In his regular weekly column Inter fanatic Sam Olsen dives deep into the stories that matter to Inter’s fans looking to keep the spirit of discussion and dispute alive and well on the pages of Sempreinter.com.
Confidence is a funny thing. A confident man can face his demons head on with a sure belief that they will overcome, they will not be cowed and they will back themselves to come through bright and shiny afterwards. For those lacking in this vital ingredient the world itself can appear to be the enemy, anything and everything that could go against you does, and once you are in that cycle it is depressingly hard to get out again. For fans of Inter it is clear that the team is facing a crisis of confidence. Shoulders are slumping at the first sign of trouble, uncertainty has filtered through the team bringing catastrophic hesitation with dire consequences, and chances have become few and far between as players worry more about what the opposition are doing than what they should be doing themselves. Overcoming this crisis of confidence will be the key to returning Inter’s season to the right course.
When David Moyes took over the manager’s roll at Manchester United, he believed he was ready to take the job. Sure he was stepping into the shoes of perhaps the greatest manager in football but he was convinced he would be able to keep the winning habit that Manchester United had built up over almost two decades alive and kicking. Less than a season later, dejected and demoralised Moyes trundled out of the training ground one last time. He appeared worn and haggard, the experience of the previous nine months clearly showing in every crease and fold that had appeared on his face. Moyes had underestimated the job that was ahead of him, had underestimated what would be involved, and had underestimated just how significant a part that confidence could play in a team. Ferguson, for all his faults, flaws and misjudgements was a master at man-management. There is no way that he should have been able to win one final title with the team that he left to Moyes but win he did. He shouldn’t have been able to take Aberdeen to victory in the 1982/83 European Cup Winners Cup but somehow he did. Ferguson’s secret was knowing how to get the best out of each of his players, he knew people and he knew how to make them believe they could take on any challenge put in front of them. He knew how to give them confidence.
Rio Ferdinand alluded to this in his biography when he stated that under Moyes United would focus on “drilling to stop” opponents. “There was so much attention to the subject it suddenly became a worry” whereas Ferguson had been about playing the Manchester United way. According to Ferdinand the effect of Moyes’ heavy focus on what the opposition were doing only caused the players to doubt themselves (“they must be fucking good at this to have us spend all this time on it.”). The result was clearing visible on the pitch as United struggled to keep up with the front runners, finishing a dismal 7th. The confidence so carefully and meticulously maintained by Ferguson had been eroded.
The parallels with Inter are quite clear. Like Moyes, Mazzarri appears often more keen on identifying and stopping the opposition strengths rather than establishing his own game. Watching the player’s movements it is quite obvious they are spending as much time trying to follow detailed tactical plans rather than utilising the natural footballing talent that got them to the highest level in the first place. The message seems to be to keep it tight at the back, control the game through low risk football, if possible score an early goal, then when the opposition pushes forward, look for opportunities to counter. There is nothing really wrong with these tactics, they are tried and tested and ideal for clubs looking to avoid relegation and fight for a top half of the table finish. Inter however, are not one of these clubs.
Wesley Sneijder once said that Mourinho “As a coach is incredible, number one. It was he who gave me confidence and I enjoyed playing football like never before.” Mourinho, like Ferguson, is another who understands the tie between success and confidence. He knew that if players are confident they will be happier on the field, they will play with both physical and mental freedom and success will follow. Mourinho’s teams are famous for never giving up, for fighting till the final whistle despite what the scoreboard says. Inter fans witnessed it on numerous occasions; the team down coming into the final minutes of the match, the opposition hanging on in the face of a barrage of Inter attack, the determination and belief that they could get something out of the match which, on most occasions, they did. In Ferguson’s case the English even had a name for these last few minutes; Squeaky bum time. Teams facing United, like teams facing Mourinho’s Inter, knew that they would face a hammering in the final few minutes of a match against United if there were still points on the line. This was no tactical master class from Ferguson or Mourinho, it was purely confidence and belief. The players believed they could do it.
The Sassuolo game aside, watching Inter this season has been a lesson in caution. Against Palermo and Torino, Inter were clearly sent out with defensive tactics, hoping for a win, settling for a draw; the away win in the Europa League was the same, pick up three points if we can but we will settle for one. There was no real attempt to put a stamp on the game only to ensure a clean sheet. Against Cagliari, Mazzarri came up against a manager with a completely contrasting ideology whose team rode roughshod over Mazzarri’s meticulous tactical plan; while Fiorentina simply outplayed a hesitant Inter. Mazzarri’s natural weariness and caution has filtered through to the playing squad, leaving them doubting their own abilities and questioning their natural game. The big question now is whether Mazzarri has the man-management skills to restore the confidence of his players and make them believe that they are in fact on the same level as Juventus and Roma. He has only to look at the work of the current Italy manager Antonio Conte over the last few seasons at Juventus, where he turned around the club’s fortunes by reminding his squad who they are playing for and what that means. Under Conte, Juventus rediscovered their arrogance and swagger, storming back to the top of Serie A. Inter has the squad to fight for the top three this season, they just need the confidence.
Do you agree with Sam? Discuss below.
“There is nothing really wrong with these tactics, they are tried and tested
and ideal for clubs looking to avoid relegation and fight for a top half
of the table finish.”
Like usual, nonsense. I don’t recall Napoli under Mazzarri struggling to avoid relegation, rather they were ruthless and efficient scudetto contenders, who beyond Cavani, Lavezzi and Hamsik, lacked top-class quality. Nonetheless, they were a strong club built on smart tactics and smart squad management.
These defense-oriented, counter-attacking tactics that you dismiss can be extremely effective if utilised properly with a suitable squad of players. It has for example won Italy 4 World Cups and Inter 3 Champion Leagues, as well as establishing the Inter of the 60’s and Milan of the late 80’s/early 90’s amongst the all-time greats.
I admit there is a short-term on-field confidence problem. However this issue has recurred regularly post-Mou, under Strama in particular. It is a superficial problem, a symptom of a more fundamental problem, that will persist if we do nothing to address it. Our problem for some time has been one of management. It is a problem that is far more complex and difficult to solve than our favorite one-word ‘Mazzarri’ problem. The real problem requires not only on-field improvement, but off-field as well, I’d go so far as to say cultural change is required.
Under Thohir, we have gone some way to building a sustainable on/off-field Inter, however we still have issues higher up, as evidenced by our uninspiring past few Mercatos.
I dont think the tactics we are employing can be considered counter attacking. We build way to slow from the back from this. Counter attacking tactics are normally based around quick transitions from back to front normally utilising wingers or as in Mourinho’s case, a playmaker like Sneijder who will stay between the box and half way and distribute the ball quickly to the forwards. Mazzarri has not got the team set up to play this. We play a possession game, or we aim too, built around coming out form the back and spreading the ball. I dont believe in the tactics we employ personally and would much rather see us play a counter attacking style. I also dont believe that Mazzarri is getting the best out of the squad. I find it strange that we struggle to score against Napoli until we concede then suddenly score twice. This implys to me that Mazzarri is advising his team to play risk free football to stop the opposition scoring rather than telling his team to back themselves and maybe take a few risks, like we did after we went behind. I am not a fan of such conservatism.
This WM saga is ridiculous honestly. I mean yea the guy is arrogant and stubborn and all, but at the same time guys look at the people we got. I mean SAF or JM couldn’t even turn the likes of jonathan, kuz, nagatomo and so on into world class. Come on.. I mean in 2010 we had sneijder, lucio, thiago motta, eto’o etc…really gona compare them to kids playing in our club these days ??!! And yea WM is at fault but at the same time u can’t ask a headless chicken to play at a high level even with all the confidence in the world instilled in them. It’s basically 2 birds in one stone : a dumb coach with dumb players (excluding kova,icardi,osvaldo,palacio,handa)
I agree to a certain extent but I look at the Man Utd squad left behind for Moyes that Ferguson won the Premier League with and that contained players like Ashley Young, Rafael, Tom Cleverly, an old Rio Ferdinand, Anderson and Nani to name a few. He managed to get the best out of them and the real stars he had. He got them playing and made a real team. I dont think we can expect to be winning every game or challenging for the the championship yet but I think we can expect better performances against teams like Cagliari, Palermo, Torino than we have seen.
A very good article.
I could not agree more with this article. What I don’t like about Mazarri is he lacks confidence, like you said, he settles for the draw rather than going for the win. I remember back in 2009-10 when Mourinho was in charge, we were up 1-0 near the end of a game and the other team were pressung us, and what does he do? He takes out a midfielder and puts on another forward, literally the opposite of what most coaches would do. Inter went on to win 2-0.
“The message seems to be to keep it tight at the back, control the game
through low risk football, if possible score an early goal, then when
the opposition pushes forward, look for opportunities to counter. There
is nothing really wrong with these tactics, they are tried and tested
and ideal for clubs looking to avoid relegation and fight for a top half
of the table finish. Inter however, are not one of these clubs.”
avoid relegation? top half? and you still saying you are an interisti? read our history. that has been our trademark. the same as barca with it’s tiki taka or united with it’s united way as you said so. this has been our style even in that treble season. what a shit people these are. someone who claimed himself to be an interisti yet disgracing it’s own history
i think the difference is, in mou’s era we did that tactic with style, but in mazzarri’s era in this 2 seasons, we just do it with running around the pitch
Well said.
the most obvious difference is because in mou’s era, half of this team wouldn’t even make it to be their sub
well the difference with Mou era was quite obvious.
in Mou era, we had the best GK in the world (not just in Serie A).
we had the best full-back in the world (even if you combine all of our flank players skills into one player, it still nowhere near him).
we had one of the best CB pair in our history.
we still had our legendary captain full on running on every matches.
we had one of the most intelligent DMF in the world.
we had playmaker who can shoot very well from distance and master on taking set piece.
we had one of the most expensive forwards simply because, they’re the best.
and what kind of players we have now?
I agree. We had a much better squad in Mou’s era, a fact that must be taken into consideration. I try to look mainly at the way the players are playing as a team, the way they link up and their body language. I see Icardi obviously frustrated at the lack of service and basically not involved, I see the wingers who too are caught out and I see players who seem worried rather than confident. I hope Mazzarri gets the full season and a fair shot at making it work but I have doubts over whether he is the right man for the job.
Disgrace? He’s saying that Inter are not one of the teams aiming only to avoid relegation and not only fight for top half. What’s wrong with that? You should be highlighting the right spot of the story, talking about Mazzarri’s. And duh, please stop judging others for being fans of Inter, cause by doing so, are not making you a better fan yourself, that’s kinda disgusting.
he’s saying literally that those kind of play are for clubs avoiding relegation and fight for top half finish. yet these kind of play was what gave us 3 times champions league.
and i wouldn’t even mention that “drilling to stop” opponents kind of thing because that was also what mourinho has been well-known for, have so many times to analysing how the opponent’s play and trying to counteract that.
disgusting? i’ll tell what disgusting is. disgusting is when someone who claimed to be an interisti but had no respect whatsoever to the history of this great club
I have to disagree with your sentiment about our history. As I said in the reply above I do not see how you consider the tactics that Mazzarri are employing to be a counter attack. We hardly ever actually counter attack to be honest. The tactics I have a problem with is the slow passing out of defence and the attempts to minimise the risk going forward. We only look to counter attack once we are in front. I also think Mazzarri has put a negative mindset into the team, one that makes players scared rather than bold. Mourinho by contrast always filled his players with confidence.
who ever said that those tactics are what mazzarri employed in this club? did i said that? no. but it was the tactics that was excelled and perfected by mou. that is why i said what your saying about how the tactics was for clubs avoiding relegation was a disgrace to this clubs history.
funny how to replied steve’s comment you said you would rather see us play counter attacking style yet on the article you dishes team that play counter attacking by saying “look for opportunities to counter” as a tactics for clubs who avoid relegation. you tried to save yourself of humiliation by saying things that instead describe how terrible your writing is and yourself as a writer
Strange to have trolls lurking in a fan site! Anyway addressing the sensible part of your comment. I stated in the article that prior to a goal scored our tactics are cautious and hesitant, we build slowly from the back to eliminate opportunities for the opposition to counter, once we have scored yes we do then transition to a counter attacking style of game. I would rather see us play faster from the start, our transition from defense to offence when the score is tied is done at snail pace. Last night when we fell behind our play also sped up and we took a few more risks, and we got goals. I personally love counter attacking football when it is done well. Real Madrid played some beautiful counter football under Mou. It is fluid, graceful and fast. What we play under Mazzarri is not good counter attacking football. We play hesitantly, cautiously and slowly, at least until a goal is scored.
As i have Said many times before, WM must show some balls and play like big teams should, more energy more grinta and some shock and conquer style of football….I this way teams like Cagliari and Palermo, Torino don’t get their hopes high on taking points away from us…..well said Sam!
Handanovic, Kovacic, Hernanes, and to some extent Osvaldo, Palacio, Icardi, Guarin, Medel, Dodo, Naga, Rano, Vidic and Juan Jesus are as Olsen mentioned “players of the highest level”..some of them are not the best, but even Man U winning with O’Shea, Flecther, etc..Hope Mazzari learn something from international break!
funny how other teams didn’t even bother to offer some chunk of money to these so called “players of the highest level” and lure them out of meazza