The importance of Marcelo Brozovic to Inter Milan's midfield

Inter Milan were heroes in defeat on Wednesday night when, against all the odds, they beat Juventus 3-0 at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in their Coppa
Italia semifinal second leg. Coming back from a three-goal deficit and making the game level on aggregate they eventually went out by the cruel and dramatic means of penalties. 
One man in particular who led this comeback was Croatian midfielder Marcelo Brozovic, who despite his tender years produced a man of the match display scoring twice. The Milanese welcome Palermo to San Siro on Sunday and the dynamic midfielder will be one of the first names on the teamsheet.

It is true that Inter manager Roberto Mancini's men have been going through a tough time of it of late; 2016 has been shaping up to be an "annus horribilis" as the team have been knocked out of the race for the Scudetto and almost the Champions League. In all competitions they have won four, drawn three and lost four. What's worse is that they have only really performed in arguably three of the games. Despite this, Brozovic has been the one player who has been getting better this term and especially over the last month. He has not only been developing into a more accomplished midfielder -- like in his man of the match display in January in a 1-1 draw against Atalanta -- but he seems now to have become a goal threat.
The 23-year old had scored three times before Christmas, all in heavy victories against Frosinone, Udinese and Cagliari in the Coppa. His performances had been a mixture of promising and average, as he seemed content to simply just do his job while the team kept winning. It has been in the second half of the season however, when Brozovic has picked up the torch and in a twist of fate his performances have possibly started to answer theNerazzurri's midfield conundrum. 
In his last four games the young man from Zagreb has found his killer instinct and has registered three goals and two assists. This has been crucial to the team as Inter have now won two games back-to-back for the first time since mid-December. What's more is that his range of passing is bringing other players in to play and has gelled the midfield.
The best trio that Mancini can put on the field at the moment is Gary Medel, Geoffrey Kondogbia and Borzovic. Experiments with Felipe Melo, Medel and Kondogbia were much too static and defensive. Kondogbia, while extremely talented, is still tactically growing into his role and as his coach has mentioned, he has struggled to play in small spaces and knowing when to go and when to sit. Kondogbia, when pushed would sit and this did not complement Melo and Medel, who were already doing this job. The results were disastrous, as was seen in the first leg against Juventus. 
With Brozovic playing as the midfielder furthest up the pitch, it allowed the other two players to do their jobs and in turn addressed the balance. The Chilean could sit deep and take the ball off the defenders before looking up and finding and avenue. Kondogbia, knowing he had a man holding and a man supplying the forwards could drift, and in doing so, find space for the bursting runs that fans of the Nerazzurri love so much but see so little. Brozovic knowing this can now press on and the results have been promising. Other than the goals and assists, Brozovic has a pass completion rate of 82 percent of which an impressive 66 percent are forward passes. Out of his 22 appearances in Serie A, this year he has managed 20 key passes that have directly led to a goal or an assist, which is impressive and perhaps overlooked. 
Inter will want to use the victory against Juventus to spur them on and if Brozovic can spearhead the performance they produced that night, there is much to be positive about for Mancini. Palermo may not be in good form but Inter will still need the same intensity to be applied. If they can get three points, they have another home game against a tricky Bologna team before they face Roma.
Going to Rome and beating Luciano Spalletti's resurgent team would put them right back in the hunt for the Champions League spot they so crave. Inter still have problems, but when the midfield works well, it has a huge effect at what happens in front and in the back. Brozovic may not be the saviour for this team, but he is certainly becoming an integral part of it.