Inter, The Comeback Kings of Serie A

Over the years, Inter’s matches against Sassuolo have been tricky outside of two 7-0 wins for us.  The Mapei Stadium is also a tricky ground to go to. Sassuolo, traditionally have been a team that is not afraid of taking the game to their opponents regardless of who they are and they have a trademark of playing neat, tidy, short passes and have tricky players.


Sloppy & Lucky First Half

Inter got off to a good start and were the better team in the first 10-15 minutes before sloppiness allowed Sassuolo into the game. We kept losing the ball in our half, trying to play out from the back and that is a dangerous thing to do. Samir Handanovic has had a lot of criticism for his errors in goal but he was immense in keeping the score low. Deservedly, we conceded first and even there he nearly saved Domenico Berardi’s penalty. Milan Skriniar who has been immense in recent weeks and the Man Of The Match against Shakthar Donestk in midweek made an uncharacteristic error of bringing down the tricky Jeremie Boga in the penalty box. Next to him, Stefan de Vrij was also making uncharacteristic errors in possession. He nearly gifted Sassuolo a second goal which could have led to his goalkeeper being sent off. Gregorie Defrel intercepted his weak back pass and Handanovic rushed out of his goal to try and intercept the ball. He couldn’t get there in time and stepped out of the way but Defrel fell as he anticipated the touch. That is what I saw from the replays and it was very close to Handanovic getting sent off. Sassuolo can feel aggrieved that he wasn’t because he was their main obstacle to more goals.

Master Substitutions

The pattern of play continued in the second half and Simone Inzaghi didn’t waste time in making substitutions. He introduced 4 substitutes in the 57th minute. Within 33 seconds, we levelled the score with Edin Dzeko’s first touch from Ivan Perisic’s cross. That swung the game’s pendulum in our favour. We had some nearly moments before Dzeko out-sprinted the Sassuolo defence and was brought down in the box by Andrea Consigli. Lautaro Martinez was on hand to score the penalty after we missed one last week and that turned out to be the winning goal. We managed the rest of the game pretty well.

Inter’s Comeback Kings

It’s becoming a theme this season that Inter are the comeback kings of the league. This season, we have shown in 3 games, our powers of recovery to come back from a deficit to win and in the case of the match against Atalanta, draw. The positive is that it shows our winning mentality and strength of character to weather the storm and come back into it. It shows the quality we have in the team as well that more often than not, the comeback is spurred on from substitutions. It does appear as well that Simone Inzaghi is enjoying himself with the options he has in the squad.

Defensively Open

The cons of the recent games are that it has been too open defensively and we need to tighten the ship before it comes back to haunt us. We will also need to learn how to beat the press in our midfield. Just a couple of points to ponder on for Inzaghi during the international break. Joaquin Correa has been missing from his first match partly due to injuries as well and we need to get his confidence back. I wasn’t too convinced with his signing because he never struck me as a player that was constantly performing at a high level so now that he has joined us, I hope he can find greater consistency. Hakan Calhanoglu too has gone missing after the first game of the season. We hope that we can get to see the best of him. Maybe a slight tweak to the formation could do the trick.

 

Vidal

I will end by mentioning the impact Arturo Vidal had coming off the bench. I was not thrilled with his signing last season and his performances vindicated the feeling. Thankfully, Antonio Conte saw the same and Vidal didn’t play much in Inter’s run to the Scudetto. I felt he was over the hill and it was time he left but he stuck on, determined to prove himself and he has proven himself this season with some positive cameo appearances.

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