months at Serie B side Ascoli where he made 15 appearances and still managed to muster up 4 assists. The following season he was sent out to Seria A club Empoli on loan but struggled to nail down a first-team place. He only managed 12 appearances that season and consequently went back to Inter at the end of the season low in confidence and seemingly without the ability to make it in the big leagues. This led to Inter cashing in on him for €4 million and selling him to Swiss Super League side Sion. Time just got tough from there as he fractured his foot on his debut leading to Dimarco only making 9 appearances during the season. In an unforeseen turn of

events, Inter Milan exercised their buy-back clause to bring Dimarco back for €7 million and almost immediately loaned him out to Seria A side Parma where he made 13 appearances. The standout of this loan spell has to be his 1 goal which was scored against Inter Milan. Upon his return from this loan, he was then sent out on loan the following January to Hellas Verona. This deal was then extended for another year and gave Dimarco the time to make a name for himself. During the 20/21 season with Verona, the wing-back got himself 5 goals and 3 assists as he cemented himself as the attacking asset he is today. This was enough to put him on then-new Inter Milan manager Simone Inzaghi. Since Inzaghi’s appointment, Dimarco has been ever present in the Inter starting line-up of which he has now made 124 appearances in all competitions. This period includes 2 Coppa Italia’s, 3 Supercoppa Italia’s, a Serie A Championship and a Champions League final. Individually he has been included in both a Champions League team of the season and a Seria A team of the season. He has made a name for himself as one of the best wing-backs in World football.

The 22/23 season was the season that Dimarco broke into the limelight and began to get on people’s radars. In the league, he managed 4 goals and 3 assists which is decent for a wing-back but it is his underlying numbers that caught my eye that season. He made 1.9 key passes p90, 2.9 progressive passes p90 and 4.5 shot-creating actions p90. These numbers fairly reflect his creative ability and his fluency in attack. He slots into Inter Milan perfectly and is an extra creative spark that they can add to their arsenal. His crossing ability is top class and often puts the ball on a plate for the attackers. During the 2 seasons of 22/23 and 23/24, Dimarco made 63 appearances for Inter in the Seria A and in this time he attempted 400 crosses. The plethora of balls he puts into the box is enough to make any striker excited to play with him. The number of chances he can create from the left flank is mental as Dimarco make 0.49 goal-creating actions per game meaning that his play and talent create a goal every other game. These are the kind of numbers you would expect from a talented attacking midfielder, but Dimarco can do this from left-wing back.

Dimarco is often utilised as the extra man in attack with him usually coming further infield to increase the numbers lurking around the edge of the opponent’s box. As seen on the heatmap from the 22/23 season, we can see he hugs the touchline for large periods of the

game, especially in the opposition’s half. He completely takes the other team's right back out of the game and occupies the entire left-hand side. Moreover, we can see areas such as the left-hand side of the penalty area where he becomes more of a winger to get involved in the attack. This gives the front 2 of Inter Milan more room to manoeuvre without defenders being on their backs. Especially if Inter are playing against a back 3 where you would expect a defender per man which would then leave a spare defender to track the ball. The use of Dimarco in this scenario occupies the spare defender meaning it is straight man for man in attack, where you have got to back the attackers going towards goal rather than the

defenders tracking back towards their own goal. This attacking movement from Dimarco is backed up even more so in the 23/24 season as we can see on the heatmap. In the 23/24 season, he spends even more time in the opposition’s half, especially in the final 3rd. This gives him more of a goal threat as can be seen by his increased volume of shots p90. His shots p90 increased from 2.13 to 2.21 and his shots on target p90 increased from 0.65 to 0.82. The increased percentages of shots going on target demonstrate his better positioning as an attacking outlet and the

increased offensive responsibilities that Inzaghi has given Dimarco. Just looking at his shot positions over the last couple of seasons we can see how much of an attacking outlet Inzaghi has made Dimarco (the bigger the circle, the more xG per shot). Over 50% of his shots come from inside the box demonstrating just how much freedom he is given on the left-hand side. He had the 4th highest shots per game count of any of the players in the Inter Milan squad throughout the 23/24 season, beaten only by their 2 strikers and attacking midfield/set piece taker.

Don’t get me wrong, his defensive ability leaves a lot to be desired but the way Inter plays under Inzaghi allows Dimarco to ignore a lot of his defensive roles and gives him the freedom to use his better attributes. In a back 4, we could see Dimarco exposed as his 1v1 defending is weak and he is not one to win many tackles averaging just over 1 tackle per game in his career. But in a back 3, there are very few even at the level that he is at as he takes the wing-back role to another level.