Juve-Inter, the numbers that condemn Inzaghi

Inter’s performance against the big teams in Serie A is now a coincidence. Tonight in Turin Inzaghi lost his fifth out of five match against top-ranked teams: too many to hope to fight for the Scudetto. In fact, the current -11 compared to leaders Napoli, even with 25 days still to play, looks a lot like a tombstone on the hopes of the Nerazzurri’s second star.

LITTLE PERSONALITY

—

What happens to Skriniar and his teammates in the big matches is not clear, but so far they have only lost defeats: 3-1 in Rome against Lazio, 3-2 in the derby at the Rossoneri’s home, 3-1 in Udine, 2-1 at Meazza with Roma and 2-0 tonight at the Stadium against Juventus. Too many to talk about randomness. And to think that last year Inzaghi’s team did not have this problem since in April, right on the Bianconeri’s field, they relaunched by winning 1-0 thanks to a penalty from Calhanoglu. In 2022-23 the performance against the formations on the left side of the standings was very different and it is not consoling that the Champions League qualification for the round of 16 came thanks to the success and equal against Barcelona. In the championship the problem is real and was aggravated by the knockout against a lady who was decimated by injuries.

WORST EXTERNAL DEFENSE

—

The other big problem for Inzaghi is that of the passive networks: they are already 19 in 13 days. Just to give an example, last season there were 32 in the whole championship. But of these 19 goals, the 16 scored away from home where Inter have the worst defense of the tournament make an impression. So far, Spezia (15), Cremonese (13), Bologna (13) and Monza (13) have also done better. With these numbers it is impossible to think of joining the fight for the Italian flag. The Piacenza coach had underlined in the press conference on the eve that the goal of away goals was a problem to be solved, but the 2-0 against Juve testifies that there is a lot of work to be done at Pinetina. And, after Wednesday’s midweek match against Bologna, there is the match at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo which will certainly not be a walk in the park.

DISRUPTIONS

—

Inzaghi has interrupted a streak of four successes in Serie A and above all now he has an external performance very far from what was reasonable to expect at the beginning of the season. The points won away from home have so far been just 9 out of 21: Napoli (19/21), Atalanta (16/18), Roma (16/21), Lazio (14/18) did better. Milan (11/18) and Udinese (11/18); Turin also made 9, which has the same external score as Inter.