Inter Milan boss Cristian Chivu delivered an honest admission on his side’s disjointed performance in tonight’s 3-1 loss to Arsenal.
Speaking to Sky Sport via FCInterNews, the 45-year-old admitted that the Nerazzurri are not yet ready for matches of this caliber.
Inter’s disastrous run in high-stakes games continued this evening as the Gunners avenged last season’s defeat at San Siro.
Despite scoring in his second Champions League start for the club, Petar Sucic couldn’t prevent another heartbreak.
Indeed, after losing to Atletico Madrid and Liverpool, the Serie A giants suffered a third consecutive European loss.
As a result, Cristian Chivu has become the first Nerazzurri manager since 2011 to lose three Champions League outings on the bounce.
More ominously, Inter are now at risk of missing out on a second successive top-eight finish in the newly formatted league phase.
Furthermore, last season’s finalists head to Signal Iduna Park to face Borussia Dortmund in the final round next week.
Therefore, the situation is far from ideal.
Cristian Chivu Delivers Verdict on Inter Milan 1-3 Arsenal Defeat
“They were stronger in terms of technique at speed, intensity, and positioning on the pitch,” Chivu admitted.
“Their ideas when attacking the lines and winning second balls were where they arrived with real force.
“We tried to stay in the game and in the first half we produced a good performance; after the 1–1 we could have scored.
“That doesn’t mean we would have won, but moments like that can change the mood of a match.
“We were unlucky with the 2–1: our defence should have cleared the ball off the line, then it hit the crossbar and fell straight onto the head of one of their players.
“In the second half, they raised their level of humility and focus, because in the first half, there was a bit of complacency.
“Then they dropped slightly deeper and showed their structure, physicality, and quality, as well as making the right substitutions to put you under pressure.”
Meanwhile, Chivu refused to take off Luis Henrique despite the Brazilian’s underwhelming attacking performance.
“We did it at the end, I don’t know if it was too late,” the Nerazzurri coach added. “I was thinking about switching to a 4-3-3, but I lacked strength in attack.
“They brought on Gabriel when they saw they were struggling with Pio Esposito. We played with three attackers, two behind a striker.
“Maybe it’s true that we lacked individual actions and crosses on the right.
“However, I don’t want to take anything away from Luis Henrique, who had a good game, or from the lads who stayed focused from start to finish.”
Inter Milan Manager Cristian Chivu Hails Arsenal Strength in Depth
Mikel Arteta had the luxury of introducing the likes of Declan Rice, Gabriel Magalhaes, and Viktor Gyokeres in the second half.
Despite their regular first-team status, all three started on the bench tonight, as Arteta decided to give them some rest.
That alone testifies to the remarkable strength of Arsenal’s roster.
“When they press you like that, they have intensity, organisation, and a strong attacking presence in the box thanks to their quality and technique,” Chivu admitted.
“The level of technique they showed impressed me compared to other teams – the decision is always the right one, and they have the speed to find a teammate making a run with a single touch.
“On the right, they also have Saka, who causes you problems. We stayed in the game, and when we won some duels, we created chances.
“But that’s down to Arsenal’s individual and collective quality. I won’t talk about how much they’ve spent.
“Otherwise I’d sound banal, and I’m not complaining.
“The Premier League is a top league in terms of intensity; we’re not yet used to this type of match.
“I try to pass on a bit more in terms of certain plays to execute on the pitch. But it’s not easy.
“We’re trying to continue our growth step by step. It’s important to maintain the belief that what we’re doing is the right thing.”
Chivu Comments on Upcoming Borussia Dortmund vs Inter Milan Clash
Inter will take on Dortmund in a must-win final-day clash in Germany.
Indeed, there will be no margin for error if the Italian heavyweights are to stand a chance of securing a top-eight finish.
However, they will first face Pisa in Serie A next weekend.
“Let’s wait until tomorrow to look at the table and understand whether a win will be enough or not,” Chivu said. “We’re ready for the prospect of playing in the playoffs; it’s two extra matches, but that’s not a problem.
“There’s regret over the games against Atletico Madrid and Liverpool.
“With a bit more maturity, we could have taken something more.
“Maybe across those three matches, we could have got something, perhaps not tonight but in the other two.
“From an attitude and mentality point of view, if we had played Atletico Madrid and Liverpool tonight, the outcome would have been different.
“That’s my assumption based on the growth of this group.
“Despite the difficulties, we played with conviction and accepted the risk against opponents who can beat you one-on-one.
“I take the courage and the recent growth we’ve shown.”
Why Is It That It Is Only When Inter Loses or draw That People comment . Chivu is A Good coach and if we Loose Big games It Is Not His Fault. learn to support inter. After all loosing to asernal dosen’t mean we can’t win UCL. If you think don’t Have you can support arsenal or Any other team. It Is Not By force to support inter. If inter Is Not Playing At the quality you wan’t then Leave.
what did you guys expect? chivu didnt get the reinforcement he requested for.no defensive midfielder, no cbs and no playmaker . the management should be blamed for that .. you guys can see how we concede stupid goals, bisseck wasn’t even starting last season. we see how we concede stupid goals whenever he starts last season. we should have atleast sign a replacement for darmian and acerbi but we didn’t. our defense is trash comfaded to before, so the blame should be on the manage for not improving the team
What???? They made two cl finals. Yes they are accustomed, you just suck as a coach.
Exactly. Chivu thinks he is still at Parma…
And now they want to get Akanji who sucks and is 30 years old….
what is even worse, some reports suggest that we might bring in Perisic who’s almost 37…
the players are too scared to make plays, they consistently take the easy way out and look backwards.
There were countless opportunities last night to catch arsenal with a faster transition but to a man it was halted and play sideways or back to Bastoni.
I’m not upset about this one game, arsenal are class right now and you can’t win them all, but it’s the overall mentality of the club from top to bottom that we consistently neglect our attacking needs in favour of bringing in mediocre overpriced nobodies who don’t improve the squad at all. Then fall into the trap of looking backwards at 37year olds to solve problems – this is really poor short term management.
Look at frattesi for example, anywhere else he gets game time as a CAM, here we sufficate him on the bench and then blame him when he’s being used as a CDM off the bench.. wtf?!
He fluffed it but his run into the box is exactly what we need, someone willing to take a chance in an attacking sense.
Positives – Pio looked great, held the ball really well, shame nobody around him was willing to make a run.
Negatives – Henrique is frustrating as hell I swear he’s got it in his locker to go past people – just go!
And Thuram AGAIN! the guy is in cruise control, lost all pace, composure, I question his mentality and commitment.
How the fcuk did Luis Henrique have a “good game” …what game did Chivu watch?! wtf he is utter trash, he’s had soo many opportunities to prove himself with Denzel being out injured but he hasnt produced jack sh!t all season…I’m baffled at how cost Inter 23+m …we defo need a replacement on the right side. Fratessi needs to be swapped with a more aggressive tackler and obviously we need a new quality CB. Nico Paz will hugely improve is but that’s a given….let’s just focus on the league this season, CL trophy can wait for another season or two…Forza Inter!!
You are too loyal to the management, you have to have balls and be honest with them that you need atleast 3 to 5 players that are immediately ready to improve this team and not all these 17yrs old players the club are focusing on. We are literally turning into a joke of a team in Europe unfortunately
Arsenal is in a life form this season. Last time they were so good was 20 yrs ago when Henry and Vieira played for them, so losing against them is not the end of the world. Also, we should focus on Seria A this year since we have a good chance of winning it, but we will have to sacrifice the CL, we don’t have a complete team that can effectively compete in league and Cl.
The managemet did a poor job this summer and it is clear we have nothing to do in CL. There is a space for improvement, but we need a clear plan for the future. Our weak spot is midfield and we need a destroyer (Fratessi – Kone swap would be good) and we need a brain or playmaker and Niko Paz would fit perfectly. As for defence, we realy must stop using Acerbi against pacy teams.
in addition to the midfield, another weak spot is defense, we lack at least one cb, right wb and a goalkeeper, and what we have done to adequately fill those positions so far – nothing!
Exactly my thoughts JJ on named players and Bob, we need all the players mentioned by you both, and overall we need signings who can beat their player and have pace, This slow tempo does nothing in Europe. Anyway we need to focus domestically this season and slowly build each season, too many players are playing poorly, our whole spine of the team has been poor and needs refreshing for champions league.
@Chivu… why are you still keep playing Acerbi against pacy attacker? Unless you don’t need to win the match, then it’s ok to play him. Everytime he plays against speedster, he always loses and it mean Inter will loses as well
The problem is not the team Chivu is not ready for those big games. So apart from being a shit coach he also says stupid things. If Inter fails this season it will totally be Marotta fault and he should leave the club or be fired.
Its a bit if both. Our players can’t make plays or dribble like they do and thr management fot average players for Chivu. Chivu needs to use this season to implement his football as much as possible.
What does this say about serie a where the top team is so weak Italy needs a champions league to gain respect again Yeah inter are top but serie a is just not enough in my eyes as an Italian because Napoli and Juventus have not been too great in the champions league either and I thought the reason for all the foreign players was to make things better don’t Italian kids play football anymore ?? Italian teams ans football in general need the three foreign player rule back again but hey I just hope Atalanta inter Juventus and Napoli who are the weakest of the lot and they are meant to be Italian champions ??can pull it off and finally bring the European cup back to Italy and then there is Italy who have to play World Cup qualifiers to get to USA with out history in the game Italy needs something big to put the critics at rest ciao for now
The teams who started Bastoni and Di Marco always conceded 3 or more goal is no accident.Because they are suck at defending especially one beat one.
Chivu do us a favour and PURPOSELY loss every single upcoming UCL game so we can focus on the league instead
you don’t no ### about managing big games
+1
Chivu do us a favour and PURPOSELY loss every single upcoming UCL game so we can focus on the league instead
you don’t no sh1t about managing big games
We’re top of Serie A. Nuff said!
You sound like a loser try to tell the players we lost and let’s find a way to win in Dortmund
The problem is not losing vs Arsenal. Even their bench is better than our starting 11. The problem is we can’t defeat weaker teams like Milan, Napoli, Juve and Atletico.