Inter won’t take part in next season Champions League after having lost for the second year in a row in the Serie A at home to Bologna. This is a statement that is detemined to become a fact as Andrea Stramaccioni’s tenure as Inter manager is slowly but surely coming to an end.
José Mourinho has repeatedly and famously stated: “I’d rather be a lucky coach and win than a good coach and lose” and one wonders whether or not the young Rome-born tactician Andrea Stramaccioni is cursing his luck after having watched his young Inter team lose at home to a defensively perfect Bologna coached by the brilliant Stefano Pioli, because since that famous victory away to Juventus Stramaccioni has seen his team lose all form as well as being unable to field the same team twice due to one horrible injury after the other which has forced him to rotate from an ever diminishing squad which during the january transfer window saw Sneijder & Coutinho leave. What was to be the defining moment in setting off a glorious career has instead proven to be the pinacle of what has since then been a long disaster: knocked out of the Europa League after being humiliated at White Hart Lane, dreams of pushing Juventus for the Scudetto have turned into a nightmare which won’t see Inter even qualifying for next years Champions League, trailing by a goal against a rejuvinated Roma in the Coppa Italia semifinal, his relationship with Cassano has gone from that of two close friends to the point where they’re barely on speaking terms and I’ve yet to mention the horrific injury to Diego Milito. “I’d rather be a lucky coach and win than a good coach and lose” indeed…
I’ve been defending Stramaccioni all season, I still think he should be given until the end of the season and then and only then be given a mark taking into account all the factors that have played part in this seasons debacle but the arguments for a Stramaccioni’s tenure being extended are waning, not due to the lack of results but due to the fact that Inter do not look like a team at all. We are almost 12 months into the Stramaccioni era and the team looks less like a team than ever before and the ‘brutte figure’ are becoming more of a habbit rather than one off exceptions. This situation is definately due to the injuries, albeit not entirely but deciding to play Benassi on the left wing who’s been brilliant when played in the deep-lying midfield playmaker role was entirely Stramaccioni’s choice, as is the coice to play Gargano in that role, somethign which everyone but Strama see isn’t workign at all. The manager has been praised for his ability to change a game when things aren’t going his way but he seems cmpletely incapable of fielding a team which is able to compete from the first minute. Inter where awful tonight in the first 45 minutes and didn’t create anything, in fact after the first 15 minutes the team were lucky not to be trailing by 3 goals as Bologna had clear cut chances not to just take the lead but to put the game beyond all doubt. After 15 minutes, at home, to Bologna.
This simply isn’t good enough and a man of Stramaccioni’s intelligence knows this but he also knows that Moratti will think long and hard before sacking him, considering how much faith the Nerazzurri patron has placed in him, although it must be said that if Inter don’t turn things around and if the young Stramaccioni seems to have lost the dressingroom then he will walk down the famous chopping block as many a manager have before him…