The day-after for Inter following the draw against Juventus is quite bitter, given the circumstances that led to the draw. In a game that was chaotic and left Simone Inzaghi furious, we’ve identified X things that you may not have noticed about Inter-Juventus 4-4.
1 Let’s start with the positive notes, which were harder to find in yesterday’s self-destructive spectacle at San Siro. Inter scored 4 goals against a Juventus team that had only conceded one in eight matches and generally allows few opportunities to their opponents. True, two goals came from penalty kicks, but Inzaghi’s team had numerous chances to make it 5-2 but wasted them, thus producing many more opportunities than expected. If we focus solely on the league table and disregard the nature of this draw, Inter still holds the second position and is 4 points behind a Napoli team that now faces a challenging schedule. Overall, in the last six matches, Inter has achieved 5 wins and 1 draw: a haul only matched by Liverpool in the top 5 European leagues.
2 As always in these cases, it’s natural to compare this Inter team with ones from previous seasons, all under the guidance of Simone Inzaghi. And indeed, this team concedes more goals than last year’s team, is disorganized in defense like the team two years ago but at that time had lost four matches and today has lost just one. If we must make a comparison, the most sensible not due to excessive optimism seems to be with the second Inter of Antonio Conte that went on to win the championship. That team had conceded and scored 2 goals more scoring the same amount and like today, had only lost one match. The top position was 5 points away, versus 4 points today.
3 Now onto the negatives. The first point is that Thiago Motta continues to be a coach capable of seriously upsetting Simone Inzaghi’s game plan. By deploying Weston McKennie and Nicolò Fagioli in more advanced positions and leaving only Locatelli behind, he created significant problems for the Nerazzurri. The battle between the two coaches played out similarly to last year’s Inter-Bologna match in the Coppa Italia: Motta’s formation was successful, Inzaghi found countermeasures mid-match but then the opposing coach changed the game with substitutions, particularly with Kenan Yildiz.
4 Inter is showing serious issues in its defensive phase. The four goals conceded to Juventus were each worse than the last. On three occasions, the Nerazzurri had set up their defense, while in Yildiz’s first goal, the team recklessly overcommitted with a two-goal lead, sending even Stefan de Vrij up for a high-pressure offensive from a throw-in. Moreover, the statistics show that Inter attempts to press its opponents even higher up, but does so with insufficient intensity and speed.
5 Hindsight is always 20/20, but Inzaghi’s substitutions have come under intense scrutiny. It was not difficult to predict that deploying Yann Bisseck in such a delicate situation would be risky. As expected, the German, placed on the same side as Denzel Dumfries on the right, was crucially at fault – together with the Dutchman – for two of Yildiz’s goals. The decision to systematically reflect on the substituted players once again comes into question. The poor impact of Davide Frattesi on the game was less predictable. While it’s clear that the player from Rome is not a playmaker, his lack of robustness, such as in his missed tactical foul for Juventus’s 4-3, is perplexing. Piotr Zielinski might have been more useful in controlling the ball with a 4-2 lead.
6 Simone Inzaghi must quickly address the players’ mindset and the flaws
