Walter Mazzarri’s Inter travelled down to Sicily to play one of the most difficult away fixtures in the Serie A calendar against a Catania who narrowly lost away to Fiorentina last week and who finished last seasons Serie A campaign ahead of Inter. Tonight though, there was no sign of the Sicilians superiority as Mazzarri tactically outclassed Rolando Maran, as Inter recorded the clubs biggest away win against Catania in the Serie A (the biggest Inter-win away of all time against Catania is the 1-4 victory in the 86/87 Coppa Italia), with Ricky Alvarez scoring a beauty to round off a convincing 3-0 win for the visitors.
The season is only 2 fixtures old and already we can see Mazzarri’s Inter taking shape. Although the team wasn’t as solid in defence tonight as they were last week against Genoa, Catania hardly managed to test Handanovic. Instead, Jonathan, who is enjoying his best spell since joining the club, ran rampant on the right wing time after time and eventually assisted Rodrigo Palacio for the first goal of the night. Jonathan’s performances so far this season has the Inter-faithful reminiscing of Maicon and it seems that the Brazilian is really flourishing under Mazzarri and his 3-5-2 system. If Jonathan is flourishing under Mazzarri, what can be said of Yuto Nagotomo other than that the Japanese international is playing as if under a spell at the minute. Sure, Nagotomo wasn’t faultless and he made a few mistakes but he wasn’t far from being faultless as his tireless running up and down the left flank in defence as well as in attack was a joy to behold, and which ultimately led to Inter’s second goal of the night and his second goal of the season when he dove on to a cross from Palacio like a kamikaze-pilot and headed the ball past Andujar.
Several critics have raised voices that all Mazzari asked for when joining the club was a winger and that such a player hasn’t arrived yet but with Jonathan and Nagatomo playing as they are, no reinforcements in this area is needed. Far from it, because behind these two, Brazilian youngster Wallace gave an impressive performance when subbed on for Jonathan. Who knows, maybe Pereira might be inspired by the previously heavily criticized Jonathan and finally deliver the kind of performances which one would expect given his hefty 10 million Euro transfer fee last summer.
In the middle of the pitch, Cambiasso put in the kind of performance we have been spoiled with during the majority of his tenure at the club, the Argentinian holding midfielder hardly put a foot wrong and won pretty much every single loose ball as he hunted Catania’s mid-fielders like a savage rabid dog with rabies. Guarin was Guarin, meaning he is still Inter’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in that he mixes moments of pure brilliance with actions that have you wondering if he’s ever played at this level before. A reassuring thought however, is that he is performing more often like Dr. Jekyll than we’ve been used too, but this wasn’t enough for Mazzarri who according to unconfirmed reports took him off as he wasn’t pleased with the Colombian internationals overall performance. Our favourite schizophrenic patient aside, the only other negative aspect of tonight’s fixture was Mateo Kovacic’s injury which forced Mazzarri to bring the young Croatian midfielder off 3 minutes before half-time with a reported back injury.
Up front Palacio and Ricky Alvarez ran and ran and then ran some more, making life very difficult for the Catania players when trying to create something going forward. The former’s goal was, as mentioned above, thanks to Jonathan’s brilliance whilst the latter’s goal was nothing short of brilliant as he demonstrated why he’s been likened to Kaká during his glory days.
Maximum points after two fixtures, 5 goals scored and none conceded. After the international break, Inter will face Juventus at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in San Siro and if Mazzarri’s team can get a result there, then maybe we can start to seriously pose the question if this the dawn of a new Grande Inter?
Nima: Ja, särskilt när man läser och tänker att författaren (du) skrivit något som sedan inte visar sig stämma. Jag tar tillbaka det jag skrev och ber ödmjukast om ursäkt
mazzari turn on potential skill in every position and maximize it on the pitch. we dont need to see expensive players but I prefer if youngster like kovacic, olsen, icardi, belfodil, wallace, taider could shining like expensive player should perform. so “Grande Inter” is not possible. btw should we need role player like eto’o? he was proven open space for millito’s goals ago.
A great side in the making. Mazzari definitely has organized the defence well. His main problem would be the defence particularly the Guarin Schizo , Cambiasso and Kovacic’s fitness. however Taider looked composed on the ball which is gud and maybe more playing time for Icardi/Belfodil will sharpen them up while freeing Palacio.
Inspired by the previously heavily criticized Jonathan then succed deliver great performance.. Johnny The Man…
Vänta och se om vi maler ner Juventus. Då kan vi börja drömma. Det är lite väl populistiskt att dra för stora växlar på denna seger.
“Maximala 6 poäng efter två matcher, 5 gjorda mål och 0 insläppta. Efter landslagsuppehållet kommer Inter att drabba samman med Juventus på Stadio Giuseppe Meazza i San Siro och OM Mazzarris mannar kan komma ifrån den matchen med ett bra resultat så kanske vi ska ställa oss frågan: är detta gryningen på ett nytt Grande Inter vi bevittnar?”
Läsa innan vi kritiserar kanske? 😉
We are starting to see a new”Good Inter” (Grande is a little soon) BUT we should praise ourselves lucky that we are only in one real competition (2 with the Copa It. but I think most agree that finnishing in top 3 is THE most important task this season)
We seriosly lack depth in midfield..IF we had played in Europe as well, our second half of the season would probably see our players suffer a lot from fatigue, but we are not, so it might not be a problem.
I see us getting to some kind of EuropaPlay next season anyway, and next summer maybe even winter we need to bye 3-4 players and asses ALL of the players we’ve loaned out to build a STRONG 25 man squad
I think Mazzari is the best man for this job, alreaddy doing wonders for Jonathan and Alvarez especially ..
can’t wait to see how good we can get 🙂
one more striker and one winger in the left flank and we can change everything
the dawn of new grande inter? nobody hopes the opposite
Im really curious what have mazzari said/done to king jonathan and ricky, they just showed us ultra-fabulous performances under mazzari’s, which we didn’t even smell on the previous coaches.