Albania Starlet Finds His Feet With A String Of Good Performances For Inter Milan

Young midfielder Kristjan Asllani is finding his feet at Inter Milan after a little over a year at the club.

Today’s print edition of Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport, via FCInterNews, highlight the Albanian’s recent string of good performances.

Aged 21, Asllani always knew that he was not going to come into this season as a regular starter for Inter.

Having only joined from Empoli last summer, there is still a lot of growing up for the Albanian international to do.

But at the same time, part of that growth has always meant feeling his way into the team.

Perhaps Asllani won’t have expected to be at the heart of the project.

But at the same time, the young midfielder will certainly have wanted to play more of a role than he had done last season, his first at the San Siro.

And in the first few weeks, there were some doubts.

Asllani didn’t play much over the very beginning of the campaign. And when he did, the 21-year-old tended to play a very peripheral role.

This led to plenty of doubts about whether it would be more of the same for Asllani.

In that case, some argued, the Albanian should have gone out on loan in the summer. He could have joined a club like Sassuolo where playing time would’ve been easier to come by.

Kristjan Asllani Starting To Really Find His Feet For Inter

After that start, however, Asllani has carved out more of a role for himself.

Admittedly, the former Empoli midfielder did have one fairly bad outing. He started against Real Sociedad in Inter’s Champions League opener, a match which saw the Nerazzurri overrun in midfield.

But that was far from the fault of Asllani alone.

And ever since then, Asllani has been making his contribution, making the most of his opportunities from the bench.

The 21-year-old has not simply been making up the numbers or avoiding mistakes.

And Inter coach Simone Inzaghi hasn’t just been entrusting Asllani to see out matches where Inter have had the lead.

On the contrary, the coach has frequently thrown the Albanian on in matches where Inter have been chasing a goal in the second half.

That had been the case in the Champions League on Wednesday. Asllani put in an impressive performance to help Inter take three points away to Red Bull Salzburg.

Perhaps the highlight of Asllani’s season was his cameo appearance against Roma.

The 21-year-old gave Inter a dimension that even Hakan Calhanoglu – one of the team’s outstanding performers so far in the campaign – had not been able to.

It was Asllani’s excellent long ball that unlocked the match for Marcus Thuram to score the only goal.

And in the view of Tuttosport, the best thing for Asllani is that it feels like he’s only getting started.