The corporate crisisthe beautiful game, the cups raised here and there, the quarters of Champions League there within reach. the season ofInter it’s not over yet but it has already passed the point of no return: almost -20 in the standings from the summit, never running for it scudettocon 8 losses in March (and a projection of at least 10-11 total), there are no longer the conditions to move forward. Whatever happens Tuesday in Oporto, Sunday with the Juventus or in June, the era of Simone Inzaghi it ended at Spiceand even earlier against theEmpolito Monza, with the Sampdoria, last year in Bologna. All the times that his Inter hasn’t lived up to itself.
It seems paradoxical to prosecute a manager after a game in which his team had the 70% ball possessionpulled 28 volte towards goal, collected chances in series. The goal that was missed certainly couldn’t have been scored by him. Yet the nerazzurri against Spezia did not lose at all by chance, because the defeat was yet another variation on the theme, perhaps the most sensational and surreal, of a defect that originates in the foundations. Inter is one flimsy team. Like his coach. And certainly as well as his players, because it is equally true that they and the various players go on the pitch Lautarothe now former captain Skriniarthe same Brozoviclet us also Stretcher with its hysteria, the uncertain Sticks, I’m certainly not lionhearted, footballers capable of self-management and drag you out of the storm, no, they sink at the first difficulty. But the helm is on the bench. And it’s in disarray.
Inzaghi failed – and La Spezia didn’t decide anything, it was just the umpteenth proof – because he showed he no longer had the reins of this team in his hands. He probably never had them. The mitigating thank goodness they are infinite. We’re talking about a team that hasn’t done in the last two years marketsold his two best players, the ones he kept remained in a climate of constant uncertaintywith a back ghost propertyit’s a old management who struggles by trying to live (and save the armchair). More than a coach, we almost needed a savior. Is not he.
Inzaghi is also a good coach, his teams attack well, at times they are amusing, for a few months last year Inter played the best football in Europe, which hasn’t been seen in Milan for who knows how many years. But football is not alone tactics, is also heart and head. In two seasons – we can now say it – Inzaghi has failed to convey to his Inter the essence that any great team must have. Beliefbadness, personality, call it what you want. Perhaps the best word is concentration, which means many things: throwing one of the thousand chances created on goal at the right moment, not conceding a goal in the first play conceded, knowing how to hit two games in a row and not systematically melting away after a good performance. All that Inter lost the scudetto for last year, and this year they practically threw the season away. Without forgetting the managerial limits (his only request was Correaa bloodbath for Inter’s coffers) and management (changeovers that are always the same and often wrong, poor aptitude for enhancing young people as Aslan).
The verdict is (almost) unappealable. Qualification in the Champions League will not be enough, minimum wage to avoid the failure (the really cheap one). It won’t help Italian Cup, which would be the fourth minor trophy of its era (but adding them together doesn’t make a serious one). He could change something just a feat europeopass the round with Porto (possible), return to the top eight of the continent 12 years after the last time, maybe go even further, because in the quarter-finals there will be several affordable training (from the same Italians, Napoli and Milan, which Inter have already beaten in one match, a Benfica e Chelsea: it’s an opportunity for everyone). Be careful though, because not even such an enormous result, which in Milan they can only dream of, would perhaps change the substance. A bit’ Di Francesco effect in Rome, in short: you can also find yourself by chance in semifinal of Champions, and also waste the following season. Barring miracles, the Nerazzurri will have to change in the summer. That this Inter, with no money and no ideas, is able to find something better than Inzaghi, remains to be demonstrated.