Former Lazio midfielder Marco Parolo believes that Inter’s stumble in form has been precipitated by a blow to their mentality and composure after losing to AC Milan in the derby.
Speaking to Italian broadcaster DAZN, the 36-year-old suggested that the Nerazzurri suffered a damaging psychological blow when they lost to their city rivals at the beginning of February which is still lingering in their minds.
Inter went into the second league derby of the season knowing that they had the chance to extend what was already a good lead at the top of the table, and after going ahead they looked set to put a buffer between themselves and the Rossoneri.
However, in the space of a few minutes in the second half, a quickfire brace by Olivier Giroud shifted the momentum and handed the three points to their rivals.
Inter’s form since that match has been their worst of the entire season, and Parolo attributes a lot of this to the mental effects of capitulating to Milan.
“The derby made the sense of serenity that Inter had from all their good work disappear,” he said. “But sooner or later a bad moment of form had to come, at the start of the season it wasn’t clear that they would reach even this point.”
“But it’s still good that there fighting for it,” he continued. “Lukaku was dominant and scored a lot, it would have been surprising if they were currently ten points ahead.”
He went on that “Dzeko didn’t score but he was intelligent to pick out Sanchez for the equalizer, Inter suffered from the physicality of Torino but in the long run they managed to find a way to bail themselves out.”
