Article 89 — Inter Ends The Season As Bridesmaid
Inter travelled to Bergamo, one of the worst-hit cities in Italy from the Corona Virus for their final match of the season against Atalanta. Running concurrently, there were two other big matches, Juventus vs Roma and Napoli vs Lazio. Imagine what a final day it would have been if the title was decided this morning with these fixtures.
This is how Inter’s match went:
Inter debuted next season’s table-cloth design away kit for this match. The last time one of my teams wore a table-cloth design kit, they ended the season as champions. That team was Manchester United in 2012–13. Let’s hope something similar happens next season for Inter.
Onto this match now, Inter produced an aggressive performance played at enough intensity to stifle and trouble Atalanta. Tactically, Antonio Conte out-smarted his opposite number, Gian Piero Gasperini. I felt the team looked fresh and were determined throughout to win this game and secure the second spot in the league behind Juventus.
We scored with our first attempt on goal in the first minute through Danilo D’Ambrosio and there couldn’t be a better start to the game for us. We have now ended the season as the team that has found the target the most with their first attempt at goal, eight. D’Ambrosio scoring first for the second match running.
Ashley Young then added our second on the 20th-minute mark with a trademark Ashley Young goal, cutting in from the left on his right foot and curling a shot past the goalkeeper to the far post. That goal meant that it was the most Young has been involved in a goal in terms of goals and assists since his debut season for Manchester United in 2011–12.
Overall, I felt we could have done better, been neater, more precise in possession and scored more despite producing a good performance against a tough opponent. Defensively, we kept our fourth consecutive clean sheet. The organisation, focus and solidity in defence are back. Diego Godin is choosing the right time to get adjusted and produce his best performances for Inter with the quest for the Europa League still on the cards. Milan Skriniar is finding himself on the periphery with some below-par performances recently and the good form of Godin and D’Ambrosio. I really hope though that some rumours circulating on his future at the club is not true and that they keep him on.
Romelu Lukaku, I felt didn’t have as good a game as he did against Napoli. At times he was double-marked and I felt he let the ball run loose but still put in a decent enough performance for us. All that was missing in his performance was a goal. He ended the season with 23 goals which meant he couldn’t match or better Ronaldo and Stefano Nyers record for goals scored in their debut season. His strike partners, Lautaro Martinez and Alexis Sanchez put in good shifts but not much in terms of chances created or shots on goal. Sanchez had a goal rightly disallowed.
Inter finished the season in 2nd place, their highest finish since finishing in the same position in 2010–11. We ended the season with the best defensive record, scored the second most number of goals and has the best away record. They have also equalled the number of points the Treble-winning team got. While all of this points to a progression from previous seasons, I felt it is just some consolation to clutch onto ahead of next season.
I can’t help but feel a deep sense of regret because of the number of games we dropped points in and the exceptionally high number of draws this season. Compared to Juventus, we have scored more and conceded lesser and lost lesser games but most importantly, they are still the champions. You can’t help but feel that we missed a big opportunity to break Juventus’ monopoly on the league this season. We ended the season one point behind them and that is exaggerated by the fact that they probably took their foot off the pedal in their last two league matches after securing the league title. If we had not had our traditional second half of the season blackout and converted at least half or even a third of the draws into wins, we would have finished the season top.
I was looking at the team Conte fielded in Juventus’ first title-winning season and I can’t believe at present, we have a squad that is inferior to what he had. The difference is plain and simply the mentality between Inter and Juventus. While Juventus always found a way to eke out wins even without playing well and had the additional benefit of experience to seeing out tough spells, Inter didn’t have that at all. To win, you need to start somewhere. Juventus won their first league title in this period of dominance after some mid-table finishes. Conte and Juventus somehow pushed them across the line to win it and break the mental barrier.
Inter needed to push through and not dwell too long in their blackout period but unfortunately, it took us some time to get out of it. By then, the chance was gone. Conte went on a rant in his post-match interview today morning expressing irritation at the club not defending him and the players when they were on poor form. He felt the club has to improve at all levels and ensure a strong infrastructure for Inter to be successful again. If his rant fair? I feel while the club could have done more to take the pressure off the manager and players, we cannot escape the fact that the manager and players lost their focus and didn’t do the job on the pitch.
Some of the substitutions or lack of and the lack of tactical flexibility to affect a change from Conte resulted in us dropping points. As did the players crumbling and being vulnerable on the pitch, conceding goals and missing chances. It’s ok if it happened once or twice in a season but it happened more than that. This morning, Inter reverted to a 3 men central midfield instead of a 2 men central midfield and a playmaker and we had better control of the midfield this morning. It looks now that the decision to sign Christian Eriksen was ill-advised as he doesn't seem to fit into our tactics.
Having said that, if Eriksen can improve, we have the flexibility to change things up next season. It all depends on him now. I feel Conte is giving him as much time as possible to settle in and adapt to his tactics and demands. I strongly believe we win together, we lose together. Despite a negative narrative for this Serie A season, I cannot forget and acknowledge the progress we have made on and off the pitch. We need to keep that up in this coming transfer window because Juventus has already made some interesting signings for next season. We have made one so far for next season and have been linked to some other interesting names and the future of the players on loan is still up in the air.
The quest for a silverware continues in the Europa League now. We missed out on winning something in Italy this season, losing in the semi-final of the Coppa Italia and finishing second in Serie A. Maybe we could go a step better and win the Europa League? Personally, I have an interesting conundrum because there is a chance that both my teams could face each other in the final or they could both not even get there. Both teams need to win a trophy as well and this is their last chance this season. Let’s see what happens on the pitch then. On to Getafe in Germany for the Europa League next.
