Italian journalist Sandro Sabatini feels that the deartures of key players last summer cannot be overemphasized as a factor in Inter’s season.

Speaking to Italian broadcaster Radio Sportiva, Sabatini gave the view that any criticisms of how the Nerazzurri’s season has gone so far must be tempered by a reminder of their difficulties last summer.

Inter saw both their head coach and several key players head out the door from the Scudetto-winning team of last season, and there was significant uncertainty as to how they would cope this time around.

Now that it is April, there is no question that the team have the credentials to push for the title once again deep into the season, even if it remains to be seen if they will have what it takes to go all the way.

Sabatini feels that, regardless, the fact that they are where they are is impressive in light of the summer transfer window they had, and that they are still very much in a good position in the title race.

“We must remember this is a team who lost Romelu Lukaku, Achraf Hakimi and Christian Eriksen, that’s 30% of the starting team which is not a small amount,” he said.

“Despite this, however,” he went on, “Inter in my opinion could have done more than what we saw, especially considering that in 2021 the team was really in full flow.”

“Now Inter have looked lost in 2022, and the responsibility here lies with the coach,” he argued. “I expected Simone Inzaghi to do more to change things up from the standard.”

“The starting line-up is always the same,” he added, “as happened with Lazio, and so the motivation tails off a bit.”

He concluded that “Inter still has the best schedule to be able to play for the Scudetto.”