Mancini’s Inter return featured more lows than highs
A wave of excitement and expectations surrounded Mancio’s second-coming to the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, but it never yielded the desired results
Over 20 months ago, following a draw at home to Hellas Verona, Inter President Erick Thohir decided to sack Walter Mazzarri and replace him with former hero Roberto Mancini.
Despite having previously started the Nerazzurri’s streak of five consecutive league titles, the former Manchester City boss himself admitted he had no magic wand.
Indeed, not long into his second reign, he conceded he thought the task at hand would be easier. Despite that, he remained eager to change the mentality of his inherited group, to challenge for the top spots in Serie A and to fight for a Champions League position.
While it looks as though his exit will not be due to his uninspiring results, his inability to make a significant impact on achieving the president’s goals certainly didn’t help.
The fact that Mancini’s average points per league match – 1.44 – was actually lower than his predecessor Mazzarri – 1.45 – tells a story of underachievement.
After taking over, the 51-year-old was unable to avoid early elimination from the Europa League, though with the exception of the failed transfers of Lukas Podolski and Xherdan Shaqiri, he was still working with a Mazzarri made squad.
In the second season at the helm however, Mancini had less excuses, having now built a team of his own following the arrivals of Geoffrey Kondogbia, Miranda, Jeison Murillo and Ivan Perisic.
While the Biscione made it to Christmas at the top of Serie A, the team ended in fifth, 24 points points behind Juventus.
More disappointing than their final placing was the way his team returned to previous season’s struggles of conceding goals while losing any identity they had started to build.
Mancini often changed his formation and training approach, however ultimately, the end goal was never achieved – a team that plays well and wins consistently.
With his second departure near, it looks as though history may be repeating itself following another change of club ownership and with Champions League ambitions remaining unfulfilled, leaving a formidable task for successor Frank de Boer.
Source: gazzettaworld.com