An epic debut for new Inter coach Andrea Stramaccioni
With his humble but charismatic character he seems to have won over the changing room and with his background in charge of the Primavera squad there is a great expectation of him being the ideal person to phase out the older players in the squad and replace them with a selection of the most promising talents from both the first team and youth squads.
It came as a bit of a surprise though when the starting line up was announced and apart from changing to one of his prefered formations of the 4-3-3, not a lot seemed to have changed. As always Julio Cesar was chosen between the posts and as Maicon is still struggling with an injury captain Javier Zanetti was put in as right back.
I was surprised to see both Lucio and Walter Samuel in the centerback positions as I was almost certain that Andrea Ranocchia would have been given a chance but instead he was placed on the bench, another surprise came with the inclusion of Cristian Chivu as left back instead of the benched Yuto Nagatomo. Out of the two Nagatomo would have been my preference, though I had really hoped to see Juan Jesus given his debut but the Brazilian defender didn’t even make the squad.
Fredy Guarin had been tipped to make his debut in this match but he started on the bench too and so our midfield consisted of Andrea Poli, Dejan Stankovic and Esteban Cambiasso. Again I ask the question I seemed to ask a lot from Ranieri, How the hell is Stankovic getting in to the starting line up? He was a great player I can’t deny that but as I’ve said before this season he has been close to useless!
I think Stramaccioni’s choice of the three forwards was more down to lack of choices than actually thinking they were the best choice. The attacking trident was spearheaded by Diego Milito with the disappointing Diego Forlan on the left and Mauro Zarate on the right after Inter’s new boss had stated he wanted to give the talented young Argentinian another chance in the squad.
So how do I sum up this game? There’s only one word that I can think of “WOW!” It had everything, quality attacking play from both sides, good creativity to get the ball in to the box (something that has been sorely missing this season for Inter), nine goals, two sending offs and four penalties! Who says Italian football is boring and too defensive?
After the match technical director Marco Branca said in an interview for the Inter channel that he thought the penalties against Zanetti and Lucio shouldn’t have been given, and I do agree that Zanetti’s handball was unintentional but I thought Lucio’s tackle was too sloppy and the referee got the decision on that one right for me, to be fair the tackle on Guarin that resulted in Milito’s third goal appeared on the replays to be clean so I don’t think Branca can complain really as both sides got a penalty that maybe shouldn’t have been.
While I’m on the subject of Branca, the Curva Nord Ultras had a message for Moratti that was clearly aimed at the technical director who has failed to impress the Inter fans over the last few transfer windows and is an indication as to the level of disappointment our fans have towards how the club is run by its board of directors.
The banner translates as: "President, we understand that you are good at sacking coaches but when will you do it with the lapdogs and servants?"
So how did Stramaccioni do on his debut? I’d say given the short time he’s been working with the first team he has done exceptionally well, he seems to have brought back a unity to the squad and although it wasn’t a perfect display by any means it was a vast improvement on some of our recent displays. Our young caretaker coach didn’t look phased at any point in the game and from what I saw always looked calm, in control and tactically aware of what was happening on the pitch. All in all a great debut for the man we call ‘Stramala’
Our other debutant Guarin also put in a good show, he wasn’t spectacular to be honest but after not playing for months this wasn’t surprising, at times he took a few wild potshots on goal but I think he just wanted a goal to repay the support hes had from the fans. As many of you know I have criticized Zarate’s teamwork ethic in the past and although in this match he did occasionally have a few selfish moments where he took the ball a bit further than he maybe should have, I have to give him credit where it’s due, his work rate against Genoa was top-notch, he played some great passes like the one to Forlan that created the first goal and he more than deserved his goal when it came in the second half.
This was possibly our best performance this season, definitely the most enjoyable to watch. Stramaccioni should be proud of what he’s achieved in his few days in charge but a couple of the problems that have been plaguing Inter this season were still obvious, firstly despite his assist for the first goal and a few decent plays I’m still not convinced by Forlan, maybe italian football doesn’t suit him, but at Inter he seems more like the Forlan that flopped at Manchester United than the superstar of the 2010 World Cup.
The second problem is the usual of our central defence, both Samuel and Lucio are two of my favourite defenders of all time but game after game Samuel is proving too slow to be effective against most attacks and more importantly Lucio is becoming a huge liability in our backline with his rash challenges and forward runs. This for me is the main area Stramaccioni needs to look at and I feel now is the time to give Ranocchia a chance to prove himself and even promote the likes of Bianchetti from the Primavera squad to give them a competitive taste of first team action.
Things are starting to look up for the Nerazzurri and the last eight games of the season should give us an interesting insight in to what will hopefully become our future.
Follow ‘il Padrino’ on Twitter: @Don_Nerazzurri and don’t forget to check out his Nerazzurri World blog here.
For all the latest Serie A news don’t forget to check out the news section of Forza Italian Football.
Join Forza Italian Football on Twitter and Facebook.
