Review of Inter's Season 2022-23

Inter didn't start the season well. I noticed something was not right from the pre-season results but didn't read too much into it because it's pre-season after all. We got off to a flying start in our first match and I thought, we are on track after all but we made it hard for ourselves. Things were only to get harder. We looked off the pace, short on fitness and it looked like the doubts in the summer surrounding Milan Skriniar's future at the club had an effect on him and his team-mates. The players seemed easily irritable and they weren't focused. 

We lost a lot of ground in the title race early on losing head-to-head deservingly against Lazio and Milan, less so against Roma. In between, we lost deservingly to Udinese as well. Our form picked up after losing to Roma with 4 wins on the trot before another head-to-head defeat away to Juventus but that was a punctuation of a run of 6 wins in 7 matches before the World Cup break. After the break, we started well inflicting the first defeat eventual champions, Napoli suffered in the season but the wheels completely came off in late February and March as we went on a torrid run of form. We ended the season well but there were just too many defeats for my liking - 12 defeats in total. Thankfully, we did enough to qualify for next season's Champions League. 

Our form in the Cups was different. Like last season, we needed extra time to get past our opponents in the Round of 16, Parma. The crucial matches were the two legs of the semi-finals against Juventus. We had lost to them twice in the league already, needed a late equaliser to draw the first leg but nicked the second leg to go through the final and did the job to retain the Coppa Italia. In January, we travelled to Riyadh to convincingly beat Milan and retain the Supercoppa Italiana. That made it two trophies in the bag. 

In the Champions League though, we couldn't have been placed in a worst group as we were grouped with Bayern Munich and Barcelona. We were outplayed in the first game against Bayern, won the second against Viktoria Plzen and then had a couple of great games against Barcelona to put us in the driving seat for qualification out of a tough group. We beat Barcelona in San Siro when were in poor form in the league and played an amazing game at Nou Camp which we could have won but emerged with a draw. Thereafter, the luck of the draw was favourable but we kept our end of the bargain to beat Porto, Benfica and Milan on the way to the final. The memory of the final against Manchester City is still fresh in my mind and I am still smarting from it. 

Tactically, we did very well and set up well. Offensively, I felt we could have done better. We got into some dangerous areas and forced some mistakes but didn't capitalise on them. In matches such as this, if we are not clinical or cool-headed when the chance presents itself, we will get punished and we were. In hindsight now, I think it would have been better to start Romelu Lukaku and let him have a go at the Manchester City defence and then bring on Edin Dzeko. Federico Dimarco had a great game and was unlucky not to score an equaliser when his header hit the bar and the rebound was blocked by Lukaku. The most glaring miss of all belonged to Lukaku, heading straight at Ederson from yards out. It's a hard truth to accept but at the highest stage, Lukaku and to an extent, Lautaro Martinez go missing. Lukaku has displayed that time and again for his national team and other club sides as well. Diego Milito was a less-heralded striker but he was a big-match player and always delivered for us in the biggest stages. That proved to be the difference. 

Overall, it is a good season only because of our Cup triumphs and Champions League run to the final. Looking ahead to next season, we need to refresh the squad with younger players and players with speed but the worry is that we are not exactly in a state financially to invest like that. We need a replacement for Skriniar. I welcome rumours of Achraf Hakimi coming back to us. We need a good understudy for Dimarco at left wing-back because Robin Gosens isn't the same player he was at Atalanta. We need at least one or two younger central midfielders. We need at least 3 new strikers. How are we going to afford all these changes with the club's current financial predicament? That is a worry. As usual, it looks like we need to sacrifice someone to make these signings. That I feel is just going to weaken us or at least keep us at the same level not strengthen us. The summer transfer window is a concern. Inter needs to refresh the team with younger players not by adding more old heads. How will they do it?