Inter - Udinese (15 Dec 18) [1-0]

[Irequis]

The first half displayed our best passing game. We moved, interchanged, gave, and took passes fluidly. However it came with the great cost i.e. no one was able to shoot. All that build-up from Icardi and Politani just fell to Borja's kitten shot or to Keita who unabled to escape himself from his marker.
The start of 2nd half was very worrying as we coughed up pssession easily and conceded easy chances in the short span of time. Luckily it was mandragora that we faced not mandzukic so we did not concede.

Overall it was a great game. I have no idea why people said the game sucked because we repeatedly penetrated their defence although we whiffed the chances.

 

[chipschups]

We only need someone like Radja who can shoot from distance and finished all the chances we had.

 

[RobertMugabe]

The first half displayed our best passing game. We moved, interchanged, gave, and took passes fluidly. However it came with the great cost i.e. no one was able to shoot. All that build-up from Icardi and Politani just fell to Borja's kitten shot or to Keita who unabled to escape himself from his marker.
The start of 2nd half was very worrying as we coughed up pssession easily and conceded easy chances in the short span of time. Luckily it was mandragora that we faced not mandzukic so we did not concede.

Overall it was a great game. I have no idea why people said the game sucked because we repeatedly penetrated their defence although we whiffed the chances.

It's not an achievement to penetrate their defence, they've won 1 of their last 11 games. The expectation was that we would comfortably dominate, even without all 2 of our midfielders starting. The game was a disgrace. We failed to score with 70% possession and 20 shots. That's 63 minutes on the ball with no goal! Against fucking 18th place! The only reason we aren't in total free-fall right now is a godsend penalty. We should have been much, much, much better.

 

[CafeCordoba]

That's a good point. Slight difference position in Fofana's arm and we might be talking about a traditional December crisis.

 

[ADRossi]

Our attacking football is fundamentally broken.

 

[varmin]

It's not an achievement to penetrate their defence, they've won 1 of their last 11 games. The expectation was that we would comfortably dominate, even without all 2 of our midfielders starting. The game was a disgrace. We failed to score with 70% possession and 20 shots. That's 63 minutes on the ball with no goal! Against fucking 18th place! The only reason we aren't in total free-fall right now is a godsend penalty. We should have been much, much, much better.

This is opinion of somebody who only check the statistics but not dig deeper. First - Since D.Nicola has taken over they have 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses - against Atalanta and Inter. Their win is against Roma - team which we were incapable to beat. If you didn't pay attention most of the time they defended with all of their players which makes difficult to break them down. We had enough chances to score but somehow we wasted all of them. This is not a disgrace, because we didn't stop trying even when got the lead. Disgrace is to play for 0-0 against Tottenham or to stop attacking when just got equalizer against PSV because you are hoping Barcelona to win.
This is not a computer game when you can beat comfortable low table shitty teams. This is real life when sometimes you have matches like this and have to struggle to the very last moment.

 

[yoszee]

We only need someone like Radja who can shoot from distance and finished all the chances we had.

Let's take Dimarco back.

 

[Devious]

Looks like we didn’t play all that well?

According the polls, Icardi and Joao Mario played good? Yes?

Actually our players were trying so hard but the lack of quality in midfield was our enemy unsurprisingly, Joao was ok he had moments and didn't lose the ball much, Valero on the other hand have had like 7 laughable shots way off target and more than 10 miss pass, Brozo seemed tired and gave the ball away easily, Keita had problems controling the ball as Spletti tried him deep as SS he couldn't find spaces but he lookedbetter and was able to create chances when he was moved later wide to the wing, though Perisic was introduced in the second half and only then we're able to get a Penalty from his constant good crosses from the left.

The team overall looked mentally shaked, I think scrapping a win this day was a miracle.

 

[A.l.i]

Borja Valero's finishing and shooting ability is rapidly rapidly declining. Its like he doesn't want to shoot, and he's just forced to.

 

[Dogen]

That picture of Marotta celebrating Icardi's ice cold “spoon” with Zhang and Zanetti in the stands still doesn't feel real.
More like a funny shoop.

It was the “game after” (being eliminated from the Champions League) and I was hoping to see two things: the players giving everything they had and 3 points at the final whistle. Check, and check.

I've also seen the Ghost of Winter Past multiple times during the game (a good but scoreless first half, a lot of energies spent without being able to capitalize, the difficult start of the second half, the free header missed by Icardi from Keita's bullet cross, but also a couple of dangerous passes too much in the last minutes), but that was expected.

Winter will come, but it's not time yet.

 

[andrei]

Borja Valero's finishing and shooting ability is rapidly rapidly declining. Its like he doesn't want to shoot, and he's just forced to.

First of all, shooting and finishing ability were never his strong attributes.
Second: it's the same situation like last year. Too many games for an old fart. At the beginning of the season when he played as a substitute and was "fresh", he was pretty good. Remember Tottenham game at home.

I really don't understand Spalletti here. He has no stamina to be a box-to-box, not sharp enough to play high in the midfield. But he could be more than useful deep in the midfield alongside Brozo or as a Brozo substitute. To play him 2 a week as a starter is insane.

 

[Ed.]

First of all, shooting and finishing ability were never his strong attributes.
Second: it's the same situation like last year. Too many games for an old fart. At the beginning of the season when he played as a substitute and was "fresh", he was pretty good. Remember Tottenham game at home.

I really don't understand Spalletti here. He has no stamina to be a box-to-box, not sharp enough to play high in the midfield. But he could be more than useful deep in the midfield alongside Brozo or as a Brozo substitute. To play him 2 a week as a starter is insane.

Do you suggest we should play with Gagliardini?

 

[n4l]

Do you suggest we should play with Gagliardini?

Everybody is a whiner for the guy on the bench

 

[thatdude]

Do you suggest we should play with Gagliardini?

Yes.

 

[Sassuolu]

That picture of Marotta celebrating Icardi's ice cold “spoon” with Zhang and Zanetti in the stands still doesn't feel real.
More like a funny shoop.

It was the “game after” (being eliminated from the Champions League) and I was hoping to see two things: the players giving everything they had and 3 points at the final whistle. Check, and check.

I've also seen the Ghost of Winter Past multiple times during the game (a good but scoreless first half, a lot of energies spent without being able to capitalize, the difficult start of the second half, the free header missed by Icardi from Keita's bullet cross, but also a couple of dangerous passes too much in the last minutes), but that was expected.

Winter will come, but it's not time yet.

Agreed on the Marotta thing, it's so unnatural.

Anyway good performance and a solid win, we are playing good football what worries me about a midfield with Valero and Mario is that there are no goals in those two, Borja is amazing on the ball but fuck does he choke in front of goal it's borderline nuts. That's why we signed Radja, to get more goals in midfield and unfortunately for us our marquee signing was injured in the four games we needed him most in and that's a shame. But no used crying over spilt milk, I think we are getting our balance with this 433 (except for the moment early in the second half) but other than that we should be happy the team is meeting expectations or if we're in a parallel universe - WE NEED TO BE BEATING BARCELONA AND JUVENTUS COMBINED, THE BALD FRAUD IS SCREWING US.

 

[Universe]

But we don't play a 433 when Nainggolan is fit. The moment he and Vecino are back, watch. It'll be the 4231 again. Yes, I know formations on paper are academic compared to their function on the field. But do not expect Spalletti to just slot Nainggolan into the 433 which has looked good with Brozovic/Mario.

With Spalletti, we haven't seen 1 system with interchangeable parts. We've seen two different systems depending on which players are selected (which in turn, directly relies on the availability of Nainggolan). The 433 with Mario has looked far more fluid in attack than the rigid 4231 with Nainggolan as AM and Vecino partnering Brozovic. That said, the 433 has been too defensively lightweight for my liking. Spalletti needs to find a way of getting the best of both worlds. Not an easy task, but not unfair to ask of a 'top level' coach earning €3m per season.

 

[Sassuolu]

You hit the nail on the head there. Think the lack of balance in the 433 comes from expecting too much from our midfielders and it's possible that that style of play is not sustainble for our players.

 

[n4l]

But we don't play a 433 when Nainggolan is fit. The moment he and Vecino are back, watch. It'll be the 4231 again. Yes, I know formations on paper are academic compared to their function on the field. But do not expect Spalletti to just slot Nainggolan into the 433 which has looked good with Brozovic/Mario.

With Spalletti, we haven't seen 1 system with interchangeable parts. We've seen two different systems depending on which players are selected (which in turn, directly relies on the availability of Nainggolan). The 433 with Mario has looked far more fluid in attack than the rigid 4231 with Nainggolan as AM and Vecino partnering Brozovic. That said, the 433 has been too defensively lightweight for my liking. Spalletti needs to find a way of getting the best of both worlds. Not an easy task, but not unfair to ask of a 'top level' coach earning €3m per season.

But you're ignoring that the 4-3-3 has also come mostly against shit opposition.

 

[Sassuolu]

But you're ignoring that the 4-3-3 has also come mostly against shit opposition.

We used it against Lazio, Juventus, Roma and PSV.

 

[n4l]

We used it against Lazio, Juventus, Roma and PSV.

Lazio, yes.

Others, disagree that we used a pure 4-3-3, but as Uni originally said, it's really positional semantics.