A win. Mancini’s first Serie A win this season. A clean sheet. Away. Pretty football. We had the bare necessities tonight of what we can build off of the rest of the season.
Our new formation seems to be clicking. If not exactly ecstatic, we can be quite content after this win, because this was by no means guaranteed given this season. This win was by no means guaranteed under Mazzarri, and this win was by no means guaranteed given the…RAIN. *Tears of joy stream down our faces like monsoon rain.*
…okay, I’ll stop having digs at Mazzaballs…
But seriously, this was just what we needed. Chievo are always a team that take the piss out of top teams, and they’ve done it to us quite a bit. Almost as much as Atalanta…
This game started out in a blitz of Inter attacks. Guarin started well with a good ball over the top for Icardi who squared for a blocked Kova shot. From early on it was apparent Mancio had ordered the fullbacks to attack high, with Medel dropping central just in front of the two center backs. Sadly, Nagatomo looks a shadow of even his not-so-incredible former self, and continually gave up possession, leaving us stranded many a time. Guarin and Kovacic looked to string passes forward and did well in the initial minutes. We countered well in the 6th minute from a Chievo corner and this time, Nagatomo got rid of the ball in time for Palacio to square for a deflected Icardi shot. It seems we have been working a lot on getting to the by-line and cutting it back to the 18 for a third-man. I like this development. All the while, keeping the ball on the ground with overlapping runs instead of the punt-and-run tactics we saw so much this season.
This game was littered with fouls. Ranocchia committed two in quick succession in the 7th minute leading to a header that was miraculously saved by Handanovic. It wouldn’t be his last of the night either. As the game went on, Inter took ascendancy, playing fluidly, quickly passing the ball on and moving. I had to change my pants because I was so excited to see us actually playing quick, neat pass & move football. So low was the bar set after WM…
Right after changing my pants, I realized Nagatomo had the ball and actually got a cross through, albeit deflected. Icardi headed it down behind a Guarin who was holding off two defenders. As the ball was shielded, on 17 minutes Kovacic ran onto it and neatly finished from close range. 1-0!
We were pressing high, both in the Chievo half and our own. It seems to be something Mancini is working on, and we got it just about right tonight. It still needs tweaking, and we still need someone less bird-brained than Nagatomo to give us assurance, but it can work. Kuzmanovic was drawing foul after foul, as he always did well to hold up the ball and turn past Chievo players. His through balls into Palacio were quite dangerous as well. Not sure why so many give him so much stick. He’s doing his job better than 85% of this team is doing theirs. He did give the ball away as he slipped in a dangerous position, but Medel did the same. In fact, this pitch was quite terrible. Oh Serie A…
After about the 28th minute mark, the Flying Donkeys started to regain a grip on the match as Inter gave the ball away several times. D’Ambrosio’s good defending and link-up play on one wing was spoiled by Nagatomo’s errant passes on the other. JJ gave the ball away with poor clearances as well. Guarin had by this point lost the plot that he had started so well and almost continually finished great runs with horrible final balls.
On 35 minutes, CV captain Sardo sent in a wonderful overhead cross that bounced to Meggiorini, who also produced a biked effort. Handanovic showed amazing positioning and reflexes yet again to save the shot. The next ten minutes showed several Chievo counters becoming increasingly dangerous, Guarin being nutmegged in one as Medel was passed. Thankfully Kovacic was able to draw many fouls and two of these drew yellow cards for the men in yellow; one for Cesar, and one for Meggiorini. I hate that pig.
As the two teams went in for the half, Inter could be happy, but needed to be wary of the counter threat. Inter started well again but Chievo had a flurry of close calls on our goal. We caught out once as the team was pulled up for a corner and Chievo came close to scoring on a 3 vs 2. Both fullbacks were pushed up the wings, and Mancio ordered Medel to start sitting a little deeper, closer to the center backs. Nagatomo gave the ball away after a wonderful D’Ambrosio run, and thankfully the resulting goal was offsides, or else he could have been assaulted on his way out of the stadium. Guarin followed this up with a central giveaway of his own that Chievo created a chance off of. Our headless horsemen as I call them (they have little brains but run like horses) spoiled some wonderful play. Consistency, if Guarin could find it…If only.
Inter countered with growing confidence and Kuz went down after holding up the ball on one such in the 54th minute. He drew many fouls all game actually. That free-kick resulted in two corners. D’Ambrosio chested the ball down in the box and took a shot deflected for another corner. THAT one resulted in an eventual cross from D’Ambrosio for Ranocchia, who seemed a veteran finisher with his calm left-footed finish to the far post on 55′. 2-0. He may ship ‘em, but he scores them too. See, from this^ logical syllogism we learn that when Kuz holds the ball up, Ranocchia scores. So Kuzmanovic is in the Illuminati.
Wait. NO HE ISN’T I mean. I have to say that or they’ll get me, but we all know Kuz is Illuminati. How many letters in Kuz? Three. How many angles in a pizza slice? Three. How many pizza slices did Kuz eat last night? Three? 3+3+3=9. Cats have nine lives. “Cat” has three letters. Three sides to the all-seeing-Illuminati-eye-pyramid. Kuzmanovic is Illuminati confirmed. He runs the world’s banks. It’s actually the only thing he runs for. HA…Hahaha. Okay I’ll stop.
Anyway. After the goal, it was refreshing to see Inter keep up the pressure high up the pitch, showing hunger. This was something we NEVER saw under Mazzarri after (rarely) taking the lead. Inter produced good triangles near, and inside the CV box, and one such was finished by a terrible Nagatomo through ball. Another great counter on 60′ was a 3 vs 2 we had that was squandered when Guarin played a horribly overhit ball to goal-kick.
On 63′ Maxi Lopez and Ruben Botta came on. This was a) funny, because both have links to Inter in one way or another, and b) would prove fateful. The next 10 minutes were littered with fouls. We did have a couple great passages of play that took a note out of a tiki-taka playbook, but once again, Nagatomo gave up possession at the end of it. Poor guy had a hellish night. On 72′ Botta’s night would turn hellish. Just 10 minutes after coming on, his elbow to Zdravko’s face, then words with the ref would result in a red card.
After Chievo went down to 10 men, the game was easy coasting. M’Vila came on for Icardi, and Dodo came on for Kuzmanovic on 75 minutes. Not so sure why Mancio leaves so many substitutions for late, it does irk me, but surely we’ll figure out the reason to his rhymes. Hopefully. Inter would control the rest of the game, passing around the back and midfield, only going forward under pressure. On 80′ Kovacic came off for Osvaldo. The subs all did well in the own accounts. M’Vila produced some neat passing and showed strength and speed. Dodo got past several opponents very well on the wing while Nagatomo dropped further back and stopped attacking, thankfully. Osvaldo got into good positions, but couldn’t affect the ball the way he would have liked.
Oh and CN69 kept it real with the Balotelli chants hahaha. Yeah, he can stay away, don’t care about the “marketing” aspect on that one. Traitor to the shirt, and terribly off form…for the last year. Starting to look simply permanently poor.
At full time the players looked tired, and some seemed a bit off, as it was by no-means an easy win. One of those they’ll feel better about after a day or two. We did what we HAD to do, and showed signs of a new identity. I’m quite happy. Handanovic, Kuzmanovic, Ranocchia, Medel, and D’Ambrosio did great tonight. I though Nagatomo and Guarin had especially poor showings overall. I think the team had the best result, and Mancio can be happy with the performance on a whole. I think he’s getting things down his own way, and his tactics are starting to show. This mercato can prove very fruitful if we can get rid of the deadweight and aspects that don’t fit Mister’s system, and replace them. A fullback (or two, or Zanetti coming out of retirement…) and a winger (or two) are top of my list. Hopefully a fit Hernanes and a (more) fit M’Vila can show up soon, and I feel good about our chances for 3rd! Onto Lazio.
Goodnight and good luck Interisti. Avanti!
Forza Inter!
PS: Bare with us through these technical difficulties. As you can see, pictures and other aspects of articles do not work. We’re working on these issues. Grazie fratelli.