Legendary former Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio believes that Inter are clearly showing signs of struggle both on and off the pitch in the first few matches of the season.
Speaking to Italian broadcaster Rai Radio, the Bianconeri legend gave his thoughts on the Nerazzurri’s far-from-ideal start to the campaign, and also suggested that bringing back Romelu Lukaku from Chelsea was not necessarily the signing that they needed this summer.
Inter went into the season with fairly high expectations considering that they had kept together much of the core that narrowly finished second in Serie A last season whilst also bringing back Lukaku, a striker who had powered them to the Scudetto just two seasons ago.
Things have not gone according to plan so far, however, as the positive signs have been outnumbered by the negative ones, particularly with regards to their defensive prowess and capacity to cope with head-to-head matches with top opposition.
“I don’t know if the team is off the rails yet, it’s still very early on,” Marchisio said of the Nerazzurri. “Inter are having problems defensively, not just in that they’re conceding too easily but the overall defensive phase.”
“Even the choice to bring back Romelu Lukaku, I don’t know how necessary it really was,” he continued, “perhaps they should have signed a different striker, more suited to Inzaghi’s style of play.”
“He was wanted and strongly shaped by Antonio Conte,” Marchisio said of the Belgian, “now Inter have a completely different way of playing.”
“Losing out on the title in the way that they did last season and then the way the transfer window has been with constant rumours of Skriniar’s departure, it suggests that things aren’t quite fluid at Inter, on or off the pitch,” he suggested.
