Slowly, slowly the new wall formed by Stefan De Vrij and Milan Skriniar is taking shape. And, not by chance, a physical problem force Spalletti to give up on one of the two in the start of the season, the Slovak against Sassuolo in the first round of the championship.
After that the two of them have formed the central defense. Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport explains: “Physicality, length, international experience, ability to be decisive on set pieces and comfortable with handling and passing the ball. The couple De Vrij & Skriniar guarantees all the qualities that Spalletti wants from his defenders and it is, starting from them, that Inter will start growing this season. And the history of Serie A teaches us one thing, if you want to fight for the title you cannot neglect the number of goals conceded, also because this season Inter has more options in attack and are trying to get less dependent of Mauro Icardi.”
“In the last two rounds of the championship, the duo De Vrij and Skriniar was the best in number of balls played (349), successful passes (288) and balls recovered (28). This is the clear sign from Spalletti that Inter is changing. On the pitch, Skriniar has always been a certainty but outside his future is not clear after the stop in negotiating his new contract. Inter has offered a €2.5 million salary in order to make the Slovak extend his contract beyond 2022, something that was declined by Skriniar and his entourage. This is not a priority, yet. The priority is what happens on the pitch and the growth of the team, also because Inter have Miranda that wants to give his contribution to the team.”
