So far, Federico Dimarco has been outstanding this season in all competitions, especially in terms of output.
The elite left wingback currently leads the Serie A with assists and also in terms of goal involvements this season, and is just one higher than his fellow Inter teammate Lautaro Martinez.
It has translated into him (Dimarco) also being very crucial for Inter Milan, as they are currently top of the Serie A table with the most goals scored in the league.
How is Federico Dimarco so impactful, and how much of an offensive commotion has he been so far?
Early Rise!
Federico Di Marco is a graduate of the Settore Giovanile, Inter Milan’s youth academy, which is famously known for producing players like Leonardo Bonucci, Giuseppe Baresi, Riccardo Ferri, and, most recently, Sebastiano Esposito, who is on the rise to stardom.
Di Marco made his debut for Inter Milan in a Europa League game against Qarabag in 2014 at age 17. After which, he made his Serie A debut at the last game of the season in a 4-3 win against Empoli.
The Italian wingback made several loan moves to teams like Ascoli and Empoli in 2016, where he was deployed in the left-back/wing-back position. The then-youngster was eventually sold to Sion in July 2017 for £3.4M and was bought back by Inter the following year in 2018.
He then went on two more loan deals to Parma in 2018 and Hellas Verona in January 2020 after spending the first half of the season at Inter Milan.
Since being recalled by the then Inter manager Filippo Inzaghi in the summer of 2021, he has gone on to blossom in the wing-back role and has been nothing but class ever since.
G/A output this season
Federico Dimarco has been exceptional this season, as he leads the league in assists with 14, doubling that of Armand Lauriente of Sassuolo and Jesús Rodríguez of Como, who have both accumulated 7 assists in the league this season.
If you take a look at his last six games in Serie A, he has accumulated 10 goal contributions in his last six games in the league, which included a hat trick of assists against Sassuolo; a 10 out of 10 performance against Pisa, where he set up his teammate twice and got a goal; and his latest outing was a rocket of a finish in the game against Genoa.
The Italian international is already the highest assisting single-season full back in Serie A history and is now on course to break the record for the most single-season assists in Serie A history, set by Papu Gómez at 16 in the 2019/2020 Serie A season.
Federico Dimarco has also broken a few records, like being the first fullback to win player of the month since its commencement. First Inter Milan fullback with three assists in an away game since the ‘04/’05 season. Lastly, according to Opta, Dimarco became the first defender in Serie A history to record 9 assists in 24 games since the data became available in 2004/2005.
Most notably, Federico Dimarco is now in the top 3 assisting wingbacks/fullbacks in all-time Serie A
Credit: Nano Banana with information gotten from Transfermarkt
Beyond the G/A and into the xG
Beyond Di Marco’s G/A, his xG also backs that up, with Federico being the player with the most expected assists in Serie A this season.
Federico Dimarco is in the 99th percentile for assists (14) and expected assists at 12.48, according to footystats.
The Inter star leads the league in key passes per game at 3.0 and has a total of 74 key passes, which is the 99th percentile, and is also in the 99th percentile for crosses at 225 and 10.20 per game. He is also in the 99th percentile for successful crosses (79/225), and 3.58 out of 10.20 completed crosses per game, amounting to 35.11% completed crosses, which is in the 82nd percentile.
This is evident not just in the eye test but also translated into the fact that he has created the most big chances in Europe’s top 5 leagues (24) ahead of players like Bruno Fernandes, Michael Olise and Lamine Yamal.
Credit: Statmuse
Tactical point of view
Credit: designed from sharemytactic.com
Inter Milan line up with a 3-5-2 system, especially in transition, and build a solid 5-3-2 formation when the opponent has the ball.
In the formation, the two wide midfielders (which I will be focusing on today because of Dimarco) often attack the wide areas, which is why Dimarco was integrated into the wing-back position, as his on-ball strengths, like passing and crossing, align with those of a dynamic wing-back.
Dimarco has the will to overlap higher up the pitch, and he is also being covered by Alessandro Bastoni, who is the best centre-back in the league and is now utilised at left centre-back. That has taken some baggage off DiMarco’s defensive duties, as his defensive attributes came under scrutiny in the UCL semi-final against Barcelona, where his defensive abilities were undermined by the 18-year-old wonderkid Lamine Yamal.
It has made Dimarco more engaged in the final third, where he attacks the wide areas more and commits more offensively. According to Passione Inter, his former coach Stefano Vecchi, who coached him for his youth years, had this to say about Dimarco in 2021: “Federico played left-back but was a winger; he was always up front.”
According to Football Italia, when Bergomi was interviewed by La Gazzetta dello Sport, he believed part of the reason Dimarco has been exceptional this season is the load management, and he said this.
“The thing that stands out the most this year is that he plays lots of games for the full 90 minutes. In recent years, he struggled with that, so in my opinion, Cristian Chivu’s management has been very good.”
Bergomi even gave an example from a Coppa Italia game, and this is also supported by the fact that he has started 21 of a possible 27 Serie A games this season.