Inter’s struggles in front of goal have become a defining feature in their recent major dip in form, with the Nerazzurri failing to hit the back of the net in their last 53 attempts.
This is highlighted in today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, who note that the team look out of confidence and out of ideas in the final third despite regularly trying to break through.
During the first half of the season, Inter’s formidable attack could be relied on to score goals even when they were not at their best defensively, but this is no longer the case.
There are a number of reasons behind this, not least the drop-off in the strike rates of main strikers Edin Dzeko and especially Lautaro Martinez.
However, it is also the case that the Nerazzurri regularly dominate possession in many of their matches and yet struggle to create really telling opportunities, instead settling for tentative half-chances.
The result is that for all of the team’s knocking on the door over their past few matches, they have been unable to break through, with many wild efforts against packed defenses, and the few good chances they’ve created not taken.
Against the Griffone, coach Simone Inzaghi decided to change things up by putting Alexis Sanchez in the starting eleven in place of the profoundly out-of-form Lautaro Martinez.
However, this gambit did not pay off as the Chilean created next to no danger in his time on the pitch, whilst Martinez has now gone one more match without a goal and was not really given enough time to reverse this trend and get back his confidence.
Now, with the strikers misfiring, no telling contributions from midfield, and set pieces having dried up as a route to goal, the Nerazzurri are facing a real crisis of efficiency in front of goal.
