Today, Inter played Sassuolo in what was probably one of the most horrendous games they have played all season long. Last game against Udinese was, what was thought to be, a wake up call but it’s now clear that Inter are truly struggling for many reasons. Inter cannot afford to be able to drop points against bottom table teams like they did today especially when the top four race is so tight. Spalletti took a very serious gamble today by starting D’Ambrosio left back over Dalbert, who is a natural left back. A long with the poor tactical decision towards the back line, Mauro Icardi had what he can consider, probably the worst game of his entire life.

The problem with the back line was the D’Ambrosio is a natural right back and shifting him to the left and sitting out a perfectly good left back like Dalbert may pay off but most of the time it will just result in a poor tactical commitment like the one we saw from D’Ambrosio on the goal. D’Ambrosio went in for the tackle with a weak off balance stance and very sloppy form instead of busting back when he initially made the turnover. The poor decision making seemed to be the only deciding factor in what gave Sassuolo a clear cut goal scoring chance.

Before we touch upon the problems up front, it must be noted that if Miranda is taken off, reverting to a back three is probably the worst possible tactical decision that can be made. It is understood that a goal is needed but the issue here is that Dalbert and Cancelo are to easily between which basically leaves Skriniar by himself; any offensively talented team would have made Spalletti pay for his decisions.

Lastly, Mauro Icardi played a horrible game in regards to his usual goal scoring self. He missed three clear cut chances, he was offside and still missed one more, and on top of it all he missed a penalty shot. Today’s issue wasn’t creating chances out wide from Perisic and Candreva because they did a great job in doing so, it was the lack of focus by Mauro Icardi. On any other day, this game would’ve finished four or five one easily with Icardi’s usual scoring chances. Icardi was needed to be the difference maker today and his poor finishing resulted in a poor result.