Arnautovic is a weird case. It looked like he was slowly working back to fitness and he looked fine in the two starts he had. I do think a lot of this is confidence and pressure. He came in and the first thing that happens is he gives the ball away and the team concedes a goal. The rest of the match actually reminded me a bit of Lukaku against Croatia, where it seems like every chance he was getting was easier than the other but you just knew he would find a new way to mess it up. His missed header was reminiscient of Lukaku's final chance in that game where he did some weird chest control into the goalkeeper's arms when he was 5 feet away from an open net.
Regarding the approach to the match, that was my biggest issue with the game. Every team can have a poor match, even at home against an opponent you expect to beat. But we just seemed arrogant - like we thought we can get 3 points with minimal effort. I watched Verona a few times and despite them being so low in the table, they've played surprisingly well in away matches against the big teams - lost 1-0 in the 97th minute against Juventus, 1-0 loss against Milan where they played decent, and yesterday's match. They also had much more chances away against Fiorentina a few weeks ago but somehow lost 1-0. Every match I've watched of them, they looked better than you would think a team in the bottom 3 would. Our approach actually created us more problems. We need to approach these games the way we approached the home game against Udinese - relentless pressure and we had a 3-0 lead at half time. Obviously you won't always get such a lead, but I think if we approach the game in the same way, we could have been up by a few goals at half time.
Regarding Frattesi, I'm a fan of the player and think some criticism of him has been harsh. Sure, he doesn't currently fit our midfield as well as the 3 starters for the way Inzaghi wants to play. But at the same time, him getting 55 minutes of playtime in the last 7 Serie A games is crazy to me. Inzaghi needs to let him start some matches here and there, and not just with the Frattesi-Asllani-Klaassen lineup like against Benfica and Bologna. I think most of our backup players would look better if they play with the 'first 11' rather than a largely rotated team.
For example, Frattesi has never started a game together with Hakan and Barella, and we have played 26 games so far this season. Similarly in the CL, even though he started 4 games it was always with a fairly rotated team - each of his starts had Alexis also has a starter, so he pretty much never played together with Lautaro/Thuram from the start. I remember him having some nice linkup play with Thuram to setup Lautaro's goal against Salzburg - unfortunately it was a really close offside call and it was disallowed.
Anyway, my point is that he needs some chances with the first 11 to see how well he can play on this team. Like was said, he's not some average player that gets put on for the last 15 minutes just for the sake of giving another midfielder some rest. This guy can play - he may not be as controlled in his possession as Barella/Hakan/Mkhi, but he also has strengths that those players don't. Even in his limited playtime, the guy has more goals from open play than any of our other midfielders. He's actually tied for our 3rd top scorer this season from open play, along with Dimarco lol.
Regarding the approach to the match, that was my biggest issue with the game. Every team can have a poor match, even at home against an opponent you expect to beat. But we just seemed arrogant - like we thought we can get 3 points with minimal effort. I watched Verona a few times and despite them being so low in the table, they've played surprisingly well in away matches against the big teams - lost 1-0 in the 97th minute against Juventus, 1-0 loss against Milan where they played decent, and yesterday's match. They also had much more chances away against Fiorentina a few weeks ago but somehow lost 1-0. Every match I've watched of them, they looked better than you would think a team in the bottom 3 would. Our approach actually created us more problems. We need to approach these games the way we approached the home game against Udinese - relentless pressure and we had a 3-0 lead at half time. Obviously you won't always get such a lead, but I think if we approach the game in the same way, we could have been up by a few goals at half time.
Regarding Frattesi, I'm a fan of the player and think some criticism of him has been harsh. Sure, he doesn't currently fit our midfield as well as the 3 starters for the way Inzaghi wants to play. But at the same time, him getting 55 minutes of playtime in the last 7 Serie A games is crazy to me. Inzaghi needs to let him start some matches here and there, and not just with the Frattesi-Asllani-Klaassen lineup like against Benfica and Bologna. I think most of our backup players would look better if they play with the 'first 11' rather than a largely rotated team.
For example, Frattesi has never started a game together with Hakan and Barella, and we have played 26 games so far this season. Similarly in the CL, even though he started 4 games it was always with a fairly rotated team - each of his starts had Alexis also has a starter, so he pretty much never played together with Lautaro/Thuram from the start. I remember him having some nice linkup play with Thuram to setup Lautaro's goal against Salzburg - unfortunately it was a really close offside call and it was disallowed.
Anyway, my point is that he needs some chances with the first 11 to see how well he can play on this team. Like was said, he's not some average player that gets put on for the last 15 minutes just for the sake of giving another midfielder some rest. This guy can play - he may not be as controlled in his possession as Barella/Hakan/Mkhi, but he also has strengths that those players don't. Even in his limited playtime, the guy has more goals from open play than any of our other midfielders. He's actually tied for our 3rd top scorer this season from open play, along with Dimarco lol.
