Inter Lost The Scudetto Last Summer

Date: 5th May 2011 at 8:36pm
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When Rafa Benitez was appointed as Jose Mourhino’s successor at Inter Milan great things were expected of him, even a shot at being the first team to retain the Champions League since its reformat from the European Cup.

At the time Benitez seemed an ideal choice – still in high regard on the continent even though his stock had plummeted in England after a poor campaign with Liverpool in 2009/2010.

So what went wrong? Some have pointed to and a need for investment, disputes with the board and injuries to key players. But what about a lack of tactical nous?

The friction with controlling elements of the club have been well documented and even if Benitez received the funds he desired it is highly questionable whether it would have saved his job – look at the deadwood that lined Liverpool’s bench until Dalglish came in and decided to blood the youngsters rather than rely on Rafa’s buys.

Serie A is well known as tactical league where patience is a virtue. Benitez demonstrated this at Liverpool but came up short with Inter. Lazio’s first win over Inter in 7 years was helped by Rafa’s shock debut to 18 year old defender Felice Natalino, whose weaknesses were badly exposed by Mauro Zarate. Rafa gambled and it didn’t pay off. This was only one example of poor tactics that cost Inter points.

After the derby with AC club president Massimo Moratti was less than pleased, criticising Benitez’s tactics, ‘I don’t think we were hurt by Milan’s play, it seems more to me that we didn’t play’. He also commented that Inters build up was poor, damning criticism for a team of Inters stature in such a big match.

The match at White Hart Lane against Spurs was a shining example of Benitez’s tactical failures. After Bale had demolished Inter and the most lauded right back in the world in Italy Benitez failed to come up with anything stop him in the return fixture. Some would say that it is impossible to stop Bale weaving his magic, however many Premier League clubs have blunted the threat this year with less resources than Inter can wield.

If his team talks resemble this gem of a post match comment then it would be no surprise if the players didn’t grasp his tactics either. Benitez compared Bale to Ferrari and said ‘If you have a Ferrari and I have a Volvo, you will beat me in a sprint. A Volvo is a good car, but a Ferrari is faster’ If he knew he was bringing a Volvo into the game you think he might have tinkered with it to address the pace issue.

Rafa’s next job may well silence his Inter critics, but it is unlikely he will be back managing in Italy anytime soon.

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