Lazio - Inter (29 Oct 18) [0-3]

[Bluenine]

 

[InterVN]

Is this real test? I predic De Vrij score at 90+ )))

 

[n4l]

My turn to try the joke....

Is Juan Jesus available?

 

[koba]

A real test for CL spot....

 

[wera]

Will be happy with a draw.

 

[Fapuccino]

We're in that juicy spot where we can both fight for the scudetto and still worry about not making CL.

 

[ScottishInterista]

We're in that juicy spot where we can both fight for the scudetto and still worry about not making CL.

we're not even week 10, we've been in much worse positions before fucking up

 

[wera]

it's been a quarter of the season, and we are third for now. We are doing pretty good, I just hope these injuries won't stop our superb league run

 

[ScottishInterista]

Brozovic and Perisic should be available for Barca apparently. Hope we let them rest for Lazio though

 

[ElDiego22]

La prende Vecino pt 2

 

[Il Drago]

If we lose both Barceloona and Lazio games, Bluenine needs to get banned for a while. :troll:

On a more serious note, as last season proved head-to-head against our direct rivals is very important. So we need to get at least a draw against Lazio. If we manage to win this game, then we'll have basically made up for the lost points at the start of the season.

 

[Kramerica Industries]

Something I've started to track this year as a measuring stick for progress is how our results in our fixtures this year measures up to last year's equivalent fixtures. So far, here's what we got:

@SAS: 0
TOR: 0
@BOL: +2
PAR: -1
@SAM: 0
FIO: 0
CAG: 0
@SPA: +2
MIL: 0

Difference: +3

Crotone (4/6 points), Verona (6/6) and Benevento (6/6) were the relegated sides last year. I'm using Parma for Crotone, Empoli for Verona, and Frosinone for Benevento.

So far, we're three points better off, but we also haven't had a great deal of opportunities to improve upon ourselves yet. A lot of those "0" games were wins last year. Those first two games are the real killers; we were only 1/12 points against Sassuolo and Torino last year and we're not off to a much better start against them this year.

And this game doesn't present an opportunity for improvement either; we won this fixture last year. But even if we can't improve our result, we can definitely fall backwards from it. Important game, and we'll have five days between the Barca game and this one. I expect our best healthy squad for this one.

 

[PHM1605]

Maintaining the same points as last year is already a huge improvement. Don't forget we have to split the gas for CL as well, which "implicitly" reduces your points by ~10.

 

[Kramerica Industries]

Absolutely. And, to be totally fair, winning at Sampdoria is a tough thing to do, and we've managed to it back-to-back years. And our points from last season got us into the Champions League, so just maintaining that is already putting us at our minimum aim for this season, which is to qualify again for the Champions League next season.

I do find this an interesting thing to track, though, so I'm looking forward to seeing if we can make further improvements when opportunities exist to do so.

 

[Linege]

icardi
perisic-valero-politano
brozovic-vecino
dalbert-devrij-skriniar-vrsaljko

 

[Jerry]

I came across an excellent analytical English language article on Statsbomb about Inter's offensive production. Not sure of best thread to post, so here it is:

https://statsbomb.com/2018/10/inter-milan-has-a-new-old-school-attack/

Includes nice animated gifs for the borderline illiterate. Definitely worth a read/cursory scroll-thru.

 

[Bluenine]

If we lose both Barceloona and Lazio games, Bluenine needs to get banned for a while. :troll:

By opening these threads I am like taking a yellow card for the team, much like Politano did yesterday. Someone has to do the dirty work, so that you guys can open easy game threads

:troll:

 

[Kramerica Industries]

By opening these threads I am like taking a yellow card for the team, much like Politano did yesterday. Someone has to do the dirty work, so that you guys can open easy game threads

:troll:

Two threads = two yellows = one red, and that usually equals a ban, no? :troll:

 

[RobertMugabe]

This game is way more important than Barca tomorrow. If we don't make CL next year, all the hard work of the last 15 months will be for nothing, because we'll be forced to sell one of the Croats, Icardi, or Skriniar. Making top 4 is a more immediate priority than getting out of the group stage, so when we face a direct rival for a CL spot, we absolutely must take points. It's even more important on this occasion because we have to play teams like Atalanta, Roma, and Juventus in the next few weeks.

Plus, I'm confident we can at the very least draw Barca at home if we have Nainggolan and Messi is still out. 1 point there, 3 from PSV, and 1 from Tottenham guarantees 2nd place. Basically, our targets are easier to achieve if we rest core players at Camp Nou.

 

[YoramG]

For a team that almost looked like they could have troubled Barcelona, I think we should win this one. Lazio haven't looked great this year, and now we've got 5 days of rest to recuperate for this one.

SMS and Luis Alberto are nowhere near the same form as last year, and their defense is as shaky as always. We've also looked fairly laboured recently in building attacks, but that's against provincial sides (Parma, Sassuolo, Milan). Lazio will fight for the win at home, and we usually do better in those situations.