Inter’s directors are reportedly “furious” with the players after the Nerazzurri’s 0-1 Serie A loss to Monza on Saturday, the team’s fourth defeat in their last five league fixtures.
This according to today’s print edition of Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport, via FCInterNews, who report that whilst coach Simone Inzaghi has come in for some of the blame for Saturday evening’s debacle, the players have certainly not escaped criticism either.
After Saturday’s match at the San Siro left Inter’s hopes of qualifying for next season’s edition of the Champions League hanging on by a thread, it is certainly the case that the club are looking for answers.
Whilst a lot of public criticism has focused on Simone Inzaghi, peerhaps naturally given that he is the coach of the team, he is not the only one who the directors have been looking at under a microscope.
In terms of what the directors have been frustrated with, Tuttosport reports that there is a feeling that the former Lazio boss is too reliant on certain players, such as Nicolo Barella and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, whilst others play very little.
Both of the midfield duo started their umpteenth match of the season on Saturday, and neither looked close to their best.
The fact that the most important midfielders are still starting match in and match out in an incredibly busy period of the campaign is starting to wear on their legs, and the blame for this sits squarely on Inzaghi.
However, the directors feel that the players are equally culpable.
This is especially the case given the fact that the reaction to setbacks and matches not going in the right direction has been such a problem.
For a team who have proven their quality as well as their ability to stay focused in the Champions League, the Inter directors have felt angry at the pattern that has emerged in recent league defeats.
Paradoxically, Inter have enjoyed bright starts in just about every one of the eleven matches they’ve lost in the league.
However, when the team have failed to turn these positive starts into leads, they have tended to lose focus and let the tempo drop, looking disorganized on the pitch.
From the perspective of the Inter directors, this comes down to the attitudes shown by individual players as much as it does Inzaghi’s coaching.
