Article 73 — United Marches On, Inter Keep Stumbling
Another revised match week after the Corona Virus pandemic break, another match week where both my favourite teams played on the same day, at roughly the same time.
Again United’s match kicked off half an hour before Inter’s so I was watching United play first before switching to the Inter game for their second half after United had wrapped up their result. United needed to win to close the gap on Leicester City and Chelsea above them in 4th and 3rd place respectively. Inter needed to win to bounce back from the horrendous defeat to Bologna and restore some confidence in the team.
This is how both matches went:
First, my analysis of United’s match. United had dropped points in a 2–2 draw at Old Trafford in the reverse fixture. Things have changed since then. United was on a run of 16 matches unbeaten across all competition and they extended it to 17 matches unbeaten with a 3–0 win away at Villa Park.
United have not lost in the league at Villa Park since that famous 1–3 defeat at the start of the 1995–96 season and kept that run going. United’s win meant they have now kept 12 clean sheets in 17 games and became the first team in the history of the English Premier League to win four consecutive games by three-plus goals.
On the performance, I felt that the 2–0 lead we had at half-time was flattering. I didn’t feel we played well enough to lead by two goals. We didn’t move the ball well enough with much fluidity and were getting our pockets picked by Villa. Villa pressed hard and had the better chances before we got a fortuitous penalty. The penalty was controversial as it looked like Bruno Fernandes had stumbled in a challenge by Villa’s Ezri Konsa.
My opinion on the penalty was that it was not as controversial as it is being made to seem. It looked to me that Fernandes was challenged by Konsa as he was attempting a Zinedine Zidane pirouette. It didn’t look like the defender got the ball and I feel if it was in any other area of the pitch, it would have been given as a foul and it would not be controversial. That goal gave the team confidence and calmed them down to play better and we pushed on to win comfortably, finishing the game off early in the second half.
I am pleased for Paul Pogba that he scored for the first time since he returned from his long injury as it would be vital for us to get more players contributing to our goals. Mason Greenwood carried on his smashing form too with another great goal, catching out veteran goalkeeper, Pepe Reina in Villa’s goal.
United are playing with joy and confidence. Every game we win and we win well, the confidence will only grow further. The players are enjoying themselves, playing with a smile on their face. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer has sent out a right message to the players, which is to not believe in the hype and to keep their heads down and focus on the next match. The unbeaten run that we are on now would mean nothing if we don’t win something to show for this season and give the squad greater belief and confidence for next season.
Over to Inter now. I caught part of the first half against Hellas Verona and the entire second half while fighting against sleep. We were down 0–1 in the second minute itself and that is the last thing we needed for our vulnerable confidence and in our quest to regain our confidence and swagger. We started the second half well and deservedly scored twice to overturn the lead. In the reverse fixture, we came from 0–1 down to win 2–1. We looked likely to repeat that score until Miguel Veloso was able to place the ball past Samir Handanovic in Verona’s only real attack in the second half.
We are left feeling disappointed and frustrated at the end of the match. My biggest frustration was Antonio Conte’s hesitance and delay in making substitutions. It is well documented on the number of matches we got to play in quick succession and the heat that the matches are played in. Like all other teams in Serie A, we too had the opportunity to make five substitutions but yet Conte made only TWO substitutions before responding to Veloso’s late goal with a third substitution.
We were the better team in the second half and should have won it. Lautaro Martinez who came on for an injured Romelu Lukaku had a chance to score his team’s third but he was denied by Verona’s Marco Silvestri.
Again, for the second match running, it was so obvious that there were players that needed to be replaced sooner than they actually were but they weren’t. The only one he did make with his own initiative was to bring on Matias Vecino for Marcelo Brozovic. He was forced to bring Lukaku off for Martinez because it looked like the big Belgian had pulled a muscle and was signalling to the bench. Borja Valero had worked hard and is our oldest player on the pitch, he was on his last legs already and should have been brought off much earlier than he was. We could have changed the wing-backs too to add freshness in that position.
I can’t understand why Conte is so reluctant and reactive with his substitutions. Again I feel he doesn’t have faith in the players he has on the bench which is another thing that I can’t wrap my head around.
It’s the same group of players minus Ashley Young, Victor Moses and Christian Eriksen that did so well and promised a great deal in the first half of the season. In the first half of the season, Conte was proactive with his substitutions and he wasn’t afraid to introduce anyone off the bench to change the game, to see it out or just to bring in some fresh legs.
What has got into him since then, I am not sure. It’s largely the same group of players he had since summer, the same group that he showed a lot of confidence and faith in the first half of the season. The decline in results since the turn of the year is not something new for Inter fans. We have always shown our best form in the first half of the season and if the league campaign ended in the first half of the season, there is a good chance we would have won the Scudetto already. It’s like the club is cursed to suffer this dip in form at this same point of the season.
The other curse that Inter fans are familiar with is the curse of scoring by 5 or more goals. Whenever we do so, we suffer in consecutive matches. It just feels like we had used up our quota of goals in one match and exhausted its usage for subsequent matches. It was just 2 games ago that we beat Brescia 6–0. It should have given us the boost and confidence to push on and regain our form not slump back into our struggles again.
The decline in results in this season is also reflective in the attitude of the team. All of a sudden since the turn of the year, the team looks like they are playing with their handbrakes on. It looks like the team is trying to seeing out the result rather than pushing aggressively to wrap up a game and that I feel is part of the reason why we have dropped so many points this season.
Inter has good defenders like Milan Skriniar and Stefan de Vrij and a reliable defender like Danilo D’Ambrosio. Conte has inherited a strong defensive bloc created by Luciano Spalletti, just changing it from a back four to his favourite back three. The club added an experienced and established defender in Diego Godin but yet we look so porous in defence. The defence is being run ragged and it is unlike a Conte team to have its defence that is struggling so badly. He has done great work with young Alessandro Bastoni in defence but the form of the defence has declined sharply like the rest of the team. The defensive vulnerability has seeped down to the rest of the team, affecting everyone psychologically.
For this Inter, attack is certainly the best form of defence but all over the pitch, nothing seems to be working now. Confidence is low, psychologically the team is fragile and vulnerable. We have changed our formation to accommodate a playmaker but struggle to create chances. We played our best football when we had Nicolo Barella, Marcelo Brozovic and Stefano Sensi together in centre midfield. Our lost in form has coincided with Barella and Sensi’s injury woes. We have missed both players being fully fit physically and in terms of match fitness. Brozovic himself was missing with injury since football has restarted. He has only just returned and isn’t in-form yet like the rest of his team-mates.
Christian Eriksen looks like the invisible man for us. I had hoped his signing would provide us with the creativity we missed in Sensi’s absence but it has not worked out so far.
In attack, Lautaro Martinez’s goal has dried up as has his form. Lukaku has been consistently our best striker and looks like another to bite the injury dust. Alexis Sanchez works hard but at times tries too hard. He needs to get in amongst the goals as well to take the pressure off Martinez. Our profligacy has also contributed to us not wrapping up games and sealing three points for us.
Someone needs to question Conte on why Kwado Asamoah is regularly named on the bench but has not appeared for a single minute. Before his injury, he was our best bet in the left-wing back position. What has happened since then that has seen Inter sign Ashley Young and regularly banish Asamoah after his return from his injury baffles me. I still maintain that when fit and in form, Asamoah is our best left wing-back. If it’s not on Conte then the club should come clean on the situation surrounding Asamoah as they were with Radja Nainggolan, Mauro Icardi and Ivan Perisic over the summer. Ashley Young has done well since he has joined us but Asamoah defends better and has more experience in that position and in Italian football.
Conte has spoken again about possibly revisiting his position as manager with the club at the end of the season. I don’t feel that is something we want to hear about now when the team is struggling so badly especially psychologically. It shows us that our leader himself is at his wits end on how to arrest this slump and bring us up again. Conte has to introspect and open his eyes on the obvious problems in the Inter team that goes beyond the recruitment of players and players available for his selection. At this point, he needs to work on the team psychologically rather than tactically. He needs to look at the conditioning of the players because we are being deprived of our key players through injury. Get back to being brave again, Conte. Get back to going on the front foot.
The contrast in the form of my teams cannot be far more distinct. In the first half, Inter did far better than United and now the opposite is true. That is just life I guess. We can’t have it all.
