The constant in a shifting Inter
Inter Milan have lived through noise for months: a change of owners after Oaktree took control in May, a summer of tight budgeting, and yet another round of contract questions around the captain. In the middle of that, Lautaro Martinez keeps the compass steady. He scores, he presses, he speaks for the group. That’s why, heading into the new Serie A season, he’s the reference point for Simone Inzaghi’s side.
The Argentine’s rise at Inter is a timeline of responsibility. He joined as a promising forward from Racing Club in 2018, grew next to Romelu Lukaku, adapted with Edin Dzeko, then became the senior striker opposite Marcus Thuram. When Samir Handanovic and Marcelo Brozovic moved on, the armband went to him. Since then, the attitude hasn’t changed: defend from the front, attack space early, punish mistakes, and show up in the biggest games.
On the pitch, the picture is simple. Inter’s 3-5-2 thrives on quick wall-passes into the forwards, layoffs to midfield runners, and hard, near-post sprints inside the box. Martinez is the fulcrum. His first touch buys time for Nicolò Barella and Hakan Calhanoglu to step in, his pressing sets the height of Inter’s block, and his timing makes wing-back crosses count. That blend of edge and nous is why he finished last season as Serie A’s top scorer and why defenses tilt toward him even before kickoff.
Leadership matters because everything around him moves. Inter added depth without breaking the bank, bringing in experienced free agents to keep the rotation fresh across four competitions. Younger players look to him for tempo and tone. Teammates say he’s loud in training but sharper on match day—short instructions, quick corrections, no drama. In a group that has changed pieces year after year, that consistency is currency.
There’s also the mental layer. Inter lost a Champions League final in 2023, rebuilt belief, and stormed through Serie A last season. That arc hardened the core of the team. Martinez felt the heat at San Siro on the bad nights and fed off it on the good ones. He rarely gets flustered by droughts; he keeps taking good shots, keeps dragging center-backs where they don’t want to go, and eventually the dam breaks.
Zoom in on the craft and it’s not flashy, it’s repeatable. He peels off the shoulder to create a passing lane, checks short to fix a defender, spins to attack the cross. He’s aggressive without being wasteful. And he’s durable. Inter have counted on him for minutes across league, cup, and Europe, and he repays them with constant availability and game-to-game intensity.
What the Torino opener asks of Inter
Torino won’t roll out a red carpet. They press in bursts, they protect the box, and they turn matches into a grind. Under a new-season reset, they’ll be compact between the lines and physical in duels, trying to slow the rhythm and force Inter wide. That’s where Martinez’s movement is the pressure valve: he can drop to help progression, then sprint past a static back line when the wing-backs deliver.
Expect Inter’s plan to start with control: Calhanoglu steering the first pass, Barella carrying through traffic, wing-backs stretching the pitch. The two forwards will split center-backs to open lanes for late runs from midfield. Martinez’s job is twofold—pin the defense and be the first defender. If Torino go long, he leads the counter-press. If they sit deep, he times the near-post attack and looks for second balls around the penalty spot.
The small details will decide it. Set pieces have been a steady source of chances for Inter; Torino are rugged there, so the first contact and rebounds matter. In transition, Inter must track runners from Torino’s second line to avoid cheap shots at goal. And in the box, one clean touch from Martinez often flips a tight game. He likes a quick release off his left, but his headers at the front stick can be just as lethal when a defender loses him for half a second.
A few checkpoints for match day: How quickly do Inter find their passing rhythm? Do the new signings slot into the rotations without slowing the tempo? Can Martinez drag Torino’s line five meters deeper to create space for Thuram or midfield arrivals? And if the game stalls, who takes the brave shot from the edge to change the mood?
The bigger picture hasn’t changed. Ownership shifts, transfer noise, contract talks—those are headlines. The football is still built on habits, and no one at Inter repeats the right habits more reliably than their captain. If the season opens with a scrap, that’s fine. Martinez is built for scraps that end with the net rippling.
