Mazzarri Salme

Preseason is nearly reaching its conclusion and there are two weeks before the new Serie A season officially starts on 24 August. Teams are finalizing their preparations for what looks like a long and a demanding season which will also be followed by a much anticipated World Cup in Brazil.

Inter in their turn finished their preparations for the new season after taking part in the Guinness Friendly Tournament in the United States where they played three high profile friendlies against Chelsea, Valencia, and Juventus. The team lost two of its matches (2-0 to Chelsea and 4-0 to Valencia) and only managed to edge out arch rivals Juventus after a penalty shoot-out. Results in friendlies are the last thing to look at as the main objectives are to try out modules and gain much needed match fitness at this stage of the season, but having said that, there were many areas of concern that must be highlighted.

Walter Mazzarri, who surprisingly led Napoli to a second place finish in Serie A last season, took over a team that finished in lowly 9th place in the last league campaign, a team that missed out on European qualification for the first time since 1998-1999, a club that is struggling financially and are going through a transitional period after enjoying so much success. It’s definitely not the easiest job to take given the circumstances and many observers found Mazzarri’s choice to pick Inter as surprising given the magnitude of the job required to pick this team up again.

Prior to Inter’s final summer friendly in the United States against Real Madrid, La Gazzetta dello Sport did an interview with Inter’s star performer during their dismal 2012-2013 season, Slovenian goalkeeper Samir Handanovič. Here’s some of what Batmanovic (as he’s nicknamed) said: “We need to change the mentality for this season. Inter must become a team that is always ready to sacrifice, in every moment, in every game, it mustn’t think that it’s still the team that used to dominate in the past. Let’s not fool ourselves, Inter no longer have eleven or even more top players like in the days of Mancini or Mourinho. We are working on things that we should already know, in theory. We are restarting from the alphabets of football and defensive organization. That’s what we need”.

Samir’s words summed up everything you need to know about Inter before the start of the season. The team is starting from scratch by learning the very basics of football and that match against Real Madrid confirmed just that. The match ended in a comprehensive 3-0 win for Real Madrid, a logical result given the sea of difference between the two teams (although Real Madrid mostly played their backups and their Castilla players), but what should be highlighted is that the team was unable to match their opponents in any aspect. The first half was a one-sided affair as Real Madrid dominated throughout, Inter didn’t press well, they didn’t manage to keep possession and pass the ball around in an effective manner and failed to create any meaningful chances. The team resorted to using long balls towards their lone striker Palacio in hope more than anything else. Their flanks were exposed time and time again (especially from Pereira’s side where he was caught out position on several occasions) and their wide players didn’t add much in the attacking phase.

Things improved a bit in the second half but it was more due to Real Madrid’s shift of approach as they rang the changes. The team did manage to have two clear chances to score (through Ricky Álvarez solo run which ended in a trademark weak right-footed shot and Icardi’s header that came off the bar after rare good cross by Nagatomo from the right flank), but that was about it.

Despite the negatives of the defeat against Real Madrid, the match came at a perfect timing for the club to react in a positive way. Beside giving Mazzarri the right amount of time to get his ideas through, the team desperately needs to stay in hunt in the transfer market to find a quality holding midfielder as ‘Cuchu’ Cambiasso is anything but the player who used to be and Patrick Olsen is still too raw to become a starter. The flanks are also a major concern as none of the available full backs (Pereira, Nagatomo, Jonathan and Mbaye) are convincing to assume the roles.

One final concern, it’s called Mateo Kovačić. The youngster is richly talented and has a bright future ahead of him but it seems that the club will massively depend on him this season. One fears that too much pressure could crack the lad. The club and its fans should be considerate to understand that the Mateo needs to be helped first in order to be able to help…

Hope the club will sorts out all these issues before the season starts. All what remains now is to say this out loud: Forza Inter per sempre!