Only Inter - Articles

During the season, I have written some articles about Inter. It would be a waste to not publish them, so here they are

The season 2004/05 is now over and the new coach Roberto Mancini got a whole year to create a squad and it ended up with a title. Alas, the title might be the smallest we were competing for, but this could be the beginning of something big.

The hoola baloo regarding the coach:
Massimo Moratti and Giacinto Facchetti were’t on equal terms during the summer, which was disturbing before the season would start. Facchetti wanted to continue with Zaccherroni, whilst Moratti did his best to try and lure Roberto Mancini away from Lazio.
It ended up with Zaccherroni resigning as our coach, which meant that he released us from any financial duties, like paying wages to him. Say what you want about Zac’s ability as a coach for us, but what he did was honourable and unselfish.

As expected- Roberto Mancini takes over the club, which leaves a bitter taste for the Laziosupporters- and board. Did we do this with fair play? Probably not, but then again we don’t know all the facts.

Roberto Mancini brought with him assistant coach Fernando Orsi, technical assistant Fausta Salsano, keeper-coach Giulio Nuciari and athletic trainer Ivan Carminati. Carminati would get an important role, as Inter all these years have been ridiculously injury-prone.

Silly Season:
Inter’s new economical policy maintained also this summer. It was cheap transfers and the aim was to get free agents. This is a good strategy if there are good players on the market that doesn’t have a contract with any team. Though, the market was full of central defenders. Players like Walter Samuel, Ricardo Carvalho, Fabio Cannavaro and Jaap Stam was up for grabs.
We signed Nicolas Burdisso from Boca Juniors. He wasn’t too expensive and was supposed to become an important part of this season…. he was.

It sadly still remain a huge incompetence within our team, when it comes to directors. Before we had signed Mancini as our new coach, we started to sign players. Basically, we signed players that we had no idea if Mancini even wanted. Though, it was a safe bet when the first player that was signed was Giuseppe Favalli from Lazio. The experienced left back was supposed to be our secure left back, when Coco’s injuries caused huge problems.

Our dear owner Moratti would however make a mess, when both Veron and Davids would arrive almost at the same time. The 21st of May Moratti said: "As regards Veron and Davids I believe our executives are looking around to find the best possible conditions to get closer to the players. But you can't buy two identical players. We're already close to one of the two, so the rumours about one of them are unfounded.”
A few days later- Veron arrived on loan and Davids as a free agent some weeks after that.

It was two stars that came in for free, if you could say that. There would be more players that would arrive for free, but would only be considered as players to make up the numbers. From Real Madrid came Esteban Cambiasso who most thought wouldn’t get much playing time. Boy, were we wrong!

When Mancini had arrived, a couple of more players would arrive. The most extraordinary was when Sinisa Mihajlovic entered Appiano Gentile. Rumours said that he would become a part of Mancini’s staff, but Mihajlovic said from the beginning that he’s here to play. He added though that if it wasn’t for Roberto Mancini he would have never been an Inter player.

We would buy two players on this market for money, and the second one would be Perugia’s right flanked player Ze Maria. Perugia had been relegated to the Serie B, and it was no secret that their star-player would leave the team. Inter offered €1.7 million plus the other half of co-owned Massimiliano Fusani. Perugia accepted and Ze Maria became an Inter player.

As usual when it comes to Inter, we finish the market by selling an important player and shock the football-world. Last year it was Hernan Crespo and this year it would be Fabio Cannavaro. He left for Juventus, in a pure swap deal for the keeper Fabian Carini. The century’s most idiotic transfer was official and no one really understand what Inter was thinking when they didn’t even get any money for the Italian National Team captain, and instead getting a third keeper. The motive to release Cannavaro was due to his high wage, but was there really no team that was willing to buy him for some money? Instead Inter decides to strengthen a rival, in order to get a third keeper.

Considering that Cannavaro left, Inter now had an empty spot in the defence, so they extended Gamarra’s contract for another year.

Inter started the season with over 30 players and Nuciari had four keepers that he trained. Well-planned? Unlikely…

Champions League qualifier
Inter would qualify for the Champions League through a very strong home-team named Basel from Switzerland. The draw could have been easier, but it could also have been tougher.
The Olympics was going on at that time, which meant we would have to do without Kily Gonzalez. It would be even more worrying when Adriano’s father would pass away, which put a big question-mark regarding his ability to play the two matches.

Adriano did return to Europe and would be a key-player for us when we won against Basel. The first game finished 1-1, where Adriano was the goal scorer. We had the away-goal and a seemingly good result against a very strong home-side.

The second leg would become a much easier match, where we won with the big figures 4-1. Adriano scored two goals, while Recoba and Stankovic scored the other two. We were in the Champions League and Mancini’s first task was a success.

Serie A
The aim for me was easy. Mancini’s first year would be a year to get acclimated within the club. It’s very rare that a coach win something on his first year, and especially rare when it comes to a club like Inter. Therefore, I had no thoughts of any Scudetto, at least not in public. Of course, I had my dreams, but being the pessimist that I am, I really hadn’t expected a Scudetto.

Mancini went back to traditional 4-4-2, but at the same time changed the system completely. The traditional counter-attack system would be changed to a ball-possessional team. The key for playing like this would be Veron. The loaned playmaker would be the player that everything would surround to.

Veron’s role would matter very little in the first game against Chievo, when Inter were forced to play with Materazzi and Mihajlovic as the central defenders. That duo would later on during the season show their competence in playing with each other, but the first match was an utter disaster. It was first and foremost Mihajlovic that would be the source for conceding two goals, but at the same time we scored two goals. Mancini’s favourite didn’t make himself more popular when his first match cost us two goals and was a disaster.

The Serie A-season can be summed up by one letter: X
It started to become on the verge of hilarious the way Inter kept drawing every match, which also gave the haters some more foundations to hand out their ludicrous comments. In the way we kept getting draws was even more bizarre. At first we had the lead in the matches with one-or two goals, just to lose that lead in the end. We were the better team, but each time the defence did any mistake, we were punished by it.

Then it was time for miraculous come-backs, where first of all the game Inter-Sampdoria will be a game never forgotten. It was a game where we were trailing with 0-2, until we changed the match to our favour and won 3-2 only in the space of a few minutes. And all of this happened at the end of the match, which even made the whole experience even more emotional. During my years as an Inter fan, this is the match that I will remember the most of.

We were for a long time undefeated, but all the draws at the beginning of the season, ruined the entire season. We were given some openings for the Scudettorace though, but then we couldn’t win our matches. One match that we definitely should have won, was the one against Parma on Ennio Tardini. It ended up with a draw, during a weekend of football where both Juventus and Milan dropped points.

Mancini prefers to say that the loss against Milan was the match where we lost the chance to be in the Scudettorace, but I would like to say it was the draw against Parma that caused it. We then also had some really crappy performances against Reggina and Chievo, that was indicator that this team wasn’t ready to win the Scudetto.

The spring was however a fabulous time for Inter. We were the team that scored the most goals, and surprisingly, also the team who conceded the least. Mancini had by now found his formula and the players he wanted to use. Some players had been cut out from the squad, among those was Davids who were undeservedly sacrificed. We had to play the duo Materazzi-Mihajlovic a numerous of times again, since Burdisso was missing. The Argentine had to leave Italy, to return back to Argentina since his son became seriously ill. There he will also probably be next season, and sadly making our scoop for central defender a big flop.

We lost twice during the entire season, which is an extraordinary achievement. Sadly, one of those losses came against the arrogant side on the wrong side of the town. In a bizarre game, where Inter were the better team, Dida won against Inter and it felt very unfair of the way our first loss came about.

The second loss was more surprising, against Messina, despite a clear Inter-domination, but it was the efficiency of Messina that won them the game against an Inter which at that point only had Champions League spots to play for.

We finish the season on the third place, but the performances in the league is not far away from Milan and the winners Juventus at all. We won away against Juventus, and against the same team made a huge come-back at Giuseppe Meazza, so we aren’t inferior to these teams at all. If it weren’t for the absurd efficiency our opponents had against us during the first half of the season, this season could have been extremely interesting.
Though, a team that has displayed such lack of concentration on so many occasions don’t deserve to be champions either.

We now get a Champions League qualifying spot, just like last year. That means that our pre-season will start sooner than usual, and that it will be a longer season. We might have an advantage due to that at the beginning of the season, since our players will be in better physical status than our rivals (Milan and Juventus), but in the long run it will harm us.

Champions League
We got a decent draw in the Champions League after we eliminated Basel in the qualifying round. We ended up in the same group as Spanish champions Valencia, German champions Werder Bremen and Belgian champions Anderlecht.

The most memorable match would be the one against Valencia away. Yours truly, had recently lost the channel which broadcasted the game, and had to look all over the town for someone who had the channel, because I was not going to miss it. The numbers spoke in our favour after the game with humongous 5-1 at Mestalla, and all of the work to try and see this game was worth it.

We were awesome in the group stage and the first three games we won relatively easy. That gave us some breathing room for the next three matches, where we played securely to not lose any match.

We advanced to the next round where we were drawn against the reigning champions Porto. The same team had lost most of their key-players from that year and couldn’t be compared to the team that won the Cup. It was with other words a good draw for us and we would also advance.
Adriano had been in a bad period for a while, but in the return leg at San Siro he would be the decider of the encounter. Despite that Toldo in both matches had made mistakes and cost us goals, we show our offensive qualities. Adriano scores three goals on San Siro, which meant that Porto had more or less no chance of advancing.

We were now in the quarter-final and a couple of good teams had been kicked out in the last 16 round. Considering how good Inter had performed in the Champions League, the thoughts of a final was starting to emerge inside my head. There was only one team I really wanted to avoid in the draw for the quarter-final. That team was Milan. Which team did we draw against? Yes, Milan…

Faith laughs you directly in your face and considering that it seems to be destined that Inter can’t score against Milan, it felt hopeless. The result in the first leg was laughable, when Inter was once again the better team, but Milan win the game with 2-0. 2-0!!!!
Two mistakes in the defence and bang! On the other side, there was an inhuman called Dida who saved everything, and now it was more or less impossible to advance.

The second leg was eventually a humiliation and not because of the result and performance. We had once again the ball-possession, but once again Milan got one chance, and once again Dida was inhuman. Milan scored the goal, whilst Merk robbed us on a goal, and that was when all hell broke lose. Flares were raining down on the pitch, whereas one of them hit Dida and the match was suspended and Milan won the match by 3-0. The Interfans embarrassed themselves and this is a dark period in Inter’s history.

We were knocked out, but performance wise with honour. The fans however humiliated themselves completely.

Justice was served when Milan lost the final in a bizarre way after being the better team against Liverpool, and now they knew how it felt to lose while being the better team.

Coppa Italia
Vincere!!! Alright, Coppa Italia is indeed a cup where you play your reserves, and not really any of the big teams takes it seriously. But it’s damn fun to finally experience a title. That we will witness another jersey next season is a proof of this.

Due to our squad size, we managed to play really good players in this cup. It wasn’t like a few years ago when Cuper played a bunch of Primavera players against Bari and got knocked out.

We had a painless journey throughout the entire tournament, and we didn’t lose a single match. We were never really close of being knocked out or lose the final against Roma, and the celebrations that we could see after the game showed how important this was for our players and staff.

The only scandal in this cup was brought by the Argentinean National Team manager Pekerman, who called up Cambiasso and Javier Zanetti for the Confederations Cup match against Tunisia, and then benches them both, whereas Zanetti got to play the last 11 minutes. It’s a terrible thing to do of Pekerman, who could have at least given Zanetti the game off to lift the trophy, and for the first time as the captain of Inter to win something.

Conclusion of the season 2004/05
It was all in all a very good, according to me. Roberto Mancini was brand new, which means he has to acclimate himself within the club. He changed system and even if there has been some mistakes and a lot of favouritism on his part, he pass this season by a margin.

The transfer of the season was Esteban Cambiasso who made a breakthrough like never before. He started on the bench, but got the chance against Anderlecht and took it and was ever since a starter for our team. We will build a lot surrounding this player in the future.

We had big problems during the season with set pieces and it started to improve at the end of the season. The concentration wasn’t always top-notch and it was a lot of mistakes in the defence. During the spring, Mancini started to show that he is capable of coaching defensively as well, and that can be proved by showing tapes of the duo Materazzi-Mihajlovic. Who could predict that these two would dominate against Totti-Cassano? All the credit to Mancini for making this work.

During many years now we have had difficulties on the midfield. We have both lacked wingers and a playmaker. Veron came to the team and immediately took charge of the midfield and the pace of the game, especially on the central midfield even if he was played as a right winger a few times as well. The only problem with Veron during the season, was that Mancini wanted that everything should go through him, which would be too excessive, and leaving players like Stankovic in No Man’s land. Through Veron’s season, Mancini has now an idea of how to play next season, whether it will be Veron or someone else (read; Pizarro) who will control the team on the midfield.

Our Achilles heal is in the defence, especially the spot next to Cordoba. Mihajlovic surprised us all with a good season, but it’s not a player to build around. Materazzi had his worst season since signing for us, and by threatening to leave the team, he earned himself a wage-rise and an extension of his already long contract, but his performance didn’t improve due to that.

We have through this season been able to identify our problems and which players that Mancini will use. Next season we will definitely see Mancini’s Inter where we will sign players he wants, and those players that he doesn’t want will leave. We will definitely see players like Fontana and Emre leaving the club, after their outbursts.

We are heading for an interesting future and hopefully our club won’t wreck everything that we have built up during this season, by signing a bunch of needless players like usual.

'Heaven Or Hell?'

Now we are there again. Inter keeps drawing and people overreacts left and right. Mancini should be fired, the team should be replaced and the debate regarding Recoba is ongoing.

Recoba, yes. Mancini went out after the game and claimed that no argument had existed. Great, we all say and continue with our lives where we fool ourselves that everything is fine and dandy at Inter. It’s a shame that I could only fool myself for a few minutes, before I read Vieri’s interview. Vieri is normally among those who are the most honest and he made a little boo-boo. He spoke of arguments between coach and players and that they occur, but that they always solves it. I thought there hadn’t been an argument in the first place?

***

I am beginning to miss Kily Gonzalez. There’s a player with great honesty and he sacrifices himself a lot for the team. Last season he came out and said that he was disappointed with his own performance and the team’s. He didn’t come with the obligatory excuses after games like Javier Zanetti does. It’s beginning to feel like our players have a Ctrl+C (and V) quality.

***

I’ve said it before and I say it again; Inter won’t win the Scudetto this season! Yes, it feels like saying the most obvious thing, but already before the season had started I felt the same. Why? Well, because Inter is building something and it will take its time. Now it’s about time that we fans and the management show patience that hasn’t been visible before. At least not on the behalf of the management.

***

But we should demand better than this from our players. Siena has this season been in my opinion a very bad team. Their offence has been of no danger and they have barely looked like a Serie A team. It felt like this game we were just supposed to go there and get our three points. Instead reports says that Siena was the better team and we were fortunate to get a draw.
Yeah, I am really pleased that we managed to draw Siena with one more man on the field, and against a team that is on a relegation place.

***

We must have the two biggest screw-ups in the defence in the world. How Cordoba can just fall down like that is beyond my little mind. Then we have Materazzi who previous seasons has been taking a lot of crap from non-Inter fans, even though he has performed. This year he has been terrible and has showed his weaknesses. How difficult is it to let go off the shirt and run and kick the ball away instead?

***

As usual when it comes to Inter, there’s talks of transfers. Moratti claims that Inter won’t be buying any players come January. Ha! I’d like to see that. The one who can tell me when the last time we didn’t buy a player in January was, does it good. At least under Moratti’s reign.
It’s weird that in a summer where a lot of great defenders was on the market, we decided to get a defender completely out of his prime for free and swap the biggest (by name, not performances) for a third keeper. Say what you want about Mihajlovic, but I would have preferred someone like Ricardo Carvalho.

***

What does Bergomi do these days? We need someone to teach defence.

***

But certainly there is a certain charm by rooting for Inter, isn’t there? We are aware of that we will die prematurely by stress and that our team constantly have to be in situations where a heart-attack sounds like a relief than to watch them play.

When we win without having to take some sort of soothing drug during a game, we become so shocked that now Inter is the best in the world.
If we lose or draw, we completely suck and everything and everyone should be fired. The ones who ought to be fired is those who deals with transfers, since they don’t seem to be doing the greatest of jobs.

I hope Santa brings me a pacemaker for Christmas. It will be needed against Brescia as well.

***

I’m hoping for Liverpool in the Champions League draw. It’s probably the only team I watch just to see the lose. Then we might as well kill two birds with one stone and watch Inter beat the crap out of them. Yes, I have to admit that Liverpool won’t win an award for the most popular team in my heart.

***

Shevchenko received the clown-prize Ballon d’Or. For once the winner wasn’t half-bad. But how serious can you take this award when Zagorakis ends up at fifth place and in front of Adriano? Carvalho also received some votes. He was on the market this summer, did you know that Branca?

But Sheva deserved to win.

***

Now when the TV-show Friends is over, NBC should put their money into making a new show with Inter. Ross and Rachel could be Mancini and Cesar. We know they’ll end up with each other eventually.

Moratti can be Janice, who comes in and destroys everything once in a while and that you’ll never be able to get rid of.

Instead of Central Perk it could be Central Defence, where Cordoba and Materazzi drink coffee instead of doing something useful.

Nah, it won’t be a hit after all.

Jimmy Fredholm

Back

'Quantity Or Quality?'

Another Silly Season soon over and an ocean of new faces.

Now we can start assume that the transfers into the club are almost done, although there is still about a month to go before the transfer window is closed. However, I expect that cesar will arrive at Appiano Gentile in a couple of days. I´m a big fan of Cesar, but do we need him? As usual, no. Even though he is a player that fits into the system that Mancini is making us play, we already have players that are more than capable of playing on the left flank.

The very first transfers Inter made during the summer was made without coach. The anxiety that we made transfers without a game-plan and without a coach was always existing. Eventually Mancini arrived at the club as expected. Have we then bought the right players to fit the system Mancini wanted? In some cases, yes, but there are also some players that I don´t understand their purpose in the club. Esteban Cambiasso is one of those players. That is his role in the team will be as a back-up player is evident in my eyes. But whom will he be the back-up of? It seems like it will be Davids he will act as the back-up for, but hold on a minute… That´s where Cristiano Zanetti whom has no intention of leaving the team comes into the picture. I sadly think that Cambiasso will struggle with getting playing time during the season. Another thing that speak against him is that he isn´t a pure defensive midfielder, and to have him playing next to an offensive midfielder might become risky.

One of the transfers that has upset me more than any other transfers Inter have done during the season, is the one of Juan Veron. Not because he´s a bad player of any kind. But because he occupies the position I wanted Emre to play. I look at the appointment of Mancini as a long-term project and in this project I want Emre to take part of. However, if we bench Emre for six months now, he will want to leave in January, and he won´t accept being loaned out.
But now Veron is in the team and we can only hope that he regains his awesome form and then he´ll become a fantastic part of our midfield.

Edgar Davids is a player who has been a very controversial signing, based on the doping incidents and his previous career with Milan and Juventus. There are many fans who don´t want him based most on his doping suspension, and I accept that. I, personally, don´t pay much attention to the doping tests in Serie A ever since Josep Guardiola was suspended.
The player Davids could become a tremendous asset for our team. He´s a true upgrade to Cristiano Zanetti whom the last two years has been very inconsistent.
There still remains the tactical aspect when it comes to Davids. For a lot of years now he has played in a diamond midfield and with another defensive midfielder. It remains to be seen whether he can be the sole defensive midfielder in a flat four-men midfield. That will be interesting to follow.

Two fullbacks has been signed this summer as well. The first one was Giuseppe Favalli who I consider to be the most valuable transfer thus far. Yes, you heard me. I will definitely not look at Favalli as a starting player. I am counting on Francesco Coco a lot for this season, but his injury problems have caused damage the last two years. Both Favalli and Coco has their strengths in their tactical play and their defence. Coco is much faster and technical than Favalli, but none of them are any good at crosses. To have these two available on the same flank means that we won´t have to do any tactical changes when the one replaces the other. When we have played Pasquale we have had to play the left winger in a more defensive way.

Ze’ Maria was bought last week, and that´s a player with a lot of qualities. He has too many qualities in my eyes. In our system he suits the right back position and we all know who plays that position and we all know how many games he misses on one season. I don´t understand the point by throwing out money (albeit not a lot) on a player that the last years has been one of the best right flanked players in Serie A, to use him as a back-up for a player who never misses any games.

Two disastrous signings: Mihajlovic and Choutos.

There´s been a lot of discussing regarding Mihajlovic and I agree with the majority of Inter fans. This person has no business putting on the Inter shirt. I find it sad that he has had the privilege to sign a contract with Inter only because he´s a buddy with the coach.

Choutos is a player that I have never seen. However, I have collected a lot of information regarding this player from the Greek supporters. They have described him as a “injury prone troublemaker that misses open goals”.
Choutos has thus far played two friendly games and been injured in both games. The Greek players are attractive on the market, but there´s got to be a limit to it.

Burdisso is a player I choose not to analyse since I have never seen him. I have to see him to make an impression of this signing.

Facchetti and Moratti went out for a week ago or so, and said that Inter had to sell before they buy anyone. Sure. That lie was quickly revealed.
Why does Inter have such difficulties releasing players? Well, my theory is that it´s due to our two Presidents statements. Who wants to throw out big money on players like Adani, Lamouchi, Farinos and etc. when Inter shows such desperation? No no… They are now sitting and waiting for Inter to become so desperate that they will either release the players from their contracts or sell them for a ridiculous price. Someone ought to put a muzzle on these two.

We have now a squad of about 35 players. Not even Inter with their abnormal amount of injuries should have to use such a big squad. Unfortunately Inter seems to have such difficulties to release the players they want. It goes beyond my mind why it can be so difficult to release a player of like Adani´s calibre. An international experienced defender who come from a great season, but whom was the victim of Mancini´s obsession of Mihajlovic.

Certainly there must be some teams that are very interested in signing him? The same goes for Pasquale, who is a talented left back who would be perfect in a smaller team. It does look like Pasquale will stay with the team though. I hope he has bought a season-ticket at the stands of San Siro.

The whole thing has become a parody where Inter are acting desperate to get rid of players, and at the same time continues to sign players that really aren´t needed.
Although, I am full of admiration of the squad we have this year. I have never experienced a better squad on paper when it comes to Inter, but paper don´t mean squat if they can´t make it a team on the field. Inter, Juventus and Roma are all on a new path with new coaches and some new faces. Inter ought to have the advantage of these two, right?

Jimmy Fredholm

Back

'Analyze of the season 2003/04'

So the season has come to an end, and once again we are the big losers of the season. Well, considering how we started off our season, this was rather expected. In this article, I will break down on parts of this season that made us finish fourth and not even close to competing for the Scudetto.

Cuper is sacked!

Only a few games into the season, and two negative results, we are left with the news that Hector Cuper had been fired. It was after a draw against Brescia that he was fired. Obviously, the real reason he was fired was because of the derby loss.
I just as most people, were pissed off with Cuper after the numerous of negative results in the derbies.

Irregardless of this, firing Cuper was the first reason for why this season had disaster written on it. When was the last time that firing a coach has meant that the team has improved and won something the same year? I can´t say when at all.

It had season 98/99 and 00/01 all written on it. When we fire the coach immediately into the season, and we see a small effect at first, but then it all crashes and burns.

Was firing Cuper the right choice? I would say no, because we had bought players made for his system and he was still trying to adapt players into that system. It was obvious that if we had fired him, that some of these players would become out of favour for whomever that would replace him.

For a more analyze of this firing, read this article: Firing Cuper - The Analysis

Alberto Zaccheroni is hired!

As an interim coach? No, of course not. Inter sign Zaccheroni for two years and show clearly that our future are supposed to be with him. When will Inter learn to try and sign contracts with coaches that are not of the world-class quality? We did the same thing with Tardelli.

Zac did started off in an amazing way with Inter, and for this he deserves a lot of credit. He immediately changed the system at Inter into a 3-4-3 and it would be the end of some of our players. Luciano was the first one to go, because he just got to play the Coppa Italia and one sub against Reggina. Luciano was never given a decent chance to make an impact at Inter.

Otherwise, the first three players I thought of when I heard Zac’s name, was Van der Meyde, Kily and Helveg.
I was expecting that Van der Meyde and Kily would be harmed by his arrival, and that Helveg would be the new favourite pet. I was wrong about one thing. And that was that Kily would lose his place in the team. On the contrary, Kily has this season been among those who has played the most. He´s even been preferred to play as a central midfielder several times.

Van der Meyde on the other hand, has been a sad story. Perhaps the biggest signing we did during the summer, but also the biggest flop. It is really difficult to blame it on Van der Meyde, since he has never been given a fair chance with Zac. Even though Zac started off with a flanked forward system, Van der Meyde was rarely given a chance to play as a right flanked forward. He was either benched or played on the left flank.
Van der Meyde did screw his chances when he went out in media and criticised the amount of playing time he had been received. What he should have realised is that Zac would from then on, only give him one more chance to prove himself and if he didn´t take it, he´d never play again. And that was exactly what happened, and on top of that, Zac played him more or less as a pure striker.

Then we have Helveg. A decent back-up that was being praised when Cuper was in charge, because he did a good job as a back-up. Zac takes over and start fielding Helveg week in and week out, and obviously, Helveg´s lack of skills these days would be visible. We saw how Zanetti was shifted from each positions to fit Helveg in the line-up, and now Helveg was seen more as a burden than as a good back-up.

This we can not blame on Helveg. It´s entirely Zac´s fault for fielding a player who it was a long time ago, he was world-class. Helveg is a good back-up and if we do extend his contract, then I better hope we do it with the intention of using him as a depth player.

Introducing Zac meant the most for one player in particular. A player who had never performed for Inter before, even though he was given a consistent run at his first season. I´m of course talking about Francisco Farinos. He was still training with Inter, since we hadn´t been able to release him somewhere when Cuper was still around. So when Zac took over, in the first game, we could see Farinos being called up. Then as time went by, Farinos started to make some subs and then he was a starter as well. And we got to be honest and say that Farinos has exceeded any possible expectations. I thought we had seen him for the last time, and judging by his earlier performances with Inter, I was worried to see him playing for us.
But Farinos definitely had a good season with Inter, even though we could have wished for more consistency. But Farinos isn´t a world-class player, and shouldn´t be considered as one either. He did a great job as a depth player and that he should deserve some credit for.

What positive things did Zac bring to this team? Well, personally the three-men defence was a nice feature in this team. Although, Materazzi screwed up and we rarely saw the dream three-men defence play, we still played this scheme. We did it perhaps in the worst possible way, with such quality players that it makes me depressed. It was evident that Zac rarely practised defensive movements. Cordoba and Cannavaro ran around like head-less chickens at times, and we spent more time looking at the ball than covering players.
The one thing that Zac was never able to introduce to our defence, was to cover players when a pass is going back to a player in the penalty box.

But none the less, the three-men defence was a necessity this season with all the defenders we had available. But for next season, we should consider the four-men defence again, with or without Zac.

Which brings me to the next issue with Zac. There were some matches where he used the four-men defence. We know from the Cuper time that our players are completely capable of playing this scheme. But with Zac, they sucked beyond imagination. And once again, it was the movements that they couldn´t do. This is yet another “proof” that Zac rarely trained at defensive movements.

I think these issues were the biggest factors that was changed when we hired Zac.

Injury issue

I don´t know about you, but I´ve had the urge to throw my keyboard to the ground each time I´ve went to our official website and read our interviews. Injury this and injury that. It´s supposed to be what caused this season’s failure. Excuse my language, but what a load of bullsh!t!
When has there ever been a season at Inter for the last ten years, where we haven’t had abnormal amount of injuries? But all of a sudden, now our coach can excuse himself by this after every negative result. I find it disgusting and appalling. Our coach has been given about 30 players at his disposal for the season. Which team and coach has this privilege?

And when we get some midfielders injured, this is apparently a big disaster. And here we have as back-ups players such as Lamouchi, Farinos and Karagounis. I’d be very interested to know what Zac would say if he would coach a team like Empoli and have the same amount if injuries there. Because he surely wouldn´t have world-class players as back-ups.

We´re spoiled with great players, but as soon as we get some regulars injured, we blame the reserves for the negative results. I simply am sick and tired of hearing Zac´s excuses, and the worst thing is that people have bought it! I can say with 99% certainty that if Zac hadn´t been able to fool the management that it was really the injuries that was the cause for this terrible season, that we would have announced a new coach by now.

Lippi, Tardelli and Cuper had all the same amount of injury problems when they coached Inter. They didn´t complain about it.
Zac has said during the season that Inter shouldn´t be judged when they haven´t a full squad. Stupidest thing I´ve ever heard and is even worse than when he blamed the weather for losing to Lecce. No team in this world can have a full squad for every game. And no team in this world, has such depth as Inter.

If I´m going to have to endure one more season hearing these injury excuses, I´m going to be sick!

Winter Transfer Market

Inter has been seen as cheaters by some in this January transfer market that we had. It´s well-known that Inter bought two players in that market. Those two were Adriano and Dejan Stankovic. Some claim that Inter were trying to make Parma and Lazio weaker by signing their key-players. Is that really the truth?

Let´s ponder about this for a second. Let´s start with the Adriano transfer… Adriano had during the season made an incredible name of himself, and rumours were starting to spread out that other teams were interested in signing him. Chelsea and Milan among those two teams. It goes without saying that staying with Parma was no option. Could Inter risk losing such a great prospect that already now was one of the best strikers in Serie A? Of course not! Something had to be done and that fast, before Abramovich would show up with his huge wallet and snap up Adriano in front of Inter´s face.

The winter market comes and Parma is hit by the Parmalat disaster. Even though with this disaster, Inter pays enormous amount of money to Parma to buy the 50% of Adriano. Why did Inter even sold half of Adriano to Parma in the first place? It beats me, but what I do know was that Parma earned about €15 million on Adriano in total. And we´re supposed to be ashamed of taking him back? If Inter had waited until June, the risk of a bidding war would have begun and starting a bidding war with Chelsea is like throwing away money to the sea. No matter how much we would have bided, Chelsea had the funds to top it. That is why we had to act fast and bought Adriano in January and not because to weaken Parma.

Then there´s Dejan Stankovic. A player who would be a free agent this summer, but he, personally was desperate to leave in January to make Lazio some money. What would have happened if Inter hadn´t acted in January? Obviously, Stankovic would have been sold to another team.
And I like to point out that Stankovic gave his signing on fee to Lazio as a thank you and that it was him that stressed a transfer in January. He was going to leave in January, and since we wanted him, but the plans were to get him in June, we had to act in January.

That´s my impression of these so called “controversial” transfers anyway.

Player credits

This season, there has been some players who has exceeded their expectations, and there has been some who has under-performed. Let´s start from the keepers:

Keepers: Our keepers this season has been Toldo and Fontana. Let´s start with Toldo. In my opinion, Toldo has perhaps had his worst Serie A season in ten years. The normally extremely secure keeper has made more blunders than ever. Toldo, whom was the first keeper that I felt 100% confidence in, has been scratched from that list. On the other hand, he has also saved our team so many times this season. Toldo is a keeper in both senses, and will hopefully improve for next season.

Unlike Toldo, Fontana has been perhaps our most consistent player this season. He has always rose to the occasion and been brilliant each time he has been given the chance. Fontana honestly deserve to be a first keeper, and if we really don´t extend his contract this summer and switch him with Belardi (Reggina), I really hope that he becomes a first keeper there.

Defenders: I´ve previously talked a lot about our defence for this season, but that was as a collective. Individually, I´d like to say that none of our defenders has been doing what I had expected them to do. Not even my own favourite Cordoba, who has been under-performing this year. Still, he has in my opinion been the most valuable defender, based on his performances and playing time. He has been less consistent this season, which saddens me since he normally is among the best defenders in the world.

Then we have our second man-marker Cannavaro. Whom, I think is given ridiculous amount of crap from our fans. Cannavaro has never seemed popular among the Inter fans, which is a tiny bit understandable, but he isn’t as bad as people make him out to be. This season, as last season, he was stopped by injuries. He never get to play 100%, which is a freaking shame. We got to give him credit for gritting his teeth’s and play even though he is in pain.

Materazzi. Deserves a big kick in the rear end. He was brilliant this season, but his antics off the field, destroyed it. Would have easily been a protagonist in this season, if it weren´t for his stupidity. What needs to be mentioned though, is the lack of respect he has received from non-Inter fans. I´m not talking about his behaviour, but about him as a defender. I´ve heard such things that he plays aggressive to cover up for his lack of skills and such things. I find it remarkable that any football fan can watch Materazzi and not fail to see what a great defender he is.
But as long as he continue with his stupidity, he will risk being benched. Because that is what he deserves.

Then we have the big surprise of the season. Adani has really taken a big step in his career with this season. First time he´s been a starter for such a big team like Inter. Of course, he has Materazzi to thank for this, but Adani has done an awesome job as his deputy. When we signed Adani, we were criticised because it was doubtful that he would play any. Adani’s first season was spoiled because of injuries, but in this season, Adani really has been an Inter player.
He´s also been an important goal scorer for us. Too bad that he wasn´t called up for the Euro 2004. Injuries at the end of this season, made him not being able to impress Trap.

And quickly, let´s give a big thank you to Gamarra for these two seasons. No one can say he has disappointed anyone. Played very little compared to what he should do, but always done a tremendous job each time he has played. Now his contract has expired and we wish him the best of luck in his next team and hope that he gets more playing time. Grazie Gamarra!

Midfielders: This season, Inter has used wing-backs, which counts as midfielders. The player who has been most harmed by this formation is our own Il Capitano- Javier Zanetti. At his wing-back position he hasn´t been able to expose himself in the offensive way that we are used of. He´s more been there as a defensive cover-up. I find this sad and a waste of perhaps the best player in the world when being played as a fullback.

On the other flank, we´ve seen a player who has been used differently from his many years in Spain. Finally, Kily Gonzalez was an Inter player and now we expected his amazing crosses. Playing as a wing-back though, hasn´t made things easier for Kily when it comes to offence, since he also had to think about the defence. There was no Carboni behind him to cover up when he made his amazing runs.
But let us be honest here, and admit that when it comes to crosses, Kily failed this season. But he compensated this, with showing a fantastic attitude on the field, and Kily is one of the players that deserves the most credit in this season’s squad. He might not have contributed as much as he supposed to when it comes to offence, but he has fought. Kily should be kept for next season as well. But by the looks of it, we seem to plan to use a four-men defence and not a flat four-men midfield. So Kily´s starting position is in doubt for next year.

If there is one player I am seemingly disappointed with this season, it is Emre. He has injuries as his excuse of course, but I have lacked movements in offence by him. I think he should take more risks than he does, and contribute even more outside of the penalty box. Emre is however our future, and by the looks of the transfer rumours that has started, we seem to look a player that plays Emre´s position. Scaring!
Positive thing is that Turkey doesn´t play the Euro 2004, so Emre has a whole summer to work to get back to fitness.

For almost six months, I was screaming for one player to be given the chance. And when he was given the chance, the man wasn´t scared of using it either. I´m of course talking about Karagounis. I´ve rarely seen a player make such an impact when being given the chance. But for some reason, both Cuper and Zac refused to use him. It´s an outrage of how little Karagounis was used this season. I had the privilege to go down to Milan and watch him play against Chievo and he was the best player on the field. Karagounis HAS to stay for yet another season, but I won´t blame him if he wants to leave this team.

The player I have been the most disappointed with during the last two years is Cristiano Zanetti. I firmly believe that when we turned down Nesta to keep him, we did the right thing. Because at that time, Cristiano was among the best defensive midfielders in the world and we weren´t able to get someone better in that market. But after that, he has been under-performing. I consider Cristiano the weak link in a perfect formation with the right players on the field. He´s the only player I could see being replaced with someone better. But once again, this market has very few alternatives. The biggest alternative is (or should I say was?) Emerson. But we are losing (lost) him to Juventus. Hopefully Cristiano has a great Euro 2004 and come back to Inter with regained confidence and perform like his first season with Inter after returning.

Mathias Almeyda is a player who has pissed me off bad this season with his behaviour. It started with his sending-off against Lazio which more or less cost us that game. The way he got sent off was the most childish I´ve ever seen.
Almeyda has also during this season said that he will retire from football and he got his contract with Inter shortened. And to my surprise (NOT!), when the end of the season approaches, he comes out and say that he will continue playing football. If you ask me, I believe Almeyda said that he will retire so he could become a free-agent this summer and leave Inter with ease. Almeyda has yet to extend his contract with Inter and I doubt he will.
But Almeyda´s game against Juventus will go down in history of one of the best individual performance made by a defensive midfielder, I´ve ever seen. I will reluctantly thank Almeyda for these two years. He´s done okay.

I´m especially disappointed with Lamouchi for this season. A player whom with Parma was awesome and always great in France as well. I thought we made a huge bargain by signing him, but he barely made a good match. His long passes was however a great weapon and sadly he was used at the wrong place at Inter. I´m pretty sure Lamouchi will leave us now, and that kind of sucks, considering how good he really can be. But if Lamouchi actually has ambitions to be a starter, then he shouldn´t have joined Inter in the first place. Not even a Lamouchi on form can be a starter with the competition we have.

One can not forget to mention Stankovic whom was a transfer I saw as completely pointless. I will still remain with my opinion that Stankovic wasn´t needed. But he has done a good job. I won´t say great, because Stankovic was really bad the first month for Inter. But what Stankovic has contributed to this team is a lot, especially when it comes to scoring goals from a midfielder. If we can create a scheme where Emre and Stankovic combines perfectly, then I will say that Stankovic was needed. Right now he is just a luxury to have as long as he continues to play like he has done for the last two months.

Strikers: We´ll start by mentioning the biggest one of them all at first. Christian Vieri, who has during this season been creating head-lines. But let´s start with his performances first. Vieri has been under-performing this season considering the previous seasons. He hasn´t seemed in balance and this has harmed his season. He has not been as efficient as before, but he´s been our best scorer this season, and that says a lot.
BUT!!!! after he refused the bench against Bologna, I can personally see him leave this summer due to his attitude. I would have wanted him to stay if he could accept a rotation role. Considering that he can´t, I think it will hurt the team to keep him. Vieri will probably stay, and I have mixed emotions of course. Although I hate the antics he made, he´s been a fantastic player for us for years now. Vieri will go to history in my eyes.

Julio Cruz might have had a worthless spring with us. But we shall not forget the months he was actually good with us. It was more than I expected when we signed him. Even when he doesn´t score, he still has the technical skills to contribute something to this team. Cruz did a good season with Inter, regardless of when he was good. Better than most expected.

Welcome back Adriano!!!!! He has surely been missed and I just curse our management for letting him go for money in the first place. He came back and has adapted to this team somewhat good. It seems as some people expected him to be our saviour, but failed to realise that it takes time to get adapted to a new team. But he made his marks and he scored 12 goals in total after returning. Remarkable, and now I´m looking forward to see him next season when he´s completely adapted to this team.

Obafemi Martins made his first real season with Inter. He made it with mixed performances. Martins was the only one who managed to score in all competitions, but he still has so much to learn before becoming that world-class striker. You can´t live on your pace forever.
But for a first season ever in Serie A, he has done remarkably well.

But the best striker of this season for me goes to Recoba. He has sadly been more injured than fit this season, which has cost dearly. The consistency Recoba showed this season, we have never seen before. Just too bad he had to show that consistency when he barely played.

I´ve already mentioned a few players earlier. After this season I think we can wave good bye to Fontana, Gamarra, Brechet, Pasquale, Lamouchi, Almeyda, Okan, Van der Meyde and Kallon.

Summary

Inter´s season can be described with one word: Disaster
At the end of the season, our goal was to finish fourth and it seemed we were really pleased with achieving it as well. I consider it a failure big time, especially when we weren´t even close of competing for the Scudetto. It gained us the fourth spot which is very important for us financially and for the importance of being among the big guns in Europe.

My personal opinion is that with Zac at the helm, we will be looking at a similar next season. We have witnessed how Zac can completely ignore great players and use favourites that doesn´t perform, and I doubt this will change.

Thanks for reading…

Jimmy Fredholm

Back

'The Zac Effect'

Inter has now played 11 games with Zaccheroni as the coach. The records says: 6 wins, 3 draws, 1 loss.

Quite a good record I must say. Is this thanks to Zac? Well, partly, yes. What Zaccheroni brought to this team is what we seemed to lack before. A whole different mentality. That´s the main reason for why I believe Inter looks different. It isn´t because of the tactical changes that he has done, but mostly because of the mentality change. However, I expect this mentality to change soon. I am wondering how this Inter will react if we don´t win a game in two-three straight games. So far we have only experienced negative results in the Champions League, but has bounced back immediately from them.

We must mention that Champions League. This was a major fiasco, and I doubt it would have been that, if Moratti had been cooler and fired Cuper AFTER the game against Lokomotiv Moscow, because this was the turning point for our CL campaign. If we had only waited for a few days to fire Cuper, we would have been in the last 16 round. On the other hand, this would have been morally outrageous. We would have taken advantage of Cuper just to win one game and then fire him.

Zaccheroni completely failed in the Champions League. We were warned about that already, since he has experience of failing with good teams in the CL. It´s quite difficult to understand why Inter looked at the CL in such a different way after Cuper left. We were so many points behind our rivals in the Serie A, while we had such an advantage in the CL, but yet we drop the thoughts of progressing in the CL, just to try and gain back the points we lost in the Serie A. Stupid move or a genius move? That will of course remain to be seen. Because if we fail to win the Scudetto, we dropped the CL for nothing.
If you now disagree that we dropped the CL, I would like to remind you about how we played against Moscow at home and Arsenal at home. Compare that to the team who has played in the Serie A, and you witness a radical change of motivation. I, too, prefer the Serie A over the CL any day. However, when we are basically out of the Scudetto run and still have a good chance to progress far in the CL, I must say that I prefer to see us work our butts off in the CL. Zaccheroni and Inter didn´t, and instead preferred to work on a project that sadly only consists of the Serie A.

A very positive thing that Zac has brought to the team is so far consistency in the Serie A. We also had consistency with Cuper, but with Zac we play in a more dominating way in almost every game. From all the games I´ve seen with Zac at the helm, only the game against Perugia is the one I am embarrassed about- in Serie A.

The victory against Juventus should of course be mentioned. There is something strange about Inter when they can lose 1 – 5 to Arsenal and three days later beat Juventus whom they haven´t won against since 1993.
It wasn´t just a crappy 1-0 win and playing multiple defence. We won it comfortably with 3 – 1 and never looked like we were in that much of a danger in the game. Truth has to be told though. This was one of the weakest Juventus I have ever seen.

The only really big win I can remember with Cuper as the coach in Serie A, was the 1-0 win against Milan. This victory means less, when we never won anymore against Milan on lots of challenges. I also believe this was why Cuper was fired in the first place. He simply was horrible at analysing Milan. We still don´t know how competent Zac is at it, but if Zac has managed to analyse how to beat Juve, he should be able to do it against the more predictable Milan.

There’s no point talking more about certain matches. We can all look at the table and see that there is a huge improvement. I´m very sceptical that we will last for much longer with this winning-streak. There´s also only Juve who we have managed to close in on.

Let´s talk about tactics then. We changed drastically in regards to tactics with Zac. For the better? Well duh!!!! Of course it was for the better, and it´s a shame that Cuper was too stubborn with his 4-4-2 formation, and didn´t realise that we have and had the team built for a 3-men defence. I do believe we could have utilized our squad very good with a 4-4-2 formation as well, but we had the wrong mentality.

We rotate now between a 3-4-3 and 3-4-1-2 formation. I personally prefer 3-4-3, because we SOOO have the players made for this formation. I simply don´t agree with the ones who say we just have to get a playmaker. Why? What are we going to do with Van der Meyde? I believe that Van der Meyde could become a real keyplayer for us if he is allowed to play with consistency. The problem with Zac and this formation, is that he´s using it all wrong. He´s twisting the flanked forwards and make them play on the opposite side that they normally play at. Van der Meyde has figured more as a left flanked forward than as a right flanked. If we start playing him as a right flanked forward, I am sure he will do even better.

On the left flank we also have a brilliant solution. Alvaro Recoba! If you look at the game against Chievo, you can see how freaking good his crosses are. When he was fielded as a left winger, he had to defend. Now we doesn´t have to defend as much, also presses the players. This position might actually be the position where he will finally get his big break with Inter. He makes more assists from the flank than in the middle, and he simply isn´t as deadly as a scorer as he once was. If Zac can comprehend this, and not play Recoba as a striker or behind two strikers, I believe we will see a brilliant Recoba.

Let´s insert a negative point with this formation. Javier Zanetti… There´s a player I miss seeing making his amazing right flanked runs. It might sound weird to you, but Zanetti had a more offensive position as a right back than he has as a right winger. I´m sure I´m not the only one who is currently missing Zanetti’s fantastic runs on the flank. The reason for this is; he has more defensive duties as a wingback, than as a right back. Because if he makes those runs as he does as a right back, he won´t have anyone who back him up if there comes a counter-attack. The right flanked forward will ALWAYS be higher up on the field than Zanetti, while the right center back isn´t supposed to mark on the flank. So therefore, we see a more cautious Zanetti who doesn´t dare to dominate the right flank, offensively.
What I find weird regarding Zac and the wingbacks, is that he has two sets of positional play for them both. Zanetti is more defensive, while the left back has more offensive duties. Fascinating, yet not perfectly understandable.

To continue on the offensive scheme we play before I go to the defensive scheme, I´d like to mention one thing. I don´t want to turn this article to anti-Vieri. BUT!!!! Playing 3-4-3 require a central striker with technique. Because when the flanked forwards are on the flanks, there need to be one in the middle who can distribute balls and collect balls. Vieri can not do this, and this is why our 3-men attack isn´t better. This is why I consider Inter to be better without Vieri. We can get all three strikers involved in the game, and the attack doesn´t just stop as soon as a ball is passed to Vieri.
With Adriano, I believe we will have an awesome attack. Who needs Stankovic or any other player to play behind two strikers when we already have a squad made for the 3-4-3?

Now to the defence. In a normal 3-men defence, basically all three would be positioned in the central. This is not the issue with Inter. We play a very width defence. We do not play the ordinary man-to-man defence. This is what is normal for a three-men defence. That there is a sweeper and two man-markers. We have the sweeper. His position is normal. However, Cordoba and Cannavaro is not functioning as a normal man-marker. They don´t actually man-mark. They stay a lot on the flanks and also makes themselves options to pass the ball. This has of course it´s negative aspects. A team that plays a very fast attacking game will try and exploit our positional play. They will try and play the game in the centre of the field, whereas we have left one poor defender to cover. We have not yet been too punished by this, but we definitely will at some points.

Awake yet after all this analysing regarding tactics? Yes? Fantastic!

To make a long story short; Zac has brought us tactics that is suitable for many of our players. We still have some players that are completely out of favour due to their characteristics. Such players are Kily Gonzalez, Luciano and Okan. We also have problems finding a way to field Vieri, Martins and Cruz at the same time. Cruz has been a huge positive surprise playing as a flanked forward. He would probably be even better at Vieri´s position.

Zac has also contributed negative in terms of CL, and ignoring some players. I am still waiting to see Karagounis play his natural position.
The CL was definitely a tough blow. I am still expecting when this new coach era stops and the players get settled with Zac. Then we will really see what character our team is built on. Currently, our players are working to gain Zac’s trust and be fielded.

Jimmy Fredholm

Back

A bit shocking day, I must say. I woke up and watched the Barcelona – Deportivo game for some minutes before turning on the PC. The first site I went to was inter.it and read the headline: “INTER SACK CUPER”
Well, I wouldn´t say I was shocked, because I had a feeling that he would get sacked as soon as I saw our starting lineup against Brescia. There are some things to ponder about though…

We had only lost one game out of our 8 games this season. So how can we sack Cuper? Well, no one knows what Moratti is thinking, but I can guess. The derby loss was basically the entire reason for why he was fired. Moratti, an Inter fan as all of us, looks at the derby with incredible amount of pride to win. When we lose it´s incredibly humiliating instead. Cuper has showed during these years that he lacks the mentality to lead Inter during derbies.

The Brescia game only became the ice-tip on the mountain. When Cuper benches Emre and replace him with yet another ballwinner when it has been clear that Inter´s problem this season has been in offence and not in defence, it is obvious that Cuper has lost it completely. In desperation to seek for results he relies on his old formula. Two ballwinners in central midfield. But Inter doesn´t work that way and has never does. Even when we were so close of winning the Scudetto, our central midfield was a huge achiles heel. So I can not imagine why Cuper can be so stupid to start playing with fire when he KNOWS he risks the chance of getting fired. So he did, and he got fired. Shocking? Not to me…

I also believe Cuper failed miserably with his priorities. He seemed to have set up the CL as our priority for this season, and there´s not many Inter fans who likes this. The Scudetto is what matters, but Cuper´s persistence in wanting revenge for his CL losses, made so that he totally forgot about the other league we play in – Serie A. He fielded reserves in tough games like against Udinese, and fielded the best team in the CL. What a huge mistake!

Credit should go where credit is due. Cuper has been a bit of a saviour for us even if he never managed to make us a winning team. Except for this season, Cuper has had a squad that has been able to beat pretty much all small teams. Something the ‘old’ Inter never managed to do. We used to be experts in beating big teams, because it seemed our egoistic players was able to get fired up for big matches, but as soon as we faced small teams the attitude was different. And we face more small teams than big teams during an entire season. And Cuper didn´t lose many big games either, but he never won them.

The one thing I hope that won´t be changed, is how we started to take care of our youngsters. Cuper brought up a lot of Primavera players and gave them the chance. I feel relieved, knowing that Corrado Verdelli will stay with Inter, as I hope he will ensure that we will continue this path with youngsters. Even if our Primavera team has faded a bit and the 83 class is gone, we need to bread more and more youngsters and give them the chance.

The Champions League semi-final shall not be forgotten either. This was a huge accomplishment for our whole team to reach the semi-final in our first CL for a few years. Even if we didn´t seem impressive (which we never did at Cuper´s helm) we had the right momentum.

We are looking at a dreadful season. The last time a coach was fired in the middle of the season, was season 2000/01 when Marcello Lippi got fired after the first league game against Reggina. Even if this was seemingly very early, it still means a lot. Marco Tardelli took over and Inter was horrible. We finished at a seemingly respectable 4th place, un-deservebly.
The time before that was season 98/99, the season of black you could call it. Luigi Simoni was fired during the season with the motive that Inter played too defensive. Mircea Lucescu (who became a successful coach) took over. He didn´t get too many months either, because there wasn´t any changes at all. On the contrary, Inter became worse. So we had sacked our second coach during the season, and we called for Castellini for a few games, before appointing the coach who would just finish Inter´s season – Roy Hodgson.

This season we finished 8th and we were really, really in deep problem. I´d like to make my subjective point of view of firing Luigi Simoni. I felt it was extremely uncalled for since we had somewhat the results, and we had won the two last games when he got fired.

So I urge the Inter fans to get prepared for a very mediocre season. Inter will not perform and they will struggle a lot with keeping their place in the CL. I am expecting to see us play in the UEFA-cup next season. It´s very rare that sacking coaches turns out to the better in the middle of the season.

I would also know what our players REALLY is feeling. Of course, they´ll say what a shame it is that Cuper has been sacked and that he wasn´t only responsible for this. But what I would like to know is if they are really sad about this on a human aspect. Will the players be more motivated during games without Cuper on the bench? That will be interesting to follow.

That´s the name of the new coach. I know him pretty well since I admired him a lot at his time with Udinese and Milan. No one can deny that he brought a lot of success to Udinese with mediocre players. He made our own Thomas Helveg to appear as one of the best right flanked players in the world. Hopefully Zac, as he is called, has acknowledged that Helveg´s prime is long gone.

Zac took over Milan, and in his first season won the Scudetto. Ironically I told one of my Milanista friend, as soon as I heard that Zac would coach Milan, that they would win the Scudetto. They did, and they did it by using a formula called 3-4-3, and at times 3-4-1-2. Even if the numbers seem offensive, he is a defensive coach. He likes structure and team-work. He does not prefer to see his team play really flashy even if they have the players for it. With Milan he had players like Boban and Leonardo at his disposal, but rarely used them together. Not to mention how he kept playing target striker Bierhoff and he did it very good. That´s a good sign, that perhaps Zac can bring out the best from Vieri who has started off pretty bad this season.
In this 3-4-3 formation he has played wingbacks. With Milan it was Helveg and Guly/Ziege. So one has to get worried if Zac is insisting on using the same formula, which makes our transfer market to look like a complete joke. We will not find a way to fit Kily and Van der Meyde into the squad.

What worries me is if Moratti has been stupid enough and signed Zac for a few seasons. He´s not the coach for us, and he should only be seen as this seasons coach, and then we should try and find a new coach next summer.

I used to be a huge Cuper supporter. I was until this season, when I had seen how Cuper had received all the players he wanted, but still couldn´t create a team. He couldn´t transform Inter into a team with a winning mentality.

I believe Moratti has made a huge mistake by firing the coach in the middle of the season. It was a given that Cuper would get the boot after the season if we hadn´t won anything. Cuper would still be able to make us a top 4 team, which means we would be allowed to play the CL next season. This object has been changed. Now we are looking at a revolution in terms of tactics, training, staff and players in the middle of the season. This will cause havoc and make us inconsistent as never before. We might be able to beat Milan and some other big teams, but overall I predict a season where we will finish at best at a 6th place. Sadly…

The ones to blame is of course the president Moratti, since he´s the final decider. Cuper has also himself to blame by selecting squads and starting line-ups that would of course mean that we would struggle with offence. If a team can´t score and create goals for several matches in a row, you don´t change that by adding another defensive midfielder. It doesn´t matter how bad or how fit Emre is, you do not replace him with Almeyda when we have gotten ourselves a natural replacement for him during the summer by the name of Karagounis. Karagounis who was immediately called up for the Lokomotiv Moscow game. Something to think about.

I would like to thank Cuper for these years, because he has been making us one of the best teams in the world again, even if we played ugly. It was effective, until this season. Good luck Cuper!

I remember when I was young, relatively fresh as an Inter fan. I remember the days when we signed big names each summer. Glory days, I used to think. God, I loved the Silly Season. To go out on the Internet and read all the transfer rumours. It was just some years ago, actually. Before I started to attend more on the discussion boards around the Internet.

I had a friend in school that was equally interested in football like me. Only difference was that he came from Spain and it was La Liga all the way. I remember saying in school by the lockers before going to class: "Reading about rumours is the best thing about football!"

I understand him now. And then he didn´t attend to the forums. He just plain thought it was boring.

Today, I find them boring as well. Boring in the sense that 99% of them are false. How could I ever adore the Silly Season? It´s just sport journalists doing a bad job. Being a person who´s aim is to become a sport journalist, I know what I WON´T write about. Well… Truthfull transfer negotations are worth writing about, and it is very enlightening to listen to opionions. But which devoted journalist can sink so low, that they need to make up rumours in order to get some readers? To me, this is what Silly Season is 50% about. Sport journalists that can´t write their own opinions in articles that would attract readers, and has to come up with headlines like: "Totti to Milan" in order to get some readers.

What are the other 50% then? Being a long termed member on football forums, I get my share of bullcrap from the fans of the teams. Fans that used to be like me, and yet I can´t stand discussions, where they discuss remotely close to what I used to do. That whenever a worldclass player is rumoured to be on their way to their team, they jump up of joy and really wants the guy. But fail to completely stop and think: "Do my team NEED this player on the pitch?"

That has to be about the most annoying thing ever when you have an opinion of new transfers like me. I admit, that I kinda like seeing new faces at my team – Inter. But not of the expense of the current Inter players that are REALLY performing. The latest in the line of stupid rumours is about Juan Sebastian Veron. No doubt that Veron is worldclass. But is that enough for a team to buy someone? If we can get a worldclass player, should we get him just because we can? Or should we focuse on the players that are needed? I am of the latter opinion. I don´t get any joy seeing a worldclass player on the field, when I know he was never needed in the first place. This is why Fabio Cannavaro will never become one of my favourite players. Amazing defender, but we bought him because we could. Not because he was needed.

So Silly Season is also about reading the silly comments from people who has yet to understand why Juventus is so amazing in Serie A. This is why Juventus is so damn good. They do not go out and buy a player just because they can. They are looking at how usefull the player is before buying him.

People are complaining about Inter´s financial state. We have basically no budget to sign great, expensive players. And why is this? Well, as far as my experience goes, I can blame the idiotic transfers in the past. The splashing out money for non-needed players each summer. Instead of actually sticking to a policy, make that policy come true and be happy with it. Block the market. Ignore Barcelona if they are offering Kluivert for us. Because we have Vieri and Crespo.

Christian Chivu and Juan Veron are two players we don´t need whatsoever. Yet, Chivu looks likely to come and Veron has offered himself to Inter, and knowing Inter and their policy they won´t pass on Veron. They won´t be able to stay away from the temptation to sign Veron. Even though we have Emre in the squad.

What is laughable in my eyes, is how people who during the entire last season cried over some wingers, are now feeling excited of the thought of Chivu and Veron, while a single winger hasn´t been signed. Was winger the problem then? Or was it simply yet another big name player to brag about?

To me it´s wingers. During this entire summer, I will refuse to accept any central defenders, central midfielders and strikers arrive. Regardless of how big their names are or how good they are. It´s all about wingers. The biggest problem we have had for two years now.

I´m asking Inter fans around the world, to acknowledge the REAL problem at Inter. And no, it´s not wingers. It´s the Silly Season, and how we summer after summer comes out as losers on the transfer market. Don´t accept it. Protest against the idea to sign a big name player when they aren´t needed. Veron won´t solve our flank problem. Neither will Chivu. That´s what matters. Not how big their names are.

Silly Season is evil. The majority of fans that has supported a team for a really long time, usually hates Silly Season or simple can´t be bothered. I can´t be bothered when it comes to the rumours. I´m bothered about the reactions of the rumours and how easily it is to say "Yes" to any player that is rumoured to come to Inter. And sadly Inter is the team that is linked to the most superstars, and then it´s easy for some fans to say "Yes" for whoever that is rumoured to come. There´s more to football than big names. I´d rather see just a ’good’ winger that do his job at Inter, than a proven all-star player like Veron, because that ’good’ winger would be of more use to us than Veron.

Season 2002/03 is now officially over for our part. It´s been a turbulent season. On a personal level I thought we threw this season away during the transfer market. We didn´t buy anyone that would be of REAL value for us. Some might say Hernan Crespo. And I also am very thankfull for his CL campaign. But on a tactical level, he wasn´t the player we needed.

Fabio Cannavaro was definetely not a player we needed, although I like him as an individual player. But this transfer wasn´t thought through and we did it basically just to steal him away from Milan.
The Simic vs Ümit Davala will never make sense.

The transfer market only had a few successes. Some might say that swapping Seedorf for Coco was a bad deal, but I think it was successfull. Sadly, Coco has been injured a lot this season, which has caused him not being able to perform on his highest level. Still, I think whenever Coco has been on the pitch, he´s been one of our safest players. The guy can´t cross, but defensively he´s a rock and his pace and technique was at times destroying the opponent flank.

The other successes was also that we fixed the problem we had last season. Lack of depth in central defence. One can complain about Carlos Gamarra´s performances, but atleast he was a huge improvement to having Sorondo or Di Biagio playing as a central defender. Adani also was a huge bargain since he came for free, but injuries ruined his season. I´m hoping to watch Adani play a lot more next season and show ME how good he can really be. Adani is perhaps the player at Inter, I´ve watched the fewest of.

This was the transfer market, that I think was the starting point to a trophyless season. No wingers whatsoever came.

The season started very early for us due to the CL qualification. We basically got the worst draw possible as well, when we were handed Sporting Lissbon. Quaresma, Natalie (was that his name??) and some other guys would become a huge threat for us. I saw both the games on the net, which gave me a rather poor view of how we were playing. A 0-0 draw in the away game, left me extremely nervous due to the lack of away goals. But a very freaky first half in the second game, made us score two goals. Two headers from Recoba and Di Biagio saved our CL campaign. Ironically one of the two worst players for the remainding of the season, was the ones who saved us when we were playing rather poor.
But our first job was done and the season wouldn´t start with a complete disaster. I think many of us felt more relieved than happy after the whistle was blown and we had passed the qualification round.

Then we were very unlucky that a strike hit Serie A and the season got postponed. We had a major advantage before that, since we started the pre-season a lot earlier than the other teams (save Milan), and it would mean we were more geled and physically prepared for the season. But the strike, meant the rest of the teams got more time to be at the same place we were.

Finally the season was off to start and for us, we had an incredibly good start in terms of results. I remember us getting a lot of crap at the start of the season for being lucky. Winning 4 straight games in Serie A is definetely not lucky! The critizism came out of the lack of ball possession our team had. If you guys think we had bad ball possession now lately, you should have seen our team at the start of the season. We basically looked handicapped with the ball and had so little ball it was ridiculous. On the other hand we were super-effective, and people can say what they want. Football is about efficiency and score the on the chances they get. People were admiring Milan´s season and we were being mocked, ignored and whatever, and we were still on top of Milan (as usual). I felt frustrated and pissed during the start of the season (I´ve felt that all season, honestly), because it seemed we were an early target of the media coverage bad guys.

But let´s focuse on our performances and the tactics that were made. Our performances was perhaps not the best, but it sure as hell were effective. Although, the first match of the CL was a disgrace completely and we were pure lucky. Rosenborg outplayed us as hell, but we came out of it with one point. I actually apologised towards the Norwegian fans after the game.

In Serie A we had our first bad period after our really good period. A total flop game at home to Udinese which we lost with 2-1 was the start of a short period of really bad results. The worst match of the season we played the game after that against Roma and still drawed 2-2! One has to draw some conclutions to that, and that is Inter is a team who can draw a team like Roma, playing the most dreadfull performance of the season. But we shall admit we were lucky as hell in that game and the two who scored also were the ones who were the worst in that game (Morfeo and Okan).
The Milan derby loss came after that, and ironically we played very good in that game. Now we didn´t deserve this whatsoever and the luck was against us.

Boring Inter as people were referring us at that time, was off for 3 heartattack games. Empoli – Inter 3-4, Inter – Brescia 4-0, Lazio – Inter 3-3….
Boring Inter scored 11 goals on 3 matches. But let´s admit that individual brilliance was the main point in these games. Vieri scored all 4 goals against Brescia, and Emre´s match against Lazio will never be forgotten by either of the two groups of fans. Outrageous performance by the little Turk, who stepped up and took the responsibility when everyone else was collapsing.

A match I will probably never forget was the away game to Parma. Basically ¾ of the squad was injured, and we had basically no strikers whatsoever. A certain Nigerian 18-year old who later would step up and become one of the most exciting players in Serie A, got to make his first Serie A start. But we shall come back to this phenomenon later on.
Nontheless, this game we won 2-1 and beated Parma with so many reserves and no depth whatsoever. I was shocked!

I would say in terms of results, this season was ruined when we lost to Juventus with 3-0. Not only did we lose three points on our only competitor (can´t count Milan there, since they´re ALWAYS behind us), but we also got to see how inferiour we are towards Juventus this year. But we shall not forget. The rest of the 16 teams in this Serie A is also inferiour to Juventus, and all you need to look at is how Juventus has been able to kick out ”The World´s Greatest Team” Real Madrid with ease in the CL.
Maybe, just maybe, we would have had a physocoligical advantage if we had won the game against Juve, but since we got outplayed, the season was basically over.

No need to comment about the rest of the results, since I find this to be the place where the season went to Juventus.

I won´t see this season as a season we lost. I will see this season as a season where Juventus won. They were simply geniuses in the transfer market, where they manage to get Mauro Camoranesi for nothing. We should have picked him up when we had the chance.

Let´s be honest about this season though. We lost far too many times, to be able to win the league. We lost concentration so many times, and also at times showed no character whatsoever (like against Udine in the second match against them). You can´t expect to win Serie A with that attitude.

In Serie A, there were 5 players from last years Primavera team that got a chance to debut in the real Inter team. Two of them got the chance to be with the senior team for the entire season. The 5 players were: Giovanni Pasquale, Nicola Beati, Obafemi Martins, Nicola Napolitano, Luca Franchini.

Then we shall not forget the other Primavera players who got the chance to play in the Coppa Italia. This season has to me been historical. I´ve never witnessed so many youth players in Inter since I started rooting for them.

Let´s give a special mention to a certain Giovanni Pasquale. This guy had a major breakthrough this season. First the guy gets promoted to the senior team. Then he gets to be a part of Gentile´s U-21 squad. And to add even more to this list, the kid gets selected for the Gli Azzurri!
Imagine that this guy last year spent making crosses into our youth players. Inter fans and other Serie A fans can say what the hell they want, but if it weren´t for Cuper, we would have never seen Pasquale this season. He´d probably be loaned out to a Serie C1 team and his career was ruined.

The other player who spented the entire season with the senior team was Nicola Beati. Unlike Pasquale, Beati got very few chances and his season ended earlier than expected with a broken leg. He still managed to be behind one of the goals against Leverkusen in the CL.

Now let´s move to this phenomenon that showed up this season. We all knew him from the Primavera team where he scored twice in every game. Personally I saw him for the first time against Parma and he didn´t impress me whatsoever. Then he stood there, Obafemi Martins and had scored the important 1-0 goal against Leverkusen when we had no strikers avaliable. He became the hero and his position at the team was improved. He was basically selected for every game after that, and boy, did he take the oppurtunity! Pasquale might have been the most impressive throughout the whole season, but I don´t think anyone expected an 18-year old Nigerian STRIKER (a youth striker at Inter who´s considered Strikerland?) to become such a hit. His pace was deadly and that is why he was such a hit. Inter will be in real difficulties to know what to do with Martins next season. One thing is for sure…. He has no business doing in the Primavera league again.

So much crap against this guy this season, I´ve never witnessed before. Not even Marco Tardelli received as much critizism as Cuper has done. I´ve always supported Cuper as a whole and will continue to do it, until I can see him not being able to do anything with the best possible team. If anyone claim that the Inter squad season 2002/03 was the best possible squad, then I´ll beg to differ. We had no natural left winger in the team, and it forces Cuper to rotate and use players out of position. We have right wingers, but none of them are any good. Conceiçao was a disaster ever since he came, and even though Okan is a player to admire for his attitude and grinta, he´s not a right winger we need.

Cuper has made us a big team again. I can understand Inter fans who never experienced the periods where we could lose every two games, to critizise Cuper for playing boring football. But I can´t comprehend how people can bash Cuper as they do, when they have witnessed the chaos once called Inter.
Cuper brought Inter to a CL semifinal spot, which hadn´t happen for 22 years. We were second to Juventus, who´s been the worlds best team BY FAR.

Cuper should be critizised though. I´ve never witnessed a coach making so many il-logical subs before. I most of the times agree totally with the starting lineups he put on, or I can disagree, but see the logic behind it.
But the guy has after the winter break, been making such unbelievable weird subs! To put on Morfeo against Roma costed us three points. To sub in Gamarra when we need to score is another one of those incredibly il-logical subs.

But these really bad subs shouldn´t mean he should be fired! You have to look at the material he had to work with, and how much he got out of the team. Yes, Cuper is an extremely defensive coach and sometimes it costs us matches. But which coach who is offensively minded doesn´t experience his offensive tactics costing matches? Take Carlo Ancelotti for an example. Does he even have tactics? I get the feeling the players are allowed to do what they want. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn´t.
So it´s simple; you won´t find a perfect coach.

The fact that also Cuper has atleast made Moratti slightly less influenced in the transfer market is also a very positive step towards the new umpire we are building. But as long as Moratti is the president, we will always experience crappy transfers. But hopefully Cuper will BEG Moratti for those wingers he wants, so Cuper can atleast get a decent chance to make his team perform in the best possible way.

But I say one thing. If Moratti hands Cuper two worldclass wingers and a natural replacement for Emre, and Cuper still can´t win anything next year…. Then he has to go.
But his defensive attitude towards the game ain´t no argument. If you wanna see an attacking team, you root for another team and not traditionally defensive Inter.

Seeing Zanetti and Cordoba, two real Interisti cry after the derby draw. That image will be stuck in my mind for the rest of my life. At that moment, I never could have pictured Cordoba step on the pitch the coming match and for the rest of the season. But he did, which is great.

But this match will go down as the worst period of my football fan life. I felt empty during the match. I didn´t even cheer when Martins scored the equalizer, because after Sheva´s goal, I knew what it meant. I´ve been laughed at when I have mentioned we need to attack in the away games and defend at homes games during cups like these. I felt pleased being right when we won on away goals against Valencia, but never in my entire life, I´ve hated being so right after losing to Milan. Well, we didn´t lose, which makes it even worse.

The day after, I simply had no life lust. I didn´t even care to bother about the Juve – Real game, because football sucked ass at that point. I actually missed the first 20 minutes of that game, because I simply forgot it.

I see this season as a failure on the performance part, but a success when it comes to results. I simply don´t think we could get better results with this squad and win anything.
On the other hand, I think we could have performed better than we did. There were some players that really underperformed during the whole season. I´m talking about guys like C. Zanetti, Cannavaro, Di Biagio and Recoba. 4 players on their day are worldclass. Even Di Biagio is worldclass when he feels like it.

Di Biagio and Recoba though have been this season´s huge flops and bad guys. People can mention Morfeo, Guly and Conceiçao, but these three aren´t that good to start with.
But Di Biagio and Recoba didn´t care to make a great season. They just didn´t bother. Di Biagio as a ballwinner choosed to jog beside his opponent.
Recoba had his flashes of brilliance, but overall and especially when we needed him the most, he let us down. Someone who claims to love Inter so much, doesn´t show an even inch of love towards the logo. Not even the slightest effection.

Cristiano Zanetti and Fabio Cannavaro on the other hand are a different case. They´ve just lacked their top form and un-intentionally performed below their level.
Some people even talk about selling these two, and I wouldn´t mind selling Canna either, since he has a position we are covered at already. C. Zanetti on the other hand is normally an incredibly important player in our team. We can´t forget about his last season where he was by far our most important midfielder. He missed basically half of this season, and perhaps that meant a lot in terms of performances and finding the form.

I want to mention 4 players who this season has stand out and been the protoganists for the entire squad: Javier Zanetti, Ivan Cordoba, Emre Belozoglu, Christian Vieri

As I expected, Zanetti would finally be acknowledged as one of the greatest in the world, after we finally were playing in the CL. He´s now considered the best right back in the world by most.
Ivan Cordoba also had his huge international breakthrough, although he´s still underrated by many.
Emre was our MVP for this season IMO. Only because we had no natural replacement when he was gone.
Vieri scored 24 goals and it would have been more if he wouldn´t have got injured. Best scorer in Serie A!

Reading the net forums and official websites thesedays is making me wonder. Do Inter fans really care about results? I know I do. I think I personally belong to the category of Inter fans that differs from the group. For me, I only care about results and not how you do it. Of course, if we have received a false penalty and won the match through that, it takes away the enjoyement.

Why do I flat out come out and say that Inter fans doesn´t care about results? Well, because of the whole season generally, but the latest action was the progressing of the CL semi-final. Something Milan fans celebrates today, but Inter fans thought this way of the progressing of the CL, according to a poll at Inter´s official site:

It was a heroic performance - 5%
We suffered far too much - 40%
A satisfasfaction without pride - 38%
180 minutes of character, determination and nerve - 4%
Euphoria after a long and hard battle - this is what football is all about - 12%

Who are the 38% who doesn´t feel pride?! Are Inter fans so greedy that they doesn´t even feel proud over being in the semi-final of the CL and kicking out Valencia who´s been the major CL team in the last years?

Football is supposed to be emotional and passionate. When fans of a team who has just progressed to the CL semi-final some moments later decides to vote that there is no pride in this, they seem to have lost the passion. Personally, I was smiling and cheering for the rest of the night and still am. Why should I not enjoy a moment like this?

Some people thank Toldo and say he saved us. It´s true. Toldo did save us and with a normal keeper we wouldn´t have progressed. But are we a normal team? Why did Toldo pick us in the first place? We were smart enough and betted on Toldo to be our first keeper. Should we feel ashamed now that he has to save us once in a while? This is the difference between us and other teams. Take Manchester United for an example. If they would have had a better keeper than Barthez yesterday, they would have had a HUGE chance to progress. But they didn´t have Toldo to save them. They won 4-3 but did they progress? No! Are they gonna feel proud because of beating Real Madrid in one match, but not progressing? Because they scored a lot and went for offence? Sure, they can feel proud. But what does that say about us? We who aren´t proud over being in the semi-final, just because we lost in the second leg or played defence throughout it.
We bought Toldo and we bought the rest of the players to win us matches. We shouldn´t excuse ourselves when they do. If Vieri scores the winning goal, then it means he did his job. More than what you can say about Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Ajax who failed to score and Ajax went out.

This is why we are in the semi-final. We have a team, but we also have match winners. I ask once again - Who are these people who doesn´t feel proud?!

I´m normally a very analytical person. I analyze matches during the match and after a match. But I´ll be damned if I let my analytical side of me take over the passionate side. The one who screams and through his arms around when Nielsen blow the whistle and see Gamarra jump up in Toldo´s arms. I say, enjoy the moment and analyze the match later. If you can´t enjoy seeing your idols and favourite team celebrate a ’loss’ which was a victory, then what can you enjoy?

It´s like a father starting to analyze how his kid looks like at birth… ”Damn, he has red hair”, ”What´s that mark on his body?”
No, a father would enjoy it and feel pride no matter how the kid looks like. Even if he prefered something else.
Inter fans would make lousy fathers…. Jokes aside.

My message goes out for all Inter fans: Enjoy football and don´t be so damn analytical minutes after a game. Suck it all in and enjoy the moment and celebrate it like normal football fans. We´ve suffered a lot in the last decade, so there is no use trying to downgrade our achievements when we do achieve something.

I´m writing this because I´m downright sick of the things I read thesedays. "Cuper should be sacked", "Cuper is a choker" and so on. I´m not expecting anything else from non-Inter fans as they tend to be somewhat biased against us, unless they are supporting a team who´s not in a rivalry with Inter. However, when the Inter fans start to act the same way and jump on the Cuper bashing bandwagon, then I seriously have to wonder what are they thinking!

I´ve never really thought much of the Milan based Inter fans. The ones who attends to the games. The ones who booes Stephane Dalmat so his confidence gets shattered. The ones who has this forever love for Massimo Moratti and celebrates stupid transfers like Gabriel Batistuta. But they have earned my fullest respect in one aspect. They had a banner against Newcastle which saluted Cuper. And this comes from the fans who last season spended their time booing EMRE! Even these people realise how much Cuper has transformed us.

And still, I see Inter fans asking for Cuper´s head. Why? Because his priorities lies in defence? Who cares if it wins us matches?! Sure, it´s nothing spectacular to watch for a neutral. But are Inter fans neutrals? Seriously? I´m starting to wonder. I´d prefer 3 points ahead of anything else. I don´t give a damn how we look infront of the world as long as we win. If there exists such stupidity that really believe that Cuper is a lucky b@stard, then it´s their loss. Their brain-loss, I would say.

For those who has watched Inter this season and actually knows a thing or two, might have acknowledged the tactical tactic we use. How many goals do we score in the first half? How much do we want to attack in the first half? I would say, very little. But why is it like this? Why is Cuper telling his well-paid players to slow down the game and not try as much during the first half?
It´s all about analyzing our opponents. Cuper stands there on the side and watches the opponents movements and their flaws. Then in the break after the first half, he tells the players them and KABOOM!!!!!, we have an Inter win. We do what brings us points. Of course, there´s a negative point of view by using this tactic as well. If we concede a goal or two in the first half we can collaps and get nervous. It wasn´t supposed to be that way. We were supposed to have zero goals conceded.
Although, Inter has shown before that they have the character to overcome the worst things possible. Being down by 3-0 away to Lazio, when Lazio was at their best. We didn´t collaps, we went out there and played our hearts out.

That´s what Cuper has brought to Inter. Heart! I´m never been as proud to watch my guys playing as I am right now. If we don´t win, sure, I get pissed and can at times really blame Cuper for his mistakes. But generally we have a team who has such charisma and passion to win. To win for INTER.
This is what Cuper brought to Mallorca and Valencia as well. What else can explain how a mediocre team like Mallorca can go to a Cup Winners Cup final? But of course, to ignorant neutrals, he´s a choker. Because he did not manage to win against Lazio with Vieri, Nesta, Salas, Nedved and etc.
Was Ivan Campo really so good that he should have managed Vieri? Was Marcelino Elena better than Nesta? Was Engonga a better playmaker than Nedved? Who in their right mind can ever say that Cuper should have beated this Lazio squad with the bunch of mediocre players he had at his disposal? Dani Garcia was the biggest star. Barely get any playing time with Barca who are in crisis. Ivan Campo went to Real Madrid where he was considered a joke and is now on loan to Bolton where he isn´t even the best defender.

Cuper a choker? I beg to differ. He´s a winner! He just needs the right squad. He didn´t have the right squad with Valencia either. He had a good squad, of course. But Champions League final squad? Pffffff.....
Valencia´s squad couldn´t compare to Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and etc.
He had no striker whatsoever in a really high level the second year he was in the CL with the team. He did have Claudio Lopez the first year. But what kind of defence did he have then? Pellegrino and Djukic. Two okay players, but come on!!!! CL final? Get real...

Cuper still managed to create a team by these players. And there were great players. Just not individually as great as many many of the other teams in the CL. They shouldn´t even have been in the CL final, but they were. And Cuper has had to suffer from this, because he has gotten the reputation as being a choker. Personally I´m very shocked how football fans who watch several matches a week can be so stupid and consider Cuper a choker without knowing the history whatsoever.

And then there´s Inter. A big, historical team that itself has been called a loser the last decade. No one even considered US title contenders last season. Then when we stand there on May 5th and lose the away match to Lazio, we were big losers and Cuper another big loser. Really? When was the last time we won against Lazio? We never win against them. Just the same as we never win against Juventus. What was so different now? Sure, we collapsed in the game but these guys are human beings. Who would expect Gresko to make a horrible mistake just before the whistle for the first half? We did a GREAT first half, but that mistake made our team totally nervous. It´s human to be nervous.

Then the season before that, we lost to Parma with 6-1 and even the derby with 6-0 seems to be unimportant. We still should have won the Scudetto according to people. Winning the Scudetto after a season where we were in total crisis and barely won two games in a row, would have been such a fantastic achievement that I couldn´t describe it. Cuper was 45 minutes from bringing us a Scudetto after waiting for 13 years and taking over a squad with no selfconfidence. Where´s the choker? Where´s the loser? Is anyone expecting Roma to win next year after their dreadful season this year?

Last season Cuper also managed to beat Fiorentina away. Sure, with Fiorentina being a relegated team, it might not sound so impressive. But we played a back 3. Something we hadn´t done for the entire season, PLUS that I can´t even remember the last time we beated Fiorentina away.

Cuper changed Inter to the positive. He has created a team made of superstars that hasn´t won much in their career. But now he is being treated like a virus by some people. Sack him, some say. For what? What could possible change to the better? That we start to beat some of the big teams? Sure, that might change. Still, I find it pretty hard to believe that any other coach would manage to make Inter this consistent and being up there competing for the Scudetto as much as Cuper has. We are currently second in Serie A and one match away from a QF in the CL. The last time we were being this good in Serie A in the standings was 97/98. That´s a long time ago. Moratti has tried several coaches and not succeeded, until Cuper came along. And now some of the Inter fans wants to get rid of him?! How ungrateful can one be???

No, no. Cuper is a keeper because he has the coaching skills to be able to make Inter Scudetto winners one day. But how is Cuper gonna be able to create a team when his boss is giving him players who doesn´t provide anything? Junior Moratti has been an incredibly stupid president since he took over, BUT he has improved after Cuper´s arrival. Still, Moratti is not giving Cuper what he wants. Cuper has wanted wingers for two seasons now. Moratti gives him Cannavaro. Not saying that Cannavaro has been bad or anything, but he just wasn´t needed with the defence we already had. Moratti gave him a left back though, but at the same time with Canna´s arrival we have witnessed lately how Cuper has to give up on the left back position just to be able to play Cordoba, Canna and Materazzi all at the same time. Why couldn´t Moratti just skip Canna and give him a left winger instead?

So Cuper has this season been playing Morfeo as a left winger. First of all, he´s not a left winger. Second of all, he´s not even good.
What i would drool over and also Cuper I guess, is Coco as the starting left back and a REAL left winger infront of him. Someone who can make those deadly crosses to Vieri´s forehead.
What I´m trying to say is that the problem isn´t always Cuper. It´s also Moratti who hasn´t given Cuper what he wants. And then people complain about seeing Emre or Recoba as a left winger. What other choice do he have? He has none, so he has to try and mixture and fielding the best players possible, even if it requiers that players are being played out of position.

Cuper has also brought another pride to this Inter side. For years I have missed to see some real Nerazzurri youngsters on the pitch. But being the "Bought" team that we used to be, we never saw them. We saw them rot in the Primavera team and then be loaned out to a Serie C1 team and be forgotten. Cuper has approached this with a totally different strategy. He actually promotes youngsters to the A-team. He brings about 10 youngsters with him for the pre-season. He has turned Giovanni Pasquale to a starting left back at times. Nicola Beati has been with the senior squad the whole time. And he does not hesitate to use Obafemi Martins whenever we need a striker. In the Coppa Italia, Cuper used almost a full team made of youngsters. This should have been Lippi, Tardelli or whoever.

And again I ask myself, how FANS of Inter Milan our biggest pride, can have the guts to say they want to see another coach. After all Cuper has given us. We´ve been a chaotic team that has been the laughing stock and now we just have one more problem to solve - to win big matches!
That´s been what I have missed the most. But we Inter fans need to face that we are perhaps not mentally ready for those sorts of important matches, just yet. But it´s not many big matches that we lose, we should mention. Last season we only lost twice to a big team. Milan and Lazio.
We even beated Parma away with Recoba and Martins on top. Wasn´t it like 13 years since we had beated Parma away or something? That´s the Cuper effect!

So to me I find it highly ungrateful to not appriciate what Cuper has done for us, even if he wants players from Argentina. Who cares, as long as they are good! But Cuper as any other coach has his flaws and favourites with players. He played Guly far too much last season. But then again, Capello plays Lima all the time this season. Does that mean Capello is a loser for a coach? Of course not and no one says so either.
But it´s frustrating indeed.

So I say us Inter fans and also neutrals should re-consider of how good of a coach Cuper really is, instead of focusing too much on how offensive we play. Personally I don´t get any satisfaction in witnessing an offensive Inter losing a game. I get satisfied as hell by watching a defensive Inter that wins though. And when we lose, take it easy, all teams lose sometimes. Even unhuman Juventus can lose to small teams.

I don´t consider this a crisis at all. We need to get it in our heads that Inter isn´t a team that should win the Scudetto. We have had so many years of struggle. We´re building up something new and it will take time. We have improved a hell of a lot with Cuper these two seasons. Sure, we don´t win against big teams, but we still have a complete different consistency than we used to have.

The last time we won against real opposition was against Milan last season. That´s a long time. For some reason, the players and coach we rely most on, totally lets us down in big games. Vieri to me is the biggest example. He NEEDS to start delivering more in big matches. He has to take a little responsibility and carry this team a bit. I am really grateful for all his goals, but I also want him to perform in big matches.
And Cuper has to step up with his coaching in the big games and try to win more. I´ve gotten the feeling that we play more to draw in big games. Totally the wrong concept. We should either admit to ourselves that we aren´t as good as we think, YET. Or, we go out there with an attitude that we are the team to beat in big matches and they have to steal the points from us. We HAVE to win. Neither of these two are the attitude in our team. We speak a lot, but we don´t show it.

Inter is a long term project and Moratti has to butt out even more. Let Cuper deal with transfers, tactics and pretty much everything that we need him to deal with in order to create a winning TEAM. If Cuper wants to sign a winger, then sign a winger.

So to me it´s not a crisis. We just aren´t better than this and perhaps the thoughts of a Scudetto is a dream NOW. However, with some patience and hard work, the Scudetto will be there sooner or later. Unless Moratti fires Cuper because Moratti considers us the best in the world. Then we are doomed and has to start over again. And three more years will be wasted on building a new team. Give Cuper the patience and support, and also the players to work with. How are we supposed to win anything with no wingers whatsoever? And why did Moratti give Cuper Batistuta, a guy you just can´t bench because of his reputation? It was obvious that Cuper adored Kallon. He´d play Kallon if we had loaned anyone else besides Bati. I think Moratti controls this slightly and influence Cuper to use Bati instead of anyone else.
A paralell can be drawn to Real Madrid, who has the entire season used a non-fit and out of form - Ronaldo. When guys like Morientes and especially Guti, has scored whenever he has been on. Perez controls this.

Losing to Juve ain´t a big deal. We always do, so nothing new there. We played pretty good and had an enormous bad luck. Sure, we didn´t deserve to win or anything, but to lose with 3-0 was lying numbers. We lost on aspects beyond our control. Toldo had a really bad day at work, and once again, our most important player in most of the matches, doesn´t score against big teams. I repeat that Vieri has to start delivering. I don´t soley blame him of course (!!), but for someone who has scored 21 goals this season, I ask for more against the better teams in the world. CL is a very good example.

Cuper putted on the best possible lineup I could imagine before the game. Some players totally bailed on the team, such as Guly and others that normally are extremely good, had a really bad day such as Toldo and Cristiano. The two latter has always performed against better teams in the usual case, so can´t blame them at all. We should also mention Recoba who was really average. BUT!!!!, I think he has been the most shining player throghout the years against big teams.

So relax and hope for the best and that we can get more experience from this loss in order to beat Lazio, Roma and Milan in the upcoming big matches. Sometime, we should get the hang of how it is to play against these likes and what attitude you should use.

Now we have a weeks break from Serie A and the CL and it is time to start reflecting of the season so far. What´s there that is missing? What´s there that is wrong? Why do we get no respect? These are things that needs to take into consideration and be discussed. We need to stop and think of what Inter is all about.

This is for me a very surprising thing. In the Serie A this season we have won 4 out of 4 matches. Which is the team that everyone speaks about? Milan....
I can´t help feeling a bit annoyed and relieved about the whole thing. Annoyed - because I feel we are being completely neglected in the talks of being impressive and has done great results so far. Relieved - because we are still the underdog and the ones who they expect more from. If that is now relieving. I don´t like that media and non-Inter fans expect more from us. That means we have to play awesome football for 90 minutes AND win the match with big figures. Is it realistic? Of course not. We can´t play like that, because we aren´t that kind of team. Cuper said it perfectly. Let Milan play how they want, we are Inter. We are not a ball possession team and hasn´t been for AGES!
I believe the relatively poor performances in the CL has contributed a lot to the bad publisity we receive. I actually thought that many of our players would get the recognition they deserve with playing in the CL, like Cordoba, Dalmat, Cristiano, Il Capitano and etc. Instead we have performed honestly - like crap.
It has completely backfired, but we still are on second place. We still beated Ajax. But who spoke about that? Just us. The only one who cares if we win or lose. In the eyes of the spectators that doesn´t carry the Inter heart, we were just lucky and boring. We didn´t deserve the three points.

4 wins out of matches. What else do we have to do? We need a midfield. That´s what else we have to do. Do neutrals bothers about that Cristiano is missing? No, because they don´t know who he is. He hasn´t gotten the chance to show off in the CL and prove what an important player he is for us. When I was defending Cristiano during the summer, many people said that we bought Almeyda as a replacement for Cristiano and that now we could swap Cristiano for Nesta. What has happened? Almeyda hasn´t been able to make a pass correct and not won many balls either. A magnificant cross to Crespo - that is all.
What has been said now at various discussion forums? "We need Cristiano back!"
Ironic isn´t it? The most talked about defensive midfielder during the summer and even the most critizised one because using that as an argument for why we should make the swap. Now the most wanted player in the squad.

Returning to the no respect topic. Inter fans hasn´t been any saints either. We continuesly win our matches over and over again, and yet there are talks of firing Cuper. How spoiled are we? How much do we demand? Can we expect some harmony within the squads when our fans are acting as bloody spoiled brats? We finally got rid of Ingrato who showed to be extremely spoiled, and instead we receive hundreds of fans that acts like spoiled brats. It saddens me really. What I have always said: If you want to see an attractive team, root for a Spanish team.
Because we are INTER! And with Inter, it comes with pride, no matter what how offensive we play.

Then what happens? We pull off an awesome match against Chievo offensively, and who gives us credit now? No one...
They still continue to talk about Milan and Juve. Why? Because we don´t win with 4-0 in every match? Or that we just made it to 2-1? 2-1 and a hell of a good performance by Inter, and still no credit. Still no neutral fans that congrats us to a very impressive win. We still get to hear that we were boring and that Dalmat sucks. We got the no clean sheet in our face, after the first match we have played with that back three.

Say what you want, but we are INTER and we get the results. And in the end, it´s the points that counts and not the number of goals you score. We know this from the beginning and doesn´t bother with thinking about trashing our opponents just because we wanna look impressive for the spectators. We leave that for Milan, so they get the hype.

But no doubt, that Inter has caused very unneccessary heart attacks because not being able to finish off the match earlier. So if Okan and Almeyda had scored against Reggina and we would have won with 4-1 we would have been more impressive? Seems like that is what football is all about. Score as many goals as possible and play as offensively as possible, and you get the respect.

He has changed a lot this year. Moratti forces him to switch his favourite formation, and I´ll be damned - the man actually pulls it off to! How´s that for a coach? After 5 years with 4-4-2 in Europe he switches the formation, and the dude still gets the results. He even realises what kind of positional play that it requires. Is he the best coach in the world? Many say no. Why? Because he´s too defensive. Just tell me one thing: What did Lucescu do for Inter? That´s the most offensive coach we have had for years. And together with Tardelli, the worst. Do we wanna witness Taribo West all over again where he throws the jersey? Or do we wanna witness the heart and grinta that Cuper brings out of every player? Cuper tells the players the magic words: We are Inter!
And the players gets it, and they know that when Cannavaro concedes a penalty in the last minute, that we have to score once more because of the honour. What happens? Recoba scores a goal in the next attack. We show everyone that we are Inter and Inter gets 3 points.

We lose to Lyon and what does Cuper do? Takes the blame for it together with every player that played the match. While the fans booes Dalmat, Cuper says that the whole team has to take the responsibility including him. Can we argue with that? No, we can´t because it´s as realistic as possible. Individual errors from normal worldclass players like Cannavaro and Cordoba costed us the match, but if the rest of the team can´t help them, what´s the use?
Second half in the same match, Canna score and throws up his arm in the air with a huge grinta. I can bet my ass that his words were: We are Inter!
And up with the arm. But being Inter is not enough sometimes.

Luigi Di Biagio - The biggest mystery in Inter. Before the Sporting match, I personally wanted him on the bench for his poor performances. Di Biagio steps onto the pitch and takes the leader role. He scores the first goal and show us the way. He runs like crazy and is having the match of his life. The same day as he was questioned as a starter. What a phenomenon.

And this sunday it was his day once again. Being questioned once again and some wanted the youngster Beati to replace him as a starter. But Di Biagio doesn´t take offence and shows why he is playing for us. The man scores two goals and is cool as ever. He becomes the 3800th goalscorer for Inter. "Benvenuto Jacobo" says his shirt when he celebrates. I can bet it meant: Never question me
He scores once more and show us the way once again. 2-0... He shows up his finger that it is meant for the Inter fans. Up yours! I am Di Biagio and I score when no one else does and leads this team! Treat me with respect and I´ll give my all on the pitch.
What a guy! I might not be his fan, but you can´t help falling in love with a player that when he´s the most critizised shows how fickle some of us are.

Those were the words before the season started. Everyone wanted Nesta to replace him. Instead, what happens? The freak plays the most for us and is being the best defender too. Outplayed Bierhoff, something that Stam didn´t do. And still there were some that wanted Stam instead of Materazzi.
He hasn´t picked up a yellow card so far. The defender with the reputation of only being a butcher and no class whatsoever. Then when you think that Materazzi has done it all for us, he steps up and become the assist king too. With the most precise long ball to Vieri, and Vieri´s outstanding shot, he assists us too. But still, he doesn´t get respect. But we are Inter and get used to it.

Is it irony or simple igorance to see that Materazzi has been our best defender so far, when we have signed one of the best defenders during the 90´s - Fabio Cannavaro?
Cannavaro who has costed us many goals so far, but here is a guy that gets the respect. WHY?!?!?! Yes, because he hasn´t been with us for that long and he is the captain of the most talked about NT. No one dares to disrespect him. But don´t get me wrong. Canna is slowly winning my heart too.
But I don´t like the disrespect that others do because of Canna. "Throw Cordoba out of the lineup and put in Canna!"
Cordoba who is our vice-captain and one of our most loyal players. Where´s the respect? Or that we should drop Materazzi because he made a bad match against Croatia.
The point is that we are Inter and we don´t go by the names, but of performances and importance in the team.

With these last words, I would like to say that we are on top of Serie A without impressing that much, but we haven´t played any junior teams and we can improve a hell of a lot more.

Inter is still on first place and we still get no respect. I´m starting to get used to it and starting to laugh about it. I love the way that we get no hype. But do I love the way we are being treated? Hell no!
No matter what result Inter gets, how they play, what character they show, there will always be some people that will dig deep and find flaws and won´t be shy about saying it.

Is it tiring? Yes, a lot. Who doesn´t wish we would be ignored in Serie A this year? Could it be more obvious that there exists an Inter conspiracy among the media? Di Biagio said it a month ago or so. Cuper denied it and pretty much ridiculed Di Biagio´s opinion. I take this with a pinch of salt, because I can bet my ass on that Cuper feels it as well. Why is Cuper avoiding every question regarding the critisizism everyday? He´s sick of it. He keeps repeating the same thing over and over again - "The critizisism makes us more hungry"
And I´ll be damned, it´s true!

Today I read a very interesting question on inter.it regarding the current stage in media.

It was a statement from a report during Morfeo´s press conference. It went like this:

"At Juventus, Del Piero misses a match and nothing happens, while at Inter Materazzi or Cannavaro are left out by Cuper and it's the end of the world..."

Are even the poor reporters during the press conferences acknowledging this? When Cannavaro was left out because of injuries, you could hear the day after:

"Cannavaro and Cuper is having problems and it´s now speculating about a possible swap between Canna and Serginho from Milan"

Who has comment regarding Del Piero who didn´t play against Udine and came on against Modena? Who has commented on that Rivaldo plays only one match a week instead of two? NO ONE!!!! But why is that? Because they speak the truth. The truth is that these players weren´t fit for the matches and they were rested. The same thing we did with Cannavaro. But then instead, media goes out and makes up a rumour that Canna and Cuper is not getting along good, and Cuper has the day after answer questions if it´s true or not. Are they doing this to try to make us lose our cool? Or destroy us? Because our shareholders seems to be influenced by media. These people doesn´t know a thing or two about football and tactics so when they open the newspaper and read "Inter won, but didn´t deserve it", they will believe it. They will be believe that we are a boring, lucky team.

Next episode in the opressing that goes on in Italy and media, has brought to my attention. Juventus plays two matches against Udinese and Modena. Juve were boring and lucky indeed. Looking at the performances, they shouldn´t have got the 3 points in both matches. But we as Inter fans knows that this is how you play football. You´re patient and effective. The only difference is that we get treated differently in media. Has anyone mentioned how bad Juve was? When we play matches like that, we get slammed all over the place.

And what is more opressing? Oh yeah, the disciplinary commitée. Two matches of banning. Ring a bell? It has become obligatory whenever we get a player sent off or studied by video evidence. Cordoba, Conceiçao and Di Biagio has been hit by this. How about Maldini? One match. Didn´t see the sequence myself, so I can´t comment. How about Totti? NO MATCH!
And now there´s talks about banning Vieri as well. If they ban him for two matches, then it´s just one more chapter of suspicious facts regarding us.

And what have I read in thesedays? Ah yeah, we get crap because Toldo has to make saves. Oh, I´m sorry, why not just use Farinos as a keeper if teams don´t need to save the goal for it becoming a goal? While keepers like Dida and Buffon can save their teams, we and Toldo has to feel ashamed that Toldo had to make a brilliant save. So in conclusion, this is what Inter has gotta play to be respected and have no flaws:

Score a lot of goals, get clean sheets, no shots at the keeper and play offensively as hell!

Does it exists such a team? Noooooo.... But that´s what Inter has to play like to be taken seriously or should I say, they can´t find flaws to report about.

Being an Inter fan ain´t easy. We will never be allowed to enjoy a result, unless we isolate us from media. We will never be allowed to brag about our team and result, because then we played a bad match and didn´t deserve the win. Regardless of how an invisible tactic caused the result that only tactically minded persons can understand. Why aren´t these people working for the newspapers?

I´m not asking for much at all. I don´t want to be hyped. I don´t want to be favourites, but I definetely don´t wanna be opressed! What the hell has changed in the media to act like this against us? How long will it take before Moratti throws out an insult towards the person he THINKS is behind this? Be prepared of a season filled with wars between personalities.

Treat us equal or don´t bother about us. That´s all I am asking for. If Canna is injured, he´s injured. If Del Piero is injured, he´s injured. As simple as that.

Well, we have almost played half of the season and we are still looking for who will be the Winter Champions. It seems as some has forgotten that that is after 17 matches and not 15.

What can we say about this season so far? Well, I´ll try and make some small analyze of MY opinion. Remember that this is MY opinion now.

Inter as a team has showed serious attitude this season. I thought we played last season with a lot of heart and grinta, but this season takes the prize. Usually Inter is famous for conceding goals in the last minute. This has happened really little this season. On the top of my head, I can only remember the Reggina and Juve matches as two matches were we conceded a goal in the last minute. BUT!!!! in both matches, we showed why we have come this far. Immidately after the goals were scored, we scored another goal. Canna costed us a penalty against Reggina, but Recoba saved our butt in the last minute with a goal.
Against Juve, it was another penalty that we conceded in the last minute, but in the other last minute we managed to score a goal through total will. Toldo or Vieri it doesn´t matter, as long as it´s a goal for Inter.

This to me shows the extreme will of wanting to win every match or STEAL points from our opponents. Like against Juve. There was no way that we would ever lose against them. NO WAY!!!! Not with players like Toldo who as a keeper wanted that goal so bad.

Other performances has been impressive at times and much less impressive other times. The Roma match is probably the worst we have played this season. And still we got a draw against them AWAY. Is that an Inter kinda way? I hope so.
I think during Cuper we have builded a team with such attitude that we can win or draw against big teams, even if we play really bad. Not many teams can pull this off. Roma for an example has struggled real bad with just that this season. They haven´t managed to beat their teams when they weren´t performing great.
I think we have gained a lot of points through this, because we can´t perform great in every match. Therefore it is necessary that we still take points when we play bad.

Then we have the extremely weird derby. Here we actually play very good and still lose.
Is that a good sign or a bad sign? Well, losing three points and losing a derby is especially really bad. However, we tried our best with the players we had at our disposal. I am proud over that performance against Milan, yet today.

In the CL we started off really bad against Rosenborg. That was a shamefull performance. The point we got there was pure luck. If there´s one match we can admit we had luck it was in that one. It made me instantly worried about our remainding CL campaign.
Not to mention the home loss to Lyon which scared all of us, I guess?

But we overcame all this and has become better and better in the CL and especially in the second group stage we have started off very impressive. Was unneccesary to concede some goals against Leverkusen, but the points stayed in Milano.

I think this is enough about analyzing the performances. It will be involved in the rest of the post anyway.

Cuper has changed his tactics this season compared to last season. I remember that I last season was complaining about the complete lack of creativity in the central midfield. The answer I wanted for this was Emre. Cuper has realised this as well this season and has introduced Emre as a starting central midfielder. This puts our whole play in another dimension. We do not depend as much on our efficiency anymore as last season. I think last season, we did so great because our efficiency was probably the best in the world. How else can we explain why we could score so many goals with two defensive ballwinners and Guly in the midfield? Efficiency!

This season is different. Emre is creating a lot, and we honestly isn´t that efficient this season at all.
I think that sucks, since we could score even more with better efficiency. Crespo has only scored two goals in Serie A on all his matches. He has wasted a lot of clear goalchances in Serie A.

Vieri has scored 12, but he could have been on 20 by now if he was more on target this season. It´s rather hilarious that Vieri is the top scorer this season and really hasn´t been himself this season, either.
I think he will improve and then who knows how far we can go with him?

Back to tactics - Cuper is pretty much alternating between 4-4-2 and 4-3-1-2. This was different last season when Cuper strongly believed in the 4-4-2 formation in every match besides when we had defender problems. Well, we won´t have that this season.
This shows that Cuper this season is a lot more versitile when it comes to the formation he wants. He picks his formation based on the players that are avaliable and the opponent.

The most fascinating position in this years Inter, is the left winger position. It´s the only position where we have changed from last season when we play a flat 4-4-2. The left winger this season has a very free role. The only ultimatum is that he defends on the left flank. Offensively, he has a complete free role. He´s allowed to move central as much as he wants, as long as he defends from the left flank.
This to me might be good and all, but there´s a negative side to this. We do not have the left back that is good enough to cross the ball to play this way. I don´t want Coco to cross the ball. I´d rather see Morfeo or Recoba or whoever that has this left wing position, to do that job. Because they can do it.

Cuper has also prefered two center-forwards on top most of the times this season. Hernan Crespo and Christian Vieri. I am negative about their partnership so far this season. Crespo has to play the position as the support striker, and he really isn´t that kind of player. I´m afraid to say that if we continue with these two on top, we´re gonna lack some serious ball distribution in attack. The only thing I am hoping for is that Recoba will start to get his act together and perform like we know he can perform. Because HE is the key for our attack.
We have also witnessed that Vieri scores all the goals in Serie A and Crespo in the CL. Might be a coincidence, but it seems to me that it´s very difficult to get these two to score consistently in both tournaments. Might be because they play too much with eachother and coincidence decides who scores in which match.

We have also introduced the defence partnership that in beforehand was doomed to fail. Cannavaro and Cordoba together. I could never imagine our defence to work this good without the height of Materazzi. This is positive but also sad from a personal point of view, since I like Materazzi. But Canna and Cordoba are indidivually better than Materazzi and since they can also play together, it means that maybe Materazzi´s time with Inter is coming to an end.
It´s quite interesting nontheless to see how our short team manage to beat our opponents in the air. We might struggle against some teams, but overall, it´s been over my expectations.

I won´t rate the players, but I am gonna mention a few that has been a dissapointment and extremely good.

First I gotta comment on a bit of a surprise for me. I never expected Almeyda to play this much. Even with Cristiano injured, I didn´t expect him to play this much. This has been good and bad. Almeyda started off very insecure and didn´t bring me the ballwinning qualities I want. He´s slow and brutale. But in some matches he has been very good. Especially lately, I feel that he has become much better and takes more responsibility.
I still don´t think he should play as much as he does, because he´s not THAT great that he should play this much. But it has been very good to have him at our disposal when Di Biagio has failed in matches.

It´s needless to say that Javier Zanetti is having another brilliant season. That he wasn´t even among the 50 nominees for the best player in the world is laughable. Not only did FIFA show that they are a joke by letting Ronaldo win, but also to completely ignore the most consistent player in the world in a nominee consisting of 50 players!

Ivan Cordoba is probably playing the best play of his career now as well. He´s been the defender that has played the most for us and also been the defender that has been the best. He is now being in neutral fans´ thoughts of the best team of Serie A so far this season. As a Cordoba fan, this delights me. He has deserved it after all these years of underrating. And still, most people still hasn´t acknowledged how great he is. If we can continue our CL campaign like this, I HOPE that Cordoba will finally be recognised as one of the best defenders in the world, that he is.

Francesco Coco has gotten his share of critizism this season. But why? Because he´s not an offensive God? He wasn´t bought to be that either. It´s well known since years ago that Coco has never been a good crosser. It is however well known that he carries a technique that not many fullbacks have and that his defensive skills is better than any left back we have had since I can remember. That´s what Coco was bought for. To give us the stability that we needed on the left flank, and who dares to say that he hasn´t given us that?
Then also a special mention to Giovanni Pasquale, who has blossomed into a super talent this season. He´s still inexperienced, and I can imagine how great he will be with more experience and learns to defend a bit better. We might not see Coco in our team for a very long while when Pasquale is in the same team. But as for now, Coco is the man we need as our left back.

Emre has transformed himself into one of the biggest protoganist in Serie A. The little midget that was so doubted before has become our most important midfielder by far this season. The magic he has created this season, was needed last season too. It´s needless to say that Emre has been kicking some serious butt this season.

The biggest dissapointment for me is Stephane Dalmat. I never really did expect him to make it as a central midfielder. But I never expected him to get a mental collaps because he wasn´t able to make it as a central midfielder. I was hoping that he would realise that his skills are made for being a winger. Someone with that much pace and is two-footed is made for being a winger. He´s too complicated to be played in central.
Dalmat is still one of our most important players, as long as he will accept his position as a winger. Then we will have another class player in our midfield.

I don´t want to comment on every player since you all know how I stand with them anyway. I don´t have to say that Toldo is if not the best keeper in the world, definetely one of them atleast. I am expecting more from Canna and believe he will soon show his true self. Not that he has been bad or anything, but he´s one of the best central defenders in the world, so I hope that he will become EVEN better than he has been so far.

With all this said, I can sum it up that I am so far very pleased with our season and I strongly believe that if we can continue like this or maybe even better, we have a very good chance of winning the Scudetto. I consider Juve as our biggest threat as they can never be counted out.

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