In his regular weekly column Inter fanatic Sam Olsen dives deep into the stories that matter to Inter’s fans looking to keep the spirit of discussion and dispute alive and well on the pages of Sempreinter.com.
If home form was what was going to carry Inter to success this year then Cagliari’s dominant victory over Inter at the San Siro should have the warning bells flashing. After watching the game one could have easily believed that old Murphy had been sitting in the stands writing his law that ‘anything that can go wrong will go wrong’ because that is pretty much what happened to the Nerazzurri during this Sunday afternoons match..
First of all before looking at some episodes in this match, credit must be given to Cagliari, whose attackers showed Inter’s own attacking players what movement and persistence was. They continually harassed Inter’s defence, chased down every ball and never stopped running. The effect on Inter was obvious as the defence failed to deal with the masses of midfielders bursting through from the deep and the constant pressure when on the ball once it had been turned over. They also took their chances incredibly well. Despite the seemingly comprehensive score line and being a man down, Inter were not camped in their own half under siege for the bulk of the match, both teams had a similar number of chances, a similar number of attacks and similar possession stats. The difference was the determination and clinical finishing that Cagliari showed in front of goal. Where Inter hesitated, Cagliari drove on. Where Inter played deliberate football, Cagliari attacked in a frenzy of speed, movement and energy.
At least three of the four goals can be put down to unusual mistakes. Many have lambasted Nagatomo for the first goal but the question must be asked why he was the one challenging a much bigger opponent for a deep, centrally hit, long ball? Surely that is where you want your tall centre backs mopping up; after all we are supposed to be playing with three of them. The second goal was class from Ibarbo, although perhaps a more established defender than Dodo would have succeeded in shielding the winger a little better. The third was a goal mouth scramble in which Inter’s players appeared hesitant to throw themselves into the meelee, while for the fourth Medel inexplicably stopped as he appeared in pole position to get to the ball allowing a Cagliari player in to knock the ball down for Ekdal’s third.
Other than the goals however, Inter looked better in possession than in matches such as Palermo. The passing looked more assured, if not a little ponderous, and the movement was also slightly improved. Cagliari just appeared to overrun them a little, particularly after Nagatomo’s dismissal. Up until the dismissal the game appeared to be in the balance. Cagliari had the upper hand but Inter were coming back into it. The dismissal, for what was a fairly soft second yellow, particularly when looking at several later challenges which were at least on the same level, if not worse, changed things. Inter fell into disarray. The players suddenly appeared skittish and uncertain as to what their roll was. Perhaps the best example of this was Gary Medel, imperious in previous matches in front of the defence; the Chilean appeared completely lost and was at fault for at least one, arguably two of the Cagliari goals. His substitution, despite the reception it got from the San Siro faithful, was entirely justified. Dodo, along with Nagatomo, was another who struggled as Ibarbo enjoyed virtually free reign down his wing. I said after the match against Sassuolo that he would face tougher games defensively and on Sunday he showed that he still has a lot of room for improvement in this aspect of his game. Vidic again showed that he is still adapting to Serie A with another frankly poor performance, highlighted by the concession of another penalty; while Juan Jesus, who seems to have been allowed the freedom to make some attacking forays, was far from a rock.
But it was not just the defence who has to answer to the critics after this result. Once again the attack failed to play with the speed required to get in behind the defence. I believed that this game would be ideal for Icardi to play in, as Zeman is notorious for his attacking play, usually leaving the defence vulnerable to intelligent runs in behind. Inter however, failed to capitalise on this. The passing from back to front was much too slow to catch the Sardinians out, allowing them to reorganise in defence. Mazzarri wants to create goals without leaving the team open to counter attacks, but this has resulted in the pace of the attack being reduced to a snails pace allowing Cagliari the freedom to get forward without the concern of being hit by a lightning fast counter.
In the second half Inter appeared to have regained their composure and balance, although how much this was down to Cagliari taking the foot off the pedal somewhat is open to debate. Fredy Guarin, on for Medel, provided impetus although not the quality to create another goal, while D’Ambrosio, on for the injured Dodo, shored up the defence although offered little else. Inevitably the game petered out in the final 20 as Inter floundered and Cagliari relaxed.
In hindsight, the decision to leave Rannochia on the bench may have been in error, the Inter captain having been perhaps the team’s best performing defender. Inter paid a high price for virtually every sloppy mistake that they made against Cagliari, both from the opposition and the referee. Mazzarri now has the enviable task of getting the team’s heads back up and putting this game behind them. Last season he erred on the side of caution after defeats, locking up the house and settling for draws to prevent a streak of losses, this season he must come out fighting for victories. The feeling is that Inter want to see progression from this squad and if Mazzarri cannot offer it then his future will soon be questioned once more.
One more thing: On a positive note young Lorenzo Creistig displayed poise and intelligence playing in a holding midfield roll for Cagliari, his distribution was neat and he played some nice balls forward into space. A player he needs to follow is Cesc Febregas, someone of similar characteristics, although admittedly a much higher level. It would be great to see young Lorenzo, a player long touted as a massive prospect, back playing for Inter one day although he would surely have taken cautionary note of two other young Inter prospects wasting away on the Inter bench in Joel Obi and Rene Khrin.
Do you agree with Sam? Discuss below in the comments section.
