Inter had an off night against Lazio and lost 1-2 at home. The night began bad when Handanovic thought he could dribble with the ball and was lucky that Matri couldn’t punish him. When Candreva scored from a corner after just two minutes and even though it was still early, but it was an indication of how the game was going to go because the concentration lever wasn’t where it should be. As Lazio could sit back and defend, whilst relying on the counter attack, Inter put in a hideous “performance” in the first half. The team had problems in putting passes together and to create chances and the attitude just wasn’t there. Many of us were fearing a Fiorentina 2.0 but fortunately it didn’t go that way.
Montoya who has had two good games in a row showed why Mancini hasn’t played with him as he was having a nightmare on the field. The guy is completely useless when he isn’t on the attacking third and when there are no spaces to attack, he doesn’t offer anything. On the other wing, Telles was probably the only player who did well in the first half and another player who was having a horror show was Melo. He attacked when he shouldn’t, he gave possession away and was sloppy at many occasions. And when Brozovic warmed up I really thought Mancini was going to sub Melo off before the halftime break. Something that didn’t happen and I will get back to both Melo and Mancini a bit later.
Inter started the second half better and Mancini brought Ljajic and Brozovic on for Biabiany and Jovetic. I would’ve wanted Melo or Medel or Montoya to go off, but this didn’t happen. When Perisic served Icardi, the Argentinian got his seventh goal of the season and the team and the fans got their hopes up. Icardi took a lot of responsibility today and it was good for him to get on the score sheet. In the 87th minute, Melo committed a stupid foul in the penalty area. Handanovic saved the first attempt but the rebound went straight to Candreva who scored to make it 2-1. A couple of minutes after Melo committed a horror foul on Biglia which got him a well-deserved card.
The foul and the red card were stupid enough and Mancini should’ve brought Melo off in the half-time pause. Instead Melo was on the field and caused this loss. You can say what you want to say about Melo and how he acted tonight, but he is still not completely useless for Inter. I’m not a fan of the footballers like Melo, or even Medel, especially when they are used as some kind of defensive playmakers. The Brazilian midfielder is a playing type that will give you these kinds of performances at times. But when he does well, he will win you possession and games. Melo’s charisma and leadership has been of great value for Inter during the season and I am sure that it will keep on being so. Melo is now suspended the next game which I hope will force Mancini to play with Brozovic from start. The Croatian is together with Ljajic our most in form players and why they went on the bench today is impossible to understand. Mancini has gotten almost everything right until today, but the losses against Fiorentina and Lazio both come from strange decisions like these.
When the referee added four minutes to play, even though Lazio players had wasted 3 minutes on an indirect freekick and all the substitutions were done, it really felt like this was going Lazio’s way. Icardi got a last minute chance which he put wide and the loss was a fact. Maybe this Inter will learn and grow from this game and maybe they won’t. If someone would’ve told me that Inter would be on top of the table after the last game in December before the season, I would never had believed them. Now we are on top of the table and just as I wrote last week, this Inter can improve a lot. The offense can get better and the defense can get better. Today luck wasn’t on our side and you got to win, and you got to lose. A stupid person is not someone who commits mistakes but someone who doesn’t learn from them and what Inter needs to do after this night is to let go of the loss, learn from the mistakes and improve.
With this said I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. This is the last Terzo Tempo of 2015 and as always it has been a pleasure to write it and to engage with your comments. All the best, FORZA INTER.
very nice siavash jan, sale no mobarak
At some points, this games reminded me of those damn days of Mazza-shit. A team too predictable, boring and out of guts.
But the positive point is our coach! Mancio is a smart guy, who is now able to find his best formation after experiencing all possible forms. Forza Nerazzuri!
Wouldn’t be that drastic with the opinins, I think it was just a bad line-up and tactics – some players with good form were on the bench (Brozo, Ljajic) while others with a dip of form (Melo) were on the pitch. Anyway, Melo cost us a point, even with the bad tactics we were capable of geeting something from this match, I’m glad that he will not be able to play next time.
Same here bro.
Well, at the very least, he (Mancini) will learn that his decisions in both at Fio and this game was wrong, and hopefully will not make this one again. Fingers and toes crossed.
we shouldn’t mask the defeat as “melo fucked up” instead of “mancini’s tactical disaster”. our midfield was no match for theirs. same thing has happened vs fiorentina and napoli and now vs lazio. our two pitbulls were no match for biglia and parolo. we lost those match because our midfield was weaker than there’s. this happened against udinese also.
i think mancini needs to rethink his tactical decisions and formation. going forward i think we should ditch the 4-2-3-1 and focus on a 4-3-2-1. it brings more balance. perisic hasn’t impressed while jovetic and ljajic did alot. both operate centrally .
you just can’t play a 4-2-3-1 with two destroyers.
Be patient. the mistake to me is two destroyer play together. At least, This proof Medel better than Melo. Kidding. I l don’t care if formation 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-1-2 as long as Brozovic and Ljajic play together. While left flank is Telles. Roght full back still need a lot to repair.
I hope we change the system in 4-3-3 and bring a creative midfielder to play along with Brozo and Kondo/Medel.
maybe a Pirlo loan with Broso in front of him and Medel next to…??
Exactly my thoughts, but after last nighet game there are romours about Biglia coming to us, I think he is the right guy, he has great passes and can defend aswell. My dream is to get Ruben Neves from Porto.
The problem with Melo is that he had a bad game already with Udine, which went unnoticed as we were deadly clinical in front of the goal. In this formation we did not control te game against Udine, and I was surprised to see it against Lazio. Mancini got it wrong but we are still top of the table, nevertheless to win the leage we will have to win the games against our direct opponentes, Juve is just 3 points behind us.
There is so much hate towards Mancini and Melo everywhere, I’m getting sick of reading that bullshit. They had a bad day and made a couple of mistakes. So what? Both of them were great so far. Mancini did what we would consider a miracle couple of months ago, and Melo brought spirit and energy to this team and did a very good job so far. Show some fucking respect and support even though they lost and stop pointing fingers.
agree with you mare.. well said..
agree with you mate…
Show some respect. I love this Melo. It was just not his day. just it.
you say what you want but after spending 60-70 MM who isn’t able to create miracles….
They were buying and selling also, so he didn’t just spend that money, he even made a 9 M profit. And no, it is not easy to change half of the squad in 2 months and finish first half of the season on the first place. TBH, I have no idea who else could do it.
Not LVG…
Neither rafa
do you know how much chelsea and manchester utd spend!? so they create miracle!? so they are in the first place!? where is chelsea now!? what do you expect from a brand new team with almost 90% of them are new in the team!? they need time.. and tbh being at the top are already exceding the club target for this season..
Melo is an idiot! Really a true idiot
I don’t know what the f went trough his head to give away that dumbest penalty ever
Wrong line up from Mancini.
I think that we should never field Melo and Medel together again
The most annoying thing about this loss is that we can’t hit back straight away. Now we can all hope for the christmas present that it would be if Montoya and Nagatomo left this club in january.
Really don’t see who we should bring in as I think this squad is good enough for top three places. Main thing to clear up the situation in defense. But is we’re signing anoyone, I would like to see a winger, so we could offload Palacio maybe.
NO, Palacio still valuable. Though I agree on letting go Naga and Montoya, not to mention we still have Telles, Dodo, JJ, Danilo, Santon, and Di Marco. Lets just try Vrsaljko or Jetro Willems.