Former Inter midfielder Giancarlo Pasinato believes the current Nerazzurri coach Simone Inzaghi has not done enough to use his squad fully so far this season.
Speaking to Italian news outlet L’Interista, the 65-year-old gave the view that the Inter coach has not always gotten the contributions from some of the players outside the regular starting eleven as an explanation of their dip in form.
Inter have a fairly deep squad across all positions, though like many teams there is a relatively clear hierarchy which separates the regular starters from those players who are used more from the bench or as backups.
The team have at times looked shaky when the main starters have not been available, though this has raised the question of whether the backups have lacked the requisite quality or simply not been integrated into the team properly.
Pasinato believes that it’s the latter, reasoning that based on their quality, some of the players in the squad ought to have played and contributed more.
“I don’t think the team is fragile,” he said, “maybe Inzaghi should have managed the team a little better by involving certain players more who remained on the sidelines and who would be useful today, such as Vecino and Gagliardini.”
“Having them play 10-15 minutes all the time doesn’t help much,” he went on. “Vidal, for example, didn’t give the team the boost that could be expected, despite having played well against Liverpool.”
“In his place maybe others could play more who today are almost frozen out of the group,” he added.
Of the Nerazzurri at this stage of the season, Pasinato said that “I think of it this way, we’re still right in it and after a long time it’s been a hard-fought season.”
“Now there are Fiorentina and Juventus to come,” he went on, “then they’llhave already met all of the strongest tams. At least on paper, therefore, they’ll have weaker and more ‘manageable’ opponents.”
“There are forwards and then backups,” he said of the attack. “Now Inzaghi also has Caicedo at his disposal. It’s probably a year that just goes like this, where the ball doesn’t seem to want to go in.”
“It reminds me of the first season I experienced at Inter,” he added, “the one before the Scudetto win, in which we conceded six goals in the final minutes in as many different matches.”
“Without those carelessness we would have won the league,” he recalled. “There are seasons like that, even if in this one it were to turn out just fine.”
On the reasons for the team’s dip in form, he analyzed that “Surely the fixture list didn’t help. But the real problem was the derby against Milan.”
He continued that :hat comeback sealed by Giroud didn’t just take away three points, but six, because in terms of morale it weighed on them a lot in the following matches, in my opinion.”
Of the Serie A title race, he said that “It will be an open race. I’ll just say that I am convinced that Juventus will get through the Champions League round and I hope so, as an Interista.”
He elaborated that “Going forward and meeting an absolutely top side, they could be distracted by the extra commitment. Otherwise they’ll come back in it too. They play dangerous counterattacking football.”
