Correspondent of the magazine "Football" and a permanent author of Football. ua Sergey Shevchenko assesses the changes that have occurred with Milan Inter Milan.
Do I feel disappointed? No, I would say that Inter's actions are dictated by common sense. (Massimo Moratti, ex-president of Inter, about the club's transfer campaign) Inter this summer for the first time in recent years remained in the shadow of fellow countrymen. While Milan rotated another loud transfer, Nerazzurri engaged in point selection. Pietro Auzilio, sports director of the club, explained this pragmatism with an unwillingness to go beyond the limits set by the financial fair play ("We thought that FPP would be more mobile and flexible, but found it was not so"). It has happened a long time, already from the season-2011/12, the lack of a team in the Champions League, because of what counts the "revenue". If the PSG, trying to get away from the restrictions, has arranged a loud adventure that can break the existing in the football system, Inter did it differently, carefully arranging a strategy around several key characters.
Old "wolves" The most important change in the club is the change of the head coach. Inter in the spring began to look for a replacement for Stefano Pioli, and the appetites of the club captured the imagination, the conversation was even about Antonio Conte. The most interesting candidate was Diego Simeone, an ex-Inter player who could have excelled himself in Serie A, but El Cholo did not want to leave Atletico,. So Nerazzurri came to the option with Luciano Spalletti. This was the case when the interests of the coach and the club completely coincided: Luciano left Roma, quarreled with Francesco Totti and, as a result, lost the confidence of the fans, and Intel needed an experienced specialist who can quickly put the game.
The harbinger of Spalletti's appointment was the arrival in the club of Walter Sabatini, the ex-sports director of Roma, who worked together with Luciano and appreciated his coaching abilities. Sabatini took the original post on May 10, becoming the technical coordinator of two clubs belonging to Suning Company - Inter and Jiangsu. On June 9, the new head coach of the Milan club was appointed Spalletti.
His arrival means a change of manner of play. The module will remain the same (4-2-3-1), otherwise it will be filled. Under Stefano Pioli, the team more often attacked with flanks, using canopies - in the last season, Inter hung on average 32 times per game, this is the first place in the league with a large margin. The arrival of Spalletti means that the role of the middle field will increase. His Nerazzurri will acquire features previously inherent in Roma: a more proactive football with an abundance of gears - both short and long.
The Florentine Bundle A fundamental change in the interesting pair of opornics, which came from Fiorentina. Borja Valero, one of the most original Serie A players, at 32 years will finally try himself in a really strong team (youth period in Real does not count). He has already become the think tank of Inter, switching the game from one direction to another. Borha, however, is not at all a standing playmaker-raspasovschik: in the winning game with Roma (3-1), he ran the most in the composition of both teams - 12.5 kilometers. This amount of work, coupled with the thoughtfulness of the actions, allowed Inter to seize the initiative in the second half.
The second in the covered distance was Matias Vesino, partner of Borja, who also came from Fiorentina. Both are endowed with both creative and destructive functions. Vesino is by no means a "bulldog" a la Gattuso, the benefit previously performed in more attacking positions. His strength is physical data, in air duels the 189-centimeter Uruguayan will be an excellent assistant to the 176-centimeter Spaniard. Also worth noting universality: Borja can play an attacking midfielder, the benefit is Gagardini with Brozovic. Another positive factor is the progress of Joao Mariou, who feels more confident next to such a master as Valero.
In general, Inter added brains. The Kondogbia-Gallardini bunch, played last season, flaunted the dimensions, but the ambitious team needed something more than 387 centimeters in height for two. As a result, Kondogbia in the preseason was marked by the most cunning own goal and went to Valencia, and Gagardini, definitely a talented performer, has yet to gain experience.
The MMM collapsed The problem of Inter was the defenders' game. Pruning, positional bloopers, fouls in his own penalty - the past season will long dream Nerazzurri fans in nightmares. One of the main vectors of summer breeding was the formation of a new line of defense. From the previous basis, only the Brazilian player Miranda. Perhaps he will win a place in the start of D'Ambrosio - one of the few who has grown over the past year. His rival, Joao Canselou, is only rented with the right to buy, and the next two months will be missed because of an injury.
On the left flank, after all, they bought Dalbert from Nice. The game with Roma showed that the epic with his transition was not in vain, this 23-year-old player knows how to defend himself, and connect on the flank. Certainly this reinforcement against the background of Nagatomo. In the center of defense will now play 22-year-old Shkrinyar, who showed himself in Sampdoria. It's far from a fact that the dimensional Slovak will show itself as a model of reliability, but he, like Dalbert, has an obvious plus - age. Under the guidance of Spalletti, they will be able to progress. A prospect is emerging for the next few years, which was not the case with Medell and Murillo in the composition. The MMM trio disappeared simultaneously with the Juventus Air Force trio, and Inter fans, unlike Bianconeri, are unlikely to regret it.
Around the Inter-group "attack" there were a lot of rumors. Whoever they were interested in: Neradzurri: Mertens, Di Maria, Keita, Schick - the last two were actively and actively predstila for Inter, but other clubs were more persistent. On the other hand, the interists have kept Perisic, who was traded by MJ, and are now going to increase his clausula. As a result, the center forward and two flanking midfielders / hitters remained the same as last season. This is rather a plus, especially since Ikardi, Perisic and Kandreva are strong performers, complementing each other well. Inter appears an attacking trio like the Neapolitan.
The difficult task of Spalletti: to find a common language with Icardi, the captain of the team and an extremely capricious person. Signora Luciano, however, will be easier than with Totti, because for the Emperor the mountain was adored by his fans, while the ultras of Inter are suspicious of Ikardi. Conflict Mauro with the fans managed to husk due to the high performance of the Argentine. This season, he also started great, the ability to navigate the penalty area does not take him, but this is the case when a strong link may be weak - Ikardi is also a selfish footballer pulling a blanket on himself.
So, let's see what kind of basis looms:.
Khandanovich - Kanselu (D'Ambrosio), Shkrinyar, Miranda, Dalbert - Vesino, Borja (Galliardini, Brozovic) - Kandreeva, Joao Mariou (Borja), Perisic - Icardi. What to expect?.
The struggle for a place in the Champions League. Inter all the cards in hand, because Italy from the next season received four direct tickets to the group stage. Nerazzurri's competitors are likely to be compatriots from Milan (we recently compared these two teams), who still have to put into practice a powerful reinforcement of the composition, as well as Roma, the ex-team of Spalletti. As the personal meeting showed, Inter is at the moment stronger, the Romans still need to adapt to Di Francesco's game model. Of course, Jallorossi with their miracle sportsman do not sit still, Shick's transfer somewhat changes the layouts, but Inter's chances of getting into the four are certainly not lower than 50%. An important advantage is the lack of European Cup matches, here you can even draw an analogy with Chelsea Antonio Conte, but for a full-fledged struggle for the championship Spalletti wards are unlikely to have enough safety: some players are too young, others do not have a worthy alternative.
It is too early to talk about the Scudetto, which is confirmed in both the Spalletti and Stephen Zhang interviews, the son of the club owner. To drop Juventus from the throne is a task of colossal complexity.
The current coach of Inter, it was not possible for several years in Rome, even having at hand such masters as Dzeko, Salah and Nainggolan. The new team is just being formed, it still has to find stability, and in fact, in addition to turintsy, at least Napoli, which has a stable base. Nevertheless, the application for progress is already there, the first two matches of Neradzurri were great, at the team level from the Champions League. With this Internet will be considered.
Author: Sergey Shevchenko.