Davide Frattesi has won praise for a relentless display in midfield for Inter Milan in their Serie A win over Roma yesterday.
Today’s print edition of Rome-based newspaper Corriere dello Sport, via FCInterNews, give the 25-year-old a score of 7/10 in the player ratings for the match.
Before yesterday’s match, a lot of attention was focused on the question of whether Davide Frattesi or Nicolo Barella would start in midfield for Inter.
In the end, it was Barella who started. However, Frattesi ended up playing nearly the entire match – alongside, rather than in place of, his Italian international teammate Barella.
Frattesi replaced Hakan Calhanoglu after the Turk suffered an injury.
This saw Barella move into Calhanoglu’s position in holding midfield. And Frattesi played on the right of Inter’s midfield trio.
Frattesi always interprets the box-to-box midfield in a particular way.
The Sassuolo midfielder tends to rely on his physicality, energy, and aggression to take control of the midfield battle. He makes Inter’s play a lot more direct.
And against Roma yesterday, that may have been just what Inter needed.
Davide Frattesi Hailed For Relentless Display In Inter Serie A Win Vs Roma
Yesterday’s match was an extremely physical contest.
Both teams did everything they could to disrupt the other’s rhythm. There were a lot of fouls, and rarely was anyone given space to operate in.
But Frattesi relished this battle with the Giallorossi midfield.
The Italian international showed his keen sense of when to win the ball – and when to drive forward with it.
Therefore, Frattesi got the ball into the final third on quite a few occasions for Inter.
The 25-year-old also showed his quality with a few good balls in and around the penalty area.
But the decisive contribution from Frattesi was his winning the ball off of Roma wingback Nicola Zalewski in the buildup to Inter’s goal.
Zalewski looked favourite to control the ball and re-circulate it following a Giallorossi corner.
But an absolutely relentless Frattesi simply beat the 22-year-old Polish international to it.
This allowed Frattesi to rush forward and set up the counterattack that saw Lautaro Martinez score Inter’s winning goal.
The intensity, tenacity, and quick-thinking were all emblematic of the best parts of Frattesi’s game.