Inter did everything but an acceptable performance against the Sicilians tonight. To reach the absolute top and take the steps from a big team to one of the leading giants, there is still a road to walk. Let’s be honest; A good team like Inter should be able to take three points away against Palermo, even though Palermo is everything but a lousy team.

But a real top team does not struggle like we do and a top team does not play like we play and the three points are a fact rather than a chance. In the first half I could not stop thinking about the Pacific Ocean, that’s about the distance between the midfield and the attack in this game. The result of such a flaw is that the midfielders are forced to play the ball backwards or trying to reach the intended target with a rather risky pass. A good team can survive playing like that when Palermo stands as opponents, but teams like Juventus, Roma, Fiorentina or even AC Milan will punish you for that kind of play.

And what happens as soon as the distance between midfield and attack is reduced? The first time in the game when Inter linked midfield with attack in a good way, Our own little diamond Kovacic scores the first goal of the game and his second goal in the Serie A this year. This proves the value of interlinking the different parts of the team and build bridges over the Pacific Ocean enabling the team to cross them and reaching the intended target. In this case, the ball in the net behind Stefan Sorrentino.

Keeping this in mind, we can clearly see how important players like Mateo Kovacic, Hernanes and even Rodrigo Palacio are to this team. Mauro Icardi and Dani Osvaldo are not lacking qualities as strikers, but they are only human and we can not expect them to win every airbourne ball knocked their way from 50 meters away and score a couple of Cristiano Ronaldo-class goals singlehandedly in every game. Football is a sport played by a team, not a sport played by parts of a team.

In defense, we also have a step or two to take before reaching the standard needed to be a top team in the Italian league, as well as in Europe. However, I’m not too worried. Juan Jesus have been a part of the team for some time, but he is still a young player with a lot to learn which is easy to forget. Nemanja Vidic provides the team with routine and strength on the pitch. The mistake made by him today is without a doubt despicable, but I believe it is more about not being totally adapted to the new way of playing in a three-man defense. Of course, taking the chance and trying to get the ball passed Vazquez to Handanovic is beyond me, a defender with routine should either hold the ball or knock it out of the box any means necessary. After all, despite the mistake from Vidic, the defense performed well enough to win the game, much because a pretty much flawless performance from Captain Andrea Ranocchia who held the mental game together when Vidic slipped up and Juan Jesus kept missing passes in midfield.

What really burns me up in the same manner of the feeling you get when you scratch your nuts after chopping up chili, is that the pattern remains the same as last season. When our rival teams lose points. We, as the team of solidarity that we tend to be, lose a couple of points as well. We can debate all night about the mistake from Vidic, or the two goals called off for offside, dumb-luck when Handanovic saves the “Pippo”-shot towards an own-goal from Juan, Osvaldo’s header in the end of the game and so on and so on. Saying what if, praying what if. But the fact is, we did not play like a team that deserves to be in the top three. Looking at the game in Siciliy tonight; We are about a Pacific Ocean away from the top.