The debate is not whether or not he will eventually become a great player at this role or another.
The debate is whether he merits a roster spot and is a worthy replacement of Hakan. That's not leaning his way, but he's lucky that we showed up in the games that Hakan missed and they were relatively easy. Only Atalanta was tough on paper. In the CL where he played
No one of quality wants to be Hakans understudy, no one. He isn’t usually a player that leave a high amount of games for whom ever is down the pecking order.
You have unrealistic expectations of what quality you can have on that position, either you get a washed out player who is here for a last fat paycheque, a player of Klaassan quality or you get a development prospect. If you try you get a player who doesn’t fall into those categories you just get a very unsatisfied, grudging player and that is no good for the chemistry of the team.
So yes he merits it, we aren’t realistically getting anything better as his understudy and no Zielinski are no regista either. There is also no way Zielinski would ever accept so little playing time, if he comes it’s with the prospect of being a starter within a very short period. He is going to be first rotational player a Darmian of our midfield, but I doubt he be satisfied with that role for long, he comes because he likely see an aging Miki, whom he likely will replace on a bit longer horizon, he certainly is not coming to look at Hakan play I can guarantee you that much.
He's more of a mezzala and he wants the ball more often, wants to run with it. He's still a kid of course and gets 'excited', but when it shows on the pitch it leads to a negative impact. If he's to stay at Inter he needs to be tamed and learn what needs to be done.
Of cause he wants the ball and have it, he is 21 years old! This is how majority of more offensive minded 21 year old behave. You talk about him as he is some sort of dog, taming isn’t really the right term to use. He needs to get experience and that usually also means you need to allow him to make mistakes, because you learn from your mistakes.
I haven't seen that from him based on performance, but I hope the coaching staff did if the decision is to keep him as the Hakan replacement.
You and I don’t see him at training, Inzaghi and the coaching staff dos, there is probably a logic with what they are doing.
We cannot know when we'll need replace a starter for 6-8 weeks or so, like Brozovic was out last season. Hakan stepped up, I don't see anything on Asllani based on his sample that he's up to this task.
Again you’re basing it on a development prospect that is only 21 and who needs to learn one of the most challenging roles on a team. Of course he ain’t going to look marvellous and will look out of his depth sometimes because it’s such a challenging position. Of course he is going to screw up and behave like that 21 year old that he is. People were also all negative on Martinez and wanted him shipped out on the first boat because of his ball whoring, poor decision making and poor finishing in his first seasons, you need to accept this is part of having raw talent.
If we need him for Atletico away or a top 5 European team, or in a derby or big match in Italy, I wouldn't be confident going in. It's a neuralgic position as many have highlighted and unfortunately he's not playing it well. He's not embarrassing himself or making costly mistakes, but he's not helping either and someone will pick up on that and punish us.
He is 21 perhaps you need to tune down on criticism and expectations as this is part of developing players. We need to develop players if we want quality and be where it is fun to be, just look at Martinez a player of a quality we would be unable to get if not for the fact we developed him ourselves!
This is how you need to view it, then live with the fact he ain’t a big help right now.
You be sorry very sorry if we let him go and he then turns out to be a star in the making.
The time to shine was vs Sociedad and Benfica away, but granted most of the team was rotated. He was subpar in both and confused the fuck out of our defense which led to goals conceded and key chances conceded.
Had a good game iirc vs Fiorentina away and was decent vs Lecce, which is a good sign, but cannot praise him for the Atalanta game. It's a good time to nurture him because the team is on a good moon, but rely on him in case Hakan is out? No chance. Barella has to play there even if that means we're losing an important engine in the midfield.
But I worry because I saw the same attitude that made those costly mistakes, but what changed is that his teammates choose to ignore him more often than not as if they don't trust him. And they'd know better.
Again development prospect he ain’t a fully developed player how can I possibly cut it out so it’s easy to understand. He ain’t meant to be what you expect of him, I’m sure Inzaghi is aware of that.