Former Lazio, Juvetnus, and West Ham United striker Paolo Di Canio believes that the choice of Roberto Gagliardini to add physicality to Inter’s midfield and mark Lazio midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic was the wrong one in the Nerazzurri’s 3-1 loss on Friday.
Speaking to Italian broadcaster Sky Sport Italia, Di Canio gave the view that Gagliardini does not offer the right characteristics to effectively negate the Serb, and that his height and strength were not effective weapons at countering the Biancocelesti midfielder.
Inzaghi made the unexpected choice of selecting Gagliardini ahead of Hakan Calhanoglu in the Nerazzurri’s Serie A clash with Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico, although it was a selection that he’d made against the same opposition last season.
The sense was that the Nerazzurri coach was consciously trying to adapt to the threat posed by Milinkovic-Savic, a midfielder who he knows well from his time in charge of the Biancocelesti.
However, most commentators have agreed that whatever edge Gagliardini brought in terms of physicality and energy was not worth the technical drop-off compared to Calhanoglu, whilst Di Canio questions whether the former Atalanta midfielder even had the right style of play for the defensive task that he was given.
“I don’t think putting a tall player on a tall player is necessarily going to limit him,” Di Canio said of the selection decision. “Especially since Lazio play a lot with the ball on the ground, it made more sense to put a shorter and more aggressive player on the Serb.”
“In my opinion it was the wrong choice,” he continued, “Gagliardini isn’t the right player. But it’s not his fault. Gagliardini was put in a tough situation, he was asked to do a job that doesn’t suit his characteristics.”
