The current dominance of « Inter » recalls Napoli’s victory last year. In both cases, a decision was made to lead the way long before the finish line. The success of the black and blues is not unexpected: before the start of the big football marathon, bookmakers put « Inter » in first place in the list of Serie A main favorites. You can bet on Pin Up casino Az: there are daily events here with high odds.
Here are the reasons for Inter’s successful performance last season.
Right coaching
This victory is undoubtedly related to coaching. Simone Inzaghi took over the team in the summer of 2021. Coming to a championship club is always a big challenge and a special responsibility. It seems like you can’t do better, but it’s easy to break.
In the fall of 2022, Inzaghi was close to failure. The Italian media reported that the coach’s resignation was possible. At the beginning of the season, « Inter » was losing very often – « Lazio », « Milan », « Udinese », « Roma ». But then everything changed. « Nerazzurri » defeated « Barcelona » 1-0 in the Champions League group stage and achieved several series of victories in the domestic championship.
What did Inzaghi change? He benched first goalkeeper and captain Samir Handanovic – the Slovenian was often making mistakes. Andre Onana took advantage of this opportunity and quickly became the first goalkeeper.
Changes were also made to the midfield. The coach placed Hakan Calhanoglu in the playmaker position. This measure was a necessary one – the team’s main creative player Marcelo Brozovic was injured. This decision changed the fate – the Turkish midfielder opened up in his new role and the « Nerazzurri » began to play much more effectively in attack. Calhanoglu became one of the team’s best assisters – along with Nicolo Barella, Romelu Lukaku, and Lautaro Martinez.
Lautaro’s best season
This period formed in October 2022, the « Inter » that will comfortably win the Serie A gold one and a half years later. At the end of last season, Simone Inzaghi’s team reached the Champions League final, but lost to the unstoppable men from « Manchester City ».
During that time, « Inter » managed to almost complete the play-offs, avoiding top opponents like « Real Madrid », « Bayern Munich » or « Liverpool ». These are also opponents he could beat. Luck? Maybe. But you have to deserve this luck.
It was this « Inter » – flexible, unpredictable, lucky – that started a new tournament path in Serie A last year. And very quickly, it became clear that the black and blues couldn’t keep up with their rivals. The mechanism was working perfectly (and still is!).
The midfield trio of Henrikh Mkhitaryan – Hakan Calhanoglu – Nicolo Barella expertly accelerates the team’s attacks, while Lautaro Martinez finishes them off. This season, the Argentine forward is showing the best performance of his career (already 23 goals) and is leading the list of Serie A’s top scorers.
Opponents’ failures
While talking about the successes of Inzaghi’s team, it’s impossible not to mention the problems of the rivals. Before the season, bookmakers predicted that in addition to « Napoli », « Juventus » and « Milan » would also participate in the championship race.
Napoli lost its head coach after last season’s triumph – Luciano Spalletti left the club with a sense of duty fulfilled. It was reported that Spalletti had a conflict with Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis. Without him, Napoli players had a failed season, getting stuck in the middle of the table. And this despite being able to keep their key attacking players Hirving Lozano and Victor Osimhen. They remained at the level in attack, but they didn’t find a suitable replacement for center-back Kim Min-Jae, who went to Bayern, and they conceded too many goals.
Juventus’ season was also unsuccessful. « Bianconeri » started the league lively, but completely fell apart in the second half of the season. Head coach Massimiliano Allegri attributed the tournament failures to the incompetent transfer policy pursued by the management board. One of Juventus’ leaders, Federico Chiesa, said that after several consecutive defeats, especially against Inter, the team’s dream of winning the championship faded and the players found it difficult to focus on new goals.
« Milan » was perhaps seen as the fastest team until recently, but couldn’t keep up with Inter’s championship pace. « Rossoneri » pleased the fans with three wins in the league. But then came the derby time and « Milan » suffered a crushing defeat – 1:5. This defeat somewhat characterizes the season for the red-blacks: the team tried to be competitive in the championship race, but couldn’t keep up with Inter’s championship pace.
Plans for the future
Here’s an interesting trend in Italian football: since the 2020/21 season, no champion has been able to defend their title.
To stay at the top, « Inter » plans to strengthen the squad. They decided to start with renewing contracts – this is also a kind of reinforcement. The club’s vice-president Javier Zanetti has already announced that the black and Blues will extend contracts with Lautaro Martinez and Barella. They extended Mkhitaryan’s contract at the end of last year – the Armenian midfielder will stay at « Inter » until at least the summer of 2026.
Two players from Manchester United could join the team – defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka and forward Anthony Martial. Another forward Mehdi Taremi’s transfer to Porto has already been approved by the club. Also, « Inter » is interested in another attacking player Albert Gudmundsson from Genoa.
At the same time, players who could leave the team are Alexis Sanchez, Marko Arnautovic, and Joaquin Correa.
But the main strengthening for « Inter » is not related to the purchase of new players. The club’s CEO Giuseppe Marotta has already announced that « Nerazzurri » will extend the contract with Inzaghi. As a Serie A-winning coach, he has won plenty of cups and Italy Super Cups. Now it’s time to aim for something bigger – like the Champions League.
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