Roberto Gagliardini was by some distance Inter’s worst performer in yesterday’s 3-1 Serie A loss to Lazio in the view of Italian media.
The 28-year-old was singled out for criticism in the player ratings for the match published in today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Corriere della Sera, who argue that while the rest of the team were far from their best, no one was as poor as Gagliardini.
Gagliardini had clearly been selected over Hakan Calhanoglu with the idea that his physicality could be used to disrupt Lazio’s midfield in possession, and in particular neutralize the threat of Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
The former Atalanta midfielder’s athleticism did become a factor at various points, but was nowhere near enough to prevent Milenkovic-Savic from pulling the strings and the Biancocelesti’s possession game to look close to its best.
The sense was that whatever Gagliardini was providing with his superior athleticism to Calhanoglu was far from worth the sacrifice of the Turk’s technical qualities.
Gagliardini was given a 4/10 score by the Corriere della Sera, whereas no other Inter player’s grade dropped below 5/10, whilst Simone Inzaghi was given just a 4.5/10 score with his selection of the former Atalanta player a key criticism of his approach.