Inter - Monza (19 Aug 23) [2-0]

[wera]

I'm not going to say that Arnautović will be better than Džeko. Džeko scored some important goals, mostly from situations where other of our strikers couldn't.

Still saying our striker department is the weakest, but I would go with this now and rather spend money on Pavard. We might not get a Pavard next summer.

 

[Dave54]

Just wondering...did Inzaghi avoided to put him in due to some ongoing negotiations for his sale?
If this is the case, Pavard + last minute Balogun will put an end to our disappointment.
Now please take me back to earth quickly, don't let me dream big for too much time...

you are talking about 70 mil for both. Not happening.

 

[Ares]

Why not play sensi???

To avoid injuries

 

[brakbrak]

It's way too early to make any kind of judgement. Just enjoy the win.

 

[thatdude]

Of the players that didn't feature, we also had Asllani, Acerbi, Audero, Correa, Sensi, Stabile and Stanković on the bench. All in all, a better bench than last season FOR SURE.

And if we sign a player like Pavard that pushes Darmian to the bench and makes it even stronger.

 

[magnesium]

Arnautovic looks not an exciting signing like Acerbi, but good.

Solid win thanks to proper defense and counter attack setup by our midfield. We have the best midfield in Serie A.

 

[Choppin Onions]

Solid performance. Can’t ask for too much more in the first fixture on a sweltering hot night in Milan. Hakan and Bastoni were fantastic.

 

[bubba zanetti]

Too early to judge. We'll se how we are good after first away tough opponent. Remember Lazio game last season?

 

[Damageplan]

Man Arnautovic looks real happy to be here. We all think he is not the hero we need but I feel that as long as he stays healthy he can definitely deliver some good stuff.

 

[IM21]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1693066785845662034

https://twitter.com/x/status/1693064623660900396

 

[Universe]

As I mentioned on the highly popular Inter Jections Podcast, this was the perfect matchup to start the season - a sold-out home match against a small team who we needed to get revenge on after they embarrassed us last season.

I'm not worried because it's early days but I wasn't loving our profligacy. No matter how you look at it, 3 shots on target from 22 total is pretty shit. I really don't want to see Dimarco taking 7 shots per game.

My main concern was seeing a lot of counter attacks and promising forward moves break down too easily due to the execution not being there, leaving us exposed on the counter with guys out of position.

A team like Bayern can counter with just two players, Sane and Coman, and still be dangerous. On the other hand, we really commit to these counters. We drive forward with numbers and flood the box. If we lose the ball early in transition we gotta sprint back to get back into defensive shape. Do this over and over again, and you've got some tired players.

Overall though, an enjoyable game. Lautaro's goals were great. Arnautovic, Augusto and Cuadrado had good debuts. Calhanoglu's defensive game was excellent and Bastoni was impressive too.

Thuram was solid and I enjoyed his running into space but I don't think he'll score many goals in this system. He's definitely not an out and out striker and the weight of scoring goals will fall heavily on Lautaro.

I was most pleased with de Vrij who looked like the 2019 version of himself, hopefully he can keep it up.

 

[Sawyer]

I would have gave my motm to SDV. He was fantastic

 

[IL Fenomeno]

Just wondering...did Inzaghi avoided to put him in due to some ongoing negotiations for his sale?
If this is the case, Pavard + last minute Balogun will put an end to our disappointment.
Now please take me back to earth quickly, don't let me dream big for too much time...

there is no way we got money for balogun AND pavard. we don't even have the money for pavard atm

 

[varmin]

A team like Bayern can counter with just two players, Sane and Coman, and still be dangerous. On the other hand, we really commit to these counters. We drive forward with numbers and flood the box. If we lose the ball early in transition we gotta sprint back to get back into defensive shape. Do this over and over again, and you've got some tired players.

I don't think that we will play that way against strong opposition. It will be more like against City in the final, compact team in the middle with almost no room for the opponents, waiting its moment to create something.
Against small teams like Monza, we'll see that kind of constant pressure, trying to provoke a mistake and that overflowing the box. As long as everybody is fit and we have options on the bench that looks like the right approach.

 

[ElDuccio]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1693066785845662034

https://twitter.com/x/status/1693064623660900396

I think Inzaghi derserves 7. I think a lot of coach would play Cuadrado Frattesi and maybe even Correa/Arna (only to bench Thuram) after the pre season games. Instead he saved the new players for the last minutes. Consindering the hot weather in Italy and player being exhausted in the second half, it gave the team some fresh legs. We can make good profit of it, having so much quality players is not something everyone have. And every player brings diffrent qualitys in. There is not neccesary someone better then the other one. If you need someone that use to dribble inside, you play Cuadrado. Fast player, Dumfries, good passing Dima, someone that preferes to score, Augusto... last year it was really diffrent with players like Gagliardini and Bellanova, we were forced to play with the same players.
Id like to see Frattesi from start but the good thing is that we have the players to integrate the new ones slowly, without playing them from start. Somethig that for example Milan can't do. First because they don't have other players and second because the "old" players (Krunic, Popega etc) are not good enough to play from start, so they need to risk them from start and hope that they will adapt fast.

My wish is that players like Cuadrado and Frattesi will become a second weapon like Perisic and Eriksen became in the scudetto year. But if we want to win the league, we have first to get a good defender because we are still having too much problems at the back. Someone like Pavard would be a BIG upgrade.

 

[Gal]

As I mentioned on the highly popular Inter Jections Podcast, this was the perfect matchup to start the season - a sold-out home match against a small team who we needed to get revenge on after they embarrassed us last season.

I'm not worried because it's early days but I wasn't loving our profligacy. No matter how you look at it, 3 shots on target from 22 total is pretty shit. I really don't want to see Dimarco taking 7 shots per game.

My main concern was seeing a lot of counter attacks and promising forward moves break down too easily due to the execution not being there, leaving us exposed on the counter with guys out of position.

A team like Bayern can counter with just two players, Sane and Coman, and still be dangerous. On the other hand, we really commit to these counters. We drive forward with numbers and flood the box. If we lose the ball early in transition we gotta sprint back to get back into defensive shape. Do this over and over again, and you've got some tired players.

Overall though, an enjoyable game. Lautaro's goals were great. Arnautovic, Augusto and Cuadrado had good debuts. Calhanoglu's defensive game was excellent and Bastoni was impressive too.

Thuram was solid and I enjoyed his running into space but I don't think he'll score many goals in this system. He's definitely not an out and out striker and the weight of scoring goals will fall heavily on Lautaro.

I was most pleased with de Vrij who looked like the 2019 version of himself, hopefully he can keep it up.

We don’t have enough of the sort of pass, dribble strong and technical player that Bayern, City, Barca etc. got that allows you to dominate games with ball possesion and dozen of passes pr. play where you slowly break down and find space between the lines to create and score goals. Where two man are so technically gifted that they always find space and opportunity. We also don’t really have the sort that Coman or Sane represent to just do a two man counter. Our best shot is tiring the opposite team, flood the box and overun the midfield and live on counter achieved by high pressure in this sort of games, it’s high risk for sure.

It’s not that I disagree with your concerns, I have the same. It’s just hard seeing how else your going to play with the sort of stamina, physical presence, more direct type we have at hand, that are good at this, but perhaps isn’t the most technical giftet or the best dribblers or the fastest for that matter.

We won’t play like this against better teams, we will most likely play more compact as we did against City in the CL final.

 

[Raul Duke]

As I mentioned on the highly popular Inter Jections Podcast, this was the perfect matchup to start the season - a sold-out home match against a small team who we needed to get revenge on after they embarrassed us last season.

I'm not worried because it's early days but I wasn't loving our profligacy. No matter how you look at it, 3 shots on target from 22 total is pretty shit. I really don't want to see Dimarco taking 7 shots per game.

My main concern was seeing a lot of counter attacks and promising forward moves break down too easily due to the execution not being there, leaving us exposed on the counter with guys out of position.

A team like Bayern can counter with just two players, Sane and Coman, and still be dangerous. On the other hand, we really commit to these counters. We drive forward with numbers and flood the box. If we lose the ball early in transition we gotta sprint back to get back into defensive shape. Do this over and over again, and you've got some tired players.

Overall though, an enjoyable game. Lautaro's goals were great. Arnautovic, Augusto and Cuadrado had good debuts. Calhanoglu's defensive game was excellent and Bastoni was impressive too.

Thuram was solid and I enjoyed his running into space but I don't think he'll score many goals in this system. He's definitely not an out and out striker and the weight of scoring goals will fall heavily on Lautaro.

I was most pleased with de Vrij who looked like the 2019 version of himself, hopefully he can keep it up.

Didn’t realise that was you on the podcast. Who are the other FIF members?

 

[wera]

Didn’t realise that was you on the podcast. Who are the other FIF members?

ADRossi, Chillbro and CafeCordoba

 

[Fitzy]

This was one of those games where you're just happy with the 3 points and a clean sheet. Especially at this time of the year considering the temperature and humidity.

I thought Thuram was decent. I do think he'll end up contributing more goals than the apparent general consensus.

I was really happy with Arnautovic. He actually looks like he'll be able to pull things out of his arse and pick us up some points. He'll probably score a winner against Juve in the Cup, where we will grab our lone result against them for the season (as usual). The thing with him was always the fee being paid.

Hopefully this is the season where Bastoni takes another leap in his game. He looked to be reading things pretty well.

 

[Universe]

We don’t have enough of the sort of pass, dribble strong and technical player that Bayern, City, Barca etc. got that allows you to dominate games with ball possesion and dozen of passes pr. play where you slowly break down and find space between the lines to create and score goals. Where two man are so technically gifted that they always find space and opportunity. We also don’t really have the sort that Coman or Sane represent to just do a two man counter. Our best shot is tiring the opposite team, flood the box and overun the midfield and live on counter achieved by high pressure in this sort of games, it’s high risk for sure.

It’s not that I disagree with your concerns, I have the same. It’s just hard seeing how else your going to play with the sort of stamina, physical presence, more direct type we have at hand, that are good at this, but perhaps isn’t the most technical giftet or the best dribblers or the fastest for that matter.

We won’t play like this against better teams, we will most likely play more compact as we did against City in the CL final.

We have enough to build up patiently and break down the likes of Monza. Certainly more than we elected to utilize yesterday.

We might lack a KDB but our midfielders aren't exactly unskilled workhorses either. All of them can take a shot or make a pass if the right space is created. With four mobile forwards, you've got a lot of potential there. But that's why Mkhitaryan is so integral to the squad and why I wanted at least one of Samardzic or Sensi in the squad. Partly why I was against selling Broz too.

It's more a matter of discipline, game-management and maturity than a lack of skilled players. The positives of Inzaghi's "freedom to express" tactics are that we get some very nice interplay between players. One of the downsides is that people get carried away and start playing too fast and loose.