On Saturday Inter played Benevento at home in what started as a horrible first half. Many things could have been done differently to facilitate the task at hand which was to pick up the supposed “easy” three points and focus on the derby next weekend. The problem with the game plan was the three points proved much harder to earn than what Spalletti’s men presumed. We saw Rafinha in the starting eleven from the get go who was man marked incredibly closely all game which left him almost no breathing room to create for Eder and his wingers. What was really interesting about this game was when Rafinha came off the the field and Karamoh was introduced to the game.
When Rafinha came off the field and Karamoh came on, Candreva was pushed into what looked to be the central attacking midfielder position which he looked very very comfortable in, which can lead Spalletti to line up with Perisic-Candreva-Karamoh with Icardi on top and then he would be able to slot in Rafinha for either Candreva or Karamoh depending on the situation. With this line up and Vecino playing along side with Borja Valero in the defensive midfielder role, there as a lot to work with which would lead to a greater amount of creativity.
This team needs to learn to play like the club they truly are. The problem with Inter isn’t the lack of talent, their problems lead to more personal problems, problems of confidence and focus which was made evident in the first minute with Vecino’s pass straight out of bounds. We saw that the minute they scored they were rejuvenated and they took the game by scruff of the neck and immediately picked up the second goal. The idea of both center backs scoring in a 2-0 game can be looked at in three ways. The first being that the defence is contributing greatly to the attack which is always a very positive thing, the second can be that the midfield lacks that ability to create which only puts more pressure on the defence to forcefully produce something, and lastly the problem with the lack of goals from the attackers has not been fixed which against top tier teams while pose to be a major problem.
The reintroduction of a well rested Mauro Icardi against Milan will definitely spark up the attacking power and finishing of Inter which will surely prove to be crucial in what will surely be nail-biting game until the end. For this week, Spalletti and his men did their job well enough to pick up three points with the help of our defending saviours which leads us into the derby on a very positive note.
