Last night Inter played Milan in the second Serie A derby of the season in what was one of the most interesting games Inter has played this season. The fluidity from this weekends game clearly carried over into this mid week game but with a slightly more challenging opposition. Inter played their game perfectly and they can’t be criticized for it. Unfortunately Inter was faced with a bit of bad luck and nothing could have been done about it which eventually led to them only picking up one point instead of the deserved three.
The back line held up strong enough all game long to keep the game all squared up but that right side with Cancelo supporting Candreva looked to produce so much creativity because of the manner in which Candreva would shift slightly central for the support in the box. Inevitably means the Milan left back follows him which opens up space for a very capable Cancelo to produce crosses in the box for Icardi. On the other side was D’Ambrosio who seems to look more and more comfortable every game he plays on the left and today he did a fairly good job with the way he was able to carry the ball and actually dribble past a few players. The inevitable dilemma was that in the second half, Milan dragged the play to their left and followed up by feeding Suso horizontally across the field and D’Ambrosio just didn’t have it in him to come out as clearly dominant which wasn’t bad considering Perisic’s incredible work rate to track back and help out.
The defensive midfielders a long with Rafinha very clearly dictated the pace of the game, Inter clearly had the dominant midfield and did a very good job at dictating the pace of the game. Gagliardini and Brozovic have been in such good defensive form as of late that even when they both get beat they both turn around track it down and clean up their mistake. Once again, the pinch and sit method was implemented with the defensive midfielders which means when one pinches the other one sits in the pocket and vice versa. Rafinha did a phenomenal job of really linking together the whole team and just turning the ball when it had to be turned. What made this midfield interesting today is that even when Borja replaced Rafinha the fluidity of the game continues which indicates that the fluidity comes from the team mentality and not individuals.
The forwards out-wide had such a good game in regards to every single aspect any coach wants in a winger. Both Candreva and Perisic both played fantastic games in terms of distribution, defensive support and good box presence. Perisic was easily the best player of the game today, the form Perisic was in today is the best of the season because even if he didn’t score him and his work rate are so noticeable both defensively and offensively. Icardi on the other hand did all of that right things except for his finishing, he made the right runs, passes and movements but just lost focus when his goal was disallowed. All in all it was an unfortunate point that could have easily been three points.
