Walter Mazzarri’s Inter drew away in Trieste against Cagliari in a match that despite being played on a pitch which was more suitable for water-polo than football, the team played some decent football but are now left ruing all the goalscoring chances they squandered.
Perhaps Inter got more than they deserved against Fiorentina and this was the Footballing Gods way to even things out. But if karmic retribution existed and was linear then a certain Zebra-striped team from Turin would be playing their trade barefoot on the streets of Syria as these words are written. However, unfortunately no such thing as karma exists in life or in football either for that matter, therefore the sensation all Interisti are left with is a sense that the result against Cagliari represents a missed opportunity to go top of the Serie A as well as keeping up with the aforementioned team and Napoli.
It’s easy to be bitter over the lack of cynicism the team displayed in front of goal when considering the number of clear cut chances created yesterday or over the fact that Inter were forced to play only some 73 hours after the final whistle against Fiorentina was blown, but with a bit of distance 1 point away to Cagliari is hardly a disaster, in fact when compared to last seasons performances yesterday’s result is actually quite good. Especially when taking the following into consideration:
- Inter made 4 changes in the starting line-up when compared to the team that beat Fiorentina mid-week,
- Fredy Guarin performed well for 90 minutes from a deeper position in midfield after the controversy in the last game,
- Mauro Icardi scored again despite not having started the match,
- Mateo Kovacic finally got to play just behind the lone striker and did so rather convincingly.
The team did look tired at times and lacked pace but that’s only normal and expected given the fact that Inter only had 2 days to prepare for this fixture. Also, the team failed to capitalize on the many chances created but one would have to be suffering from manic depression if one would suggest that Inter is suffering from a goalscoring drought or anything of the sort since the team has scored 16 goals in 6 games and 9 of these goals have come against teams such as Fiorentina, Juventus, Genoa, Catania and Cagliari.
What’s more reassuring is that Pereira, Rolando, Belfodil and Kovacic all gave decent performances. When looking more closely at Pereira and Rolando it was very interesting to see that the team was solid in defence where Rolando can hardly be blamed for the goal conceded as the ball ricochet of his foot and behind Handanovic but was otherwise solid in everything he did. Pereira wasn’t too involved when going forward but put in a good shift in recovering the ball and helping the back 3 in not conceding anything.
Belfodil looked very active and ran like Palacio up front and put Cagliari’s back 4 under constant pressure, the only thing he can be criticized for is maybe not having buried the header after Nagatomo’s excellent cross in the first half. Kovacic has missed the entire pre-season due to a “silly back injury” which he told me when I interviewed him after the Juventus-fixture and therefore needs a bit more time before he is in tune with how Mazzarri wants him to play. Despite this he looked dangerous and seems to be heading towards a great run in form.
As Mazzarri said before the match, Inter shouldn’t get carried away given our great start to the season however it’s easy to choose the glass is half-empty scenario given how things looked in Trieste, but maybe we Inter-fans need to change our mentality too and start to look at things more positive because so far it’s looking very good and Mazzarri has completely transformed this team. On Saturday Inter face Roma at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza and I will be there covering the match on location for all the readers of SempreInter.com, hopefully we’ll be able to get back to winning ways despite being faced with the most in-form team in the Serie A.
