Legendary former Napoli, Parma, and Chelsea midfielder Gianfranco Zola feels that at this point Inter’s Nicolo Barella has essentially no major deficiencies to his game.
Speaking to Italian broadcaster Rai Radio, Zola praised Barella as well as his teammate Lautaro Martinez for their recent growth, and singled out Barella’s ability to do virtually everything on the pitch.
Barella joined Inter as either a box-to-box or more defensively-minded midfielder from Cagliari, although it quickly became clear that the former Rossoblu midfielder was capable of far more than that.
Last season, Barella got into double digits for assists without taking set pieces, and this time around the 25-year-old is showing more consistency in terms of scoring goals than at any point before.
Zola is a fan of what he has brought in terms of his all-round game.
“It’s true that Inter play well but have the flaw of conceding too often, and this is a negative,” he said.
“Having said that, it’s evident that recently some individual players like Martinez and Barella have grown a lot.”
“He’s also very important for this team, because he defends, attacks, scores and assists,” he said of Barella, “he’s a complete midfielder who has regained confidence and physical freshness, things that he seemed to have lost at one point.”
“I’m happy for him because like me he’s also Sardinian and made his debut for Cagliari,” Zola said of Barella.
