Everything was easy for Inter against a Monza team that was guilty of arrogance.
All that was missing were drinks, appetizers and some montages of old videos to make tonight’s Monza-Inter the closest thing to a reunion of old high school friends that you will see in the 2023/24 Serie A. However, what stimulates the nostalgia and the feeling of familiarity of the Nerazzurri fans are not only the faces of many long-time acquaintances or the very short distance from Milan, but above all the round result and clear with which the guests imposed themselves on the Brianza area, a 1-5 which does not allow appeals or replies and which launches Inter in the hunt for the three-peat in the Italian Super Cup. Despite a few missed passes by the Nerazzurri, resisting against Inzaghi’s team was not easy but it should be noted that Palladino actively contributed to enormously facilitate the work of the leaders. Monza paid for its coach’s too little pragmatic approach to preparing for the match and a series of tactical choices that are difficult to explain.
The Monza match is all in the words of Alessandro Budel for DAZN, who closes the match commentary by underlining how Palladino’s choice not to distort himself and take his tactical choices to the extreme rather than adapt to Inter’s game with practical sense and realism is was the main cause of such a clear defeat. The Brianza team certainly suffered a double disadvantage after a few minutes, but it is the overall approach that appeared far from reality. In particular, it seemed downright counterproductive the choice not to rely on Colombo: net of the different form that he and Dany Mota are experiencing, fielding the former Lecce player would certainly have helped to keep the team high, to look for the long ball, to undermine Inter’s first pressing. The decision instead of exasperate the search for possession he deprived the Brianza team of substance and points of reference in attack, making life much easier for a defensive department, like that of Inter, which certainly doesn’t need help. Palladino confirms this a worrying trend which can only be reversed with a more basic and pragmatic approach to overcoming limitations and problems of his squad.
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On the other side of the fence, Inzaghi is very good at understanding the moment and Monza’s difficulties and acting accordingly. In the first minutes Inter showed a sensational hunger, it is a beast that smells blood of the opponent in trouble and concentrates all his efforts on hitting her as quickly and as lethally as possible. An excellent approach that allows the Nerazzurri to do what they love to do more than anything else, or administer the game. A sport in which, however, Inter have shown their limits several times against Genoa and Verona, so it is not trivial that this evening Inter were able to control and absorb well the few blows launched by an opponent as insidious as Monza. Inzaghi’s team still has some way to go, but they have shown that they know how to use the intermediate gears between first and fourth, an extremely useful skill also considering a calendar which, with the trip to Arabia, is starting to get more and more intense and complex.
The most striking performance in Inter is that of Stefan de Vrij, returning to the starting 11 after almost two months. The Dutchman is pleased above all for the reactivity and promptness with which he responds to Inzaghi’s call: proactive in the construction phase and precise in anticipation, he takes care of neutralizing for Inter all those few threats that Monza manages to materialize during the match. An important signal, the one who comes from the former Feyenoord player, given Acerbi’s lack of consistency and intensity in recent matches. A good performance that stands in contrast to Inzaghi’s noisy choice not to throw into the mix, even with the result now achieved, Sanchez and Arnautovic. Although the coach insisted a lot on the need to balance his strength in view of the Saudi away match, the failure to use the two second lines gives pause for thought.
Palladino’s poor choices and Inter’s unquestionable firepower make this evening’s match the least indicative match for evaluating the performance of the pillars of Galliani’s Monza. Therefore, instead of venturing into excessive and undeserved judgments on Ciurria & co’s performance, let’s try to underline how Monza has an unavoidable need for fresh forces and new additions. It would be useful above all a midfielder to be placed alongside Pessina, given Gagliardini’s retreat in the defensive department, a midfielder capable first of all of acting as a filter and bringing order to the crucial area of the pitch, that area in which Bondo and Akpa Akpro took turns this evening, with disastrous results. Palladino’s team is having a very positive championship overall and it is difficult to think that the club wants to invest in a project that seems to be moving forward on autopilot. But the team is holding its breath and this trend, if not reversed, risks compromising the true objective of the Brianza season, which is the valorization of Ciurria and Colpani, increasingly in difficulty in recent weeks. And Maldini’s arrival is the wrong answer to a poorly understood question.