Inter started their Coppa Italia run today in a rather embarrassing manner by taking the game all the way to a penalty shootout before winning the game. Inter basically played with their second team with only Gagliardini, Vecino and Skriniar who are regular weekly starters starting. Inter lined up the exact same way with their second team to play more of a systematic game implemented by Spalletti which seemed to be a little more different than that played weekly. Spalletti looked like he wanted to exploit the pace that Perisic and Candreva may not necessarily be able to offer in comparison to Karamoh and Joao Cancelo. Perisic and Candreva are incredibly quick but Karamoh and Cancelo look to be more agile but maybe a little bit less complete in terms of dribbling and finishing.
Something very interesting to take note of is the talent of Padelli who was able to make some incredible saves to keep the game at par. Padelli was quick to save point blank shots, handled his rebounds very well and was able to clean up the box on most corner kicks which indicated how he can be a viable option if ever something happens to Handanovic.
Cancelo and Karamoh were the stand out players in today’s game because of the way they were able to create opportunities in the final third, it was incredibly impressive but what they lacked most which will most likely come with time is their finish. Karamoh had two clear cut chances from right in front of the keeper and he wasn’t able to break the dead lock.
The issue with Inter against Pordenone was that none of their chances really looked convincing enough and they didn’t give off that certain poise to their game, it didn’t look and feel the way it usually did which is probably due to the fact that Icardi, Perisic and Candreva didn’t play the full, what would have been, 90 minutes. The game without the three main forwards felt very robotic and it felt like nothing was going to get done unless there was some sort of drastic change which didn’t change anything regardless.
In conclusion Inter’s game today was horrible and lacked a lot of creativity which could have easily avoided going to penalties if they would have played with that elegance that they’ve been playing all season with. The problem was that they took their opposition way to lightly and they almost jeopardised their Coppa Italia chances because of it.
