So a new season has begun at Inter after a chaotic summer where Mancini left and the team’s captain and his agent/wife tried to bully their way out of the club. How did it start? About as good as you could expect if you replace the tactically careful Roberto Mancini with Frank De Boer who’s only ever coached Ajax in the Dutch Eredivisie at senior level. A complete disaster and we’re only 1 game into the season…
Many people will argue that it’s time to take a deep breath and give De Boer some time to develop the team and it will all come together. There are two problem’s with that line of reasoning. The first and probably the most important one being, that Inter have no time to give. This season Inter MUST finish in the top three as the club’s finances cannot afford another year outside of the Champions League. Also, Roma, Napoli, Juventus and to some extent Fiorentina are all teams who are into year 2 or 3 of their projects with a rejuvinated Milan destined to involve themselves in the European places as well. Secondly, if Inter had lost tonight but had done so after Frank De Boer had actually stuck to what he’s said in all previous press conferences, namely that he wont make swift changes and instead try to grow into the team and vice versa, then there would be no cause for worry.
However, that’s not what happened tonight. Frank De Boer decided to field a Ajax/Barcelona inspired 3-3-1-3 tiki taka formation using Danilo D’Ambrosio and Yuto Nagatomo as wing-backs, together with Andrea Ranocchia in the middle of defense, whilst benching a match-fit in form Ivan Perisic and playing two unfit, sluggish, out of form wingers in Candreva and Eder, leaving Mauro Icardi more isolated than a Guantanamo Bay detainee up front.
Just let that sink in for a minute: Yuto Nagatomo as Jordi Alba or Juan Bernat, Danilo D’Ambrosio as Dani Alves or David Alaba, Andrea Ranocchia as Gerard Pique or Mehdi Benatia with Eder as Neymar or Douglas Costa, Antonio Candreva in Lionel Messi’s or Arjen Robben’s role and Mauro Icardi to emulate the movement of Luis Suarez or Robert Lewandowski. Because the only teams that have played/play 3-3-1-3 in world football recently have been famously FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich, with the latter club having been coached by Pep Guardiola who is another famous coaching scholar of the Ajax/Barcelona Tiki taka philosophy.
No matter what your philosophy is, you don’t need to be a tactical genius to understand that this tactic does not in ANY way suit Inter, and the players that are currently in the squad. Notice, that so far nothing has been mentioned about the fact that Gary Medel wasn’t used as a central defender, despite having played in both a 3 and a 4-man defense with Chile with great success too, as he’s been an integral part of Chile winning the Copa America 2 years in a row after having twice beaten Argentina in the final who hosted Gonzalo Higuain, Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria, Sergio Aguero and Ever Banega.
So is it all Frank De Boer’s fault? Of course not. Inter have Chinese owners and a very famous Chinese Proverb reads “A fish rots from the head down.” The decision to let Roberto Mancini leave the club 10 days before the season starts and replace him with his polar opposite tactically, and leave that replacement a team that’s been built for Mancini is the management’s fault. No if’s and’s or but’s about it. Furthermore, hiring Frank De Boer and expecting him not to play his brand of Ajax/Barca football is as Zlatan Ibrahimovic wrote in his autobiography like “buying a Ferrari and driving it like a FIAT.” Or simply put, and I use this term seriously, the very definition of the word stupid.
Frank De Boer has two paths he can go down rom here. Either continue with his Ajax model and be out of a job before Christmas as Inter will most definitely continue to lose badly, or to do what he said he would do, slowly try to adapt the team to him and vice versa, at which point Inter could have a decent season. Irrespective of what he decides to do, the uncertainty that surrounds the club is anything but good and this could mean that Inter-fans find themselves looking ahead to the following 2017-2018 season, as early as in mid-September 2016.