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 alive and well on the pages of Sempreinter.com.
When Robert Mancini decided to return to the roll he had left in somewhat controversial circumstances in 2008 he did so in the knowledge that it would be in the most trying of circumstances. Inter were languishing mid table, the club and team were in turmoil, and confidence appeared at an all time low. Walter Mazzarri had failed to assert his tactical blueprint on a team built to his specifications and had led them from one embarrassing low to another. Upon taking the job he was also faced with the prospect of a series of games which, if not navigated in a careful manner, could have seen the club fall completely out of the reckoning for European places. With these matches now out of the way however, Mancini must focus less on steadying the ship and more on cranking up the engines and charging forward.
Milan away, Roma away, Udinese at home, Chievo away, Lazio at home, Juventus away, Genoa at home. Such was the first seven league games of Roberto Mancini’s second term as Inter manager. Another way to look at it is 8, 2, 12, 16, 3, 1, 7; the current league positions of the opponents based on the current table. It is an unenviable run of games in anyone’s book, particularly if you are the newly appointed manager of one of your countries biggest football clubs fighting to bring it back to where it belonged. By the time the players wandered back to the changing rooms following the final match of this sequence against Genoa they had recorded a respectable 2 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses. It’s not a sequence that will not set the world on fire nor will it send ripples through European football, announcing to all the doubters that Inter are back as a force. It is however, a respectable start, a platform from which to build from.
The key for Mancini was always to steady the ship in these early matches. He inherited a squad low on confidence, prone to lapses and incompatible with the style of football he wanted to play. It is a lot for a manager to take on at the best of times, let alone mid season with the team slumping in the table. He knew he simply had to keep his team on course throughout a stormy December and set about more involved repairs once January arrived and that he has successfully accomplished.
Inter are currently sitting a mere 6 points behind third placed Lazio, a fact that is just as much down to the unpredictable nature of the league this season as anything else, leaving Mancini’s men with everything to play for. To close that gap however, they must do something that they have found difficult for a number of years. Win consistently.
Walter Mazzarri never managed to do it. In fact he must wake up regularly in a cold sweat, tormented by the number three. Not a big number but a hurdle nonetheless that Mazzarri was never able to overcome, never able to claim a winning sequence that surpassed a lonely pair. The statistic became almost an obsession with inquisitive football media personalities who referred to it constantly as a key number behind Inter’s failing. Mazzarri never achieved his own mini triplet and if Mancini entertains prospects of closing the 6 point gap he must break this cycle as quickly as possible. There is no better time to do so than in the next two months.
After weathering the storm of his initial months, the forecast for the next two months is of calm seas and ample opportunity. Through January/February Inter face no teams currently ranked higher than them on the table. It is the opportunity for Inter to not just break Mazzarri pitiful win streak record but smash it, putting the club right back in the mix for the top three spots and reinforcing the winning mentality Mancini is clearly trying to instil. Failure to take this opportunity will almost certainly spell the end of any ambition of making the top three and returning to the top table of global club football and the riches it promises.
The sequence also comes at perhaps the ideal time for Mancini. Having nursed his mismatched band of brothers admirably to this point, the Udinese loss at home the only truly disappointing result so far in his reign, Mancini has been able grasp the strengths and weaknesses of his squad firsthand. He has also, vitally, been able to greatly strengthen the team’s weakest areas in the transfer window. The inclusion of Podolski and Shaqiri suddenly give Inter an attacking threat on par with anything the Serie A can offer. Suddenly the attack has gone from toothless to terrifying, able to offer a variety of threats to the opposition defence.
He has also managed to reinvigorate the confidence of the squad, despite most fans having given up on several of them. Under Mancini the much maligned Fredy Guarin appears to have suddenly realised he is a professional footballer and is putting in performances worthy of the title, well one at least. Still it is one more than he had done previously! Most fans had given up hope of even seeing that.
Then there is the Serbian lion Nemanja Vidic, a lion that appeared to have lost all his teeth on the short trip from Manchester to Milan. Vidic’s early Inter adventure had been entering the realms of tragic comedy such were the extent and range of blunders he was involved in. Against Genoa however, the real Vidic returned, aggressive, dominant and composed, making a mockery out of stories of his demise. The Serb seemed intent on not just proving the critics, including myself, wrong; but smacking them about the head with their assertion that he was too old and not able to adjust to the Italian game. Such was the performance of the former United captain that Andrea Rannochia was seen popping into a well known Milan sporting goods store to purchase a tent which he will surely now be pitching up on the substitutes bench.
Inter enter this vital period of the clubs season on the back of a four match unbeaten run, confident and playing a system that the players appear comfortable in. Mancini has passed through the storm relatively unscathed but victories must now come, launching Inter back into the sphere of the Champions League.
Inter Fixtures January/February:
Empoli away
Sampdoria home (Coppa)
Torino home
Sassuolo away
Palermo home
Atalanta away
Celtic away (EL)
Cagliari away
Celtic home (EL)
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