Mentality - the age old problem

[.h.]

Repost from herehttp://inter1908blog.com/new-season-old-mentality/

The one thing that really scares me about Inter at the moment, and has done for a few seasons, is our mentality. For whatever reason, anyone who plays for Inter has this same mental block.

Gareth Bale, a recent exploiter of our mentality issues

The recent match versus Real Madrid – albeit a friendly – summarizes nicely what I believe the problem is. We just switch off. We conceded goals in so many games last season by lacking any drive, or passion, until we were already behind. If you had to characterize our last season, it would be opened with an amazing ability to turn off and concede goals, and then the ability to shine through and show some real grit to fight back.

Again, against Real Madrid, we saw this same issue in mentality. We took our foot off the gas, and let them attack us, until Bale scored and then we got ourselves in to gear. Too many times this has been an issue, and whilst the obvious person to lay the blame at (Mazzarri) probably does have some role, the sheer number of managers we have displayed this under in the last few years really worries me and makes me think there is something more systemic at play.

No longer can we afford to slowly get into gear for a game, and let the opponents dominate play. Hopefully with the signing of M’Vila, and presumed first team promotion of Kovacic, this mentality will change into one where we break up play and keep possession, as this is a step we really need to make. Our defense is the most guilty of it – they can often be found backing off a player when they should of course be closing them down.

The thing is, it’s not like we don’t know how to play with a more aggressive mentality. The fight-back after going down to Real Madrid nicely displayed this. We do have it in us, the question is just simply why do we not do it more often? Hitting the ground running next year is going to be crucial to any success we may get, and it is important that we approach every game with that aggressive mentality that we have shown in several matches in recent times. Inter need to be assertive, and Inter need to show that strong mentality that once made us champions under Mancini and Mourinho. No longer can we persistently let the opponents take control of matches, before we slowly work ourselves up to top gear. No longer can we just spend 15 minutes turning on. We really need to hit the ground running, to dominate play from the start, and to utilise M’Vila and Kovacic to their best potential.

I know the Real Madrid game was only a friendly, and I didn’t catch the United game, but the first few matches of next season, and the manner in which we approach them, might well play the decisive factor in whether or not we have solid foundations to build on for the rest of the season. I really hope we get our act together.

 

[Fapuccino]

Well maybe it could be that it's easier to defend than attack, and since we defend 24/7 with no intention of attack/counterattack, our players will drift off daydreaming since acting as a static brick wall is much easier than being a footballer.

 

[wera]

It's so true, tho. One of the reasons why it's so boring to watch Inter, we don't take any risks and it looks like we just want to play ball, but not play any football. I don't know. Just an odd feeling, that I really don't like.

Also, we play with easy passes until it's time to act (when we are not winning in the last 10 minutes). Roma and Fiorentina don't play like that, and they were higher than Inter last season. Ofc in my mind Roma definately has a better team than us, but Fiorentina doesn't, we even beat them twice, and they still finished higher. Lol.

Defenders who close in (aka better pressuring) and more combos & 1-2s in the midfield should not be that big of a problem for us, right?

 

[Y&h]

Well, we can't define our mentality if our projection is vague.

I'm afraid it's more than a certainty, looking at our recent record, that we'll come across this once again when we undermined the threat of a newly promoted side or mid-table squads that have hungry primavera loanees..

 

[Native]

This is exactly the one main problem we have. What causes it is a mystery, we've had our guesses these past years but nothing, not a single change seems to get rid of it, not even an entirely new team and 103747th coach swap. Are our players unknowingly being gassed in the dressing room with some posion that makes them weak and therefore as lazy as we've seen?

Only thing we can do is wait until this curse suddenly disappears, but that can be another 6 years...

 

[thatdude]

If we don't start to see a change this year we are in trouble. Not even new players will help if they are going to be infected with the cancerous mentality held by the existing players.

I think Mazzarri/Thohir have stopped the rot. The team needed to she's it's old skin and needed a second year with an established manager. This should help our confidence, we can only hope the fallout from the capitulation of the treble squad doesn't affect our new crop.