This is proving to be a difficult season for Inter. The new dawn has proven a false one, the boy-wonder Stramacchioni is being found out a little tactically, and their cross-city rivals are stealing their thunder with their young forward line.
Interista, it is fair to say, could reasonably feel a little hard done to at the moment. From the midst of this malaise, inconsistency and uncertainty, though, come the factoids that stat-heads like myself thrive on, and Inter find themselves in the middle of one of those periods at the current time.
This season has also seen, perhaps, the beginning of the phasing out of Diego Milito’s use by the Neroazzuri. He completed only 11 of the 20 Serie A games in which he featured this season, and only 4 of the 13 victories – certainly, when Inter were trying to play out the victories, it was his legs that were being rested on the touchline.
However, there’s more to it than that. Milito scored nine goals for Inter this season, across eight games, including the double against Juventus in the game that ended their 49-game unbeaten run. Most recently, he scored against Chievo in Inter’s victory over the Flying Donkeys the weekend before last. Given the diagnosis of his knee injury, it is fair to say that will be both his last goal, and last appearance of the season.
In each of the eight games Milito found the net this season, he found himself on the winning side. That fact, in itself, would have given Stramacchioni a little quandary. Milito is, obviously, still well able enough to find the net in Serie A.
However, either he wasn’t, or he wasn’t considered to be, fit enough to finish the ninety minutes, which served to limit his effectiveness. However, Inter still needed his goals – so far they have only won four games in which he hasn’t scored.
The rest of this season may well prove to be very important for both Inter and Milito. The club need to maintain a level of consistency in performance, to prove they can cope without the likes of Wesley Sneijder, and for Stramacchioni to ensure he remains in his job into the next season. It will also prove important, now Milito is missing, that they can replace his goals – something they have failed to do thus far despite sitting fifth in the table.
The next league game for Inter is a massive one – the derby against a resurgent AC Milan. It is an interesting counter-balance that just as Inter have lost their biggest goal threat and look to be struggling to score, Milan have taken flight with a new striker, who, of course, used to play for Inter. Stramacchioni will have a chance to sort something in midweek, with the return against Cluj, but Inter will need to be more competitive next week than they were in their 4-1 defeat at Fiorentina this weekend.
As it stands, Milito holds a more than impressive record and his place in Inter folklore is assured whatever he does between now and the end of his career. However, looking to the future it remains to be seen how, or whether, Inter will be able to balance their need for his goalscoring with not playing him for a full ninety minutes and his growing injury problems. If the hole is filled by the time he returns, he may find himself surplus to requirements, legend or not.
Milito’s Goals In 2012/13.
- W – Pescara (a) – 1
- W – Torino (a) – 1
- W – Fiorentina (h) – 1
- W – Bologna (a) – 1
- W – Sampdoria (h) – 1
- W – Juventus (a) – 2
- W – Napoli (h) – 1
- W – Chievo (h) – 1
