Joao Cancelo came to Inter before the start of this year’s Serie A in a loan deal with Valencia that sent Geoffrey Kondogbia the other way. However, the first half of the season saw Cancelo left out of play due to a complicated knee injury at the beginning of the season. After a couple of good peroformances, the Portugues player is now a certainty for Inter and Spalletti. As a proof of that are Inter coach Luciano Spallettis praise during the post-match interviews after the Lazio game, where Spalletti hinted that although Cancelo’s performance was good, he has a lot more in him. Words that Spalletti only uses with players that he likes and believes in.

Valencia repeatedly has used Cancelo’s low impact on Inter as a reason for bringing the Portuguese back, but Inter has always responded with a firm no. With Danilo D’Ambrosio out for another month, Cancelo now is the starting player as a fullback after only a few appearances in the attacking phase previously, a position the player himself is not very interested in playing. La Gazzetta dello Sport explains: “In the league derby against AC Milan, Bonaventura was for a moment forgotten as Milan scored the 2-2 goal. Against Lazio two of those crosses were avoided. It is true that Cancelo put Radu and Lulic in trouble but when Lukaku entered it became more difficult for Cancelo. But the fact reamins that the playes has two 120 minute Coppa Italia games and almost complete games against Lazio and Sassuolo.”

Source: gazzetta.it