JOE YUE COLUMNS

Pre-season Thoughts
Does Our Defence Really Sucks?

'Pre-season Thoughts'

(2004-09-06)
I originally had high hopes on this season,but after the Canna transfer,I'm not as optimistic as before.

you see the thing is,its ok to sell Canna,afterall he is 31 already and eat up our wage bill,also he has not been himself in this 2 seasons with us to be honest.But the problem is we let him go but havent find a suitable replacement.If we were to sell him we should have sold him a lot earlier to give time to find a replacement,instead he was sold to our biggest rival at the last hours of the transfer window.Actually we didnt really sell him we gave him to juve.For what?!Carini!?for our future GK?!Future my arse there are tons of good young keepers in Italy that would probably take Sorondo as a swap!This is usual INTER shiiit.The ideal condition would be selling Canna at July and we should have made more afford to sign Cavalho!A player which we were only interested in.Cavalho-Cordoba would be an awesome combination.But touchwood,Canna replacement would now be a Materazzi or even worse,Mihalovic.Another mistake was letting Adani go.We didnt even say Grazie to this man and we kick him out!He would be a wonderful backup for us.Last season he play without any stop for 3-4 months when we have defence emergency and he has been great!I dunno why Mancio let him go,he should know him well in Viola days.

Fortunately we have re-sign Gammara,an unsung hero for us and probably did more than Canna in this 2 seasons.He won the game for us at Turin last season with Martins and Cruz.At least we have a reliable backup if Materazzi injured,or more possibly suspended. Burdisso will be a direct sub for Cordoba.I dunno if we could try a Burdisso-Cordoba combination,this would make it like Canna-Cordoba which Burdisso is more of a man-marker than Libero.He definitely will be the future of INTER,possibly replacing Cordoba in the long-term.We have high hopes on him hopefully he wont disappoint.And can anyone tell me why we have 3 left backs?!3 quality ones.If nothin went wrong I guess Favalli will play most of the games this season.IMO we should give more chance to Pasquale and with Favalli to back him up.The most ideal condition would be having Coco as left back.If all 3 stays fit I dunno what Mancini will do.Overall our defence is the biggest concern without doubts.U see now Milan have Nesta-Stam,juve have Thuram-Canna,and we have Materazzi-Cordoba...Materazzi?!It would be sound if that Materazzi was the one I saw 4 years ago...lets hope he wouldnt do too many stupid things and cost us some penalties this season.

I'm sure we have theee most impressive midfield in Serie A this season thats without a doubt.That was originally can be a good or a bad thing.IMO our midfield might be a little unbalanced.Most likely we will have Stankovic-Cambiasso-Davids-Veron in midfield judging the pre-season and CLQ lineups.that left us VDM-CZ-Emre-Kily on the bench.My god that was the best midfield lineup we have last season.The question is how can Mancini incorporate all these players,who can easily get a place in most club in the world,together and make them all satisfy.Dun forget we still have Ze Maria,who seems to doing a good job and European Champion Karagounis.The most ideal midfileld IMO is 5 world class player plus a couple of versatile experienced player and a couple of promising youth.Now we have 10 world class player and 2 versitile experienced player in our midfield.I dunno but it doesnt seem right to me.However this department should be the most interesting one this season,a whole new look INTER mdifield.

As our striking ability,well have we ever have doubt to our front line?!Adrinao will no doubt be a sure starter.We have high hopes on him this season and this is the season for him to prove what he is and what most ppl think he can be.This kid is class,on and off the pitch.We can count on him this season.His parter will either be Recoba,Marins or Cruz.3 players with different characteristic.Which is a great thing.Most likely Recoba will be his parter with Martins or Cruz to play depends on our opponents and our tactics.Didnt I miss mentioning someone's name!?Oh yes Vieri!! Well IMO he is our biggest concern.The thing is since last season he has deteriorated a lot,It was so obvious,as seen in Euro04.Its save to say Vieri is probably done,he is going downhill and we should have offer him plus Canna for Zambrotta! Dont get me wrong I appreciated him a lot for what he did for INTER since he joined us,for all the gols he socred,even though it made me laugh some ppl say he love INTER! Now he became a burden to us.We pay him hugh wages,and this season he most likely will sit on the bench more than often,Mancini already mentioned that he will still be "useful" to win a "few" games for us.That says it all.And we know Vieri's temper.Even when he can play he doesnt seem happy,let alone as a bench player.I'm just concern he would kill the great atmosphere and team spirit we have seen Mancini created so far this season.I still believe Vieri still have something left but definitely,we cannot and will not depend on him anymore.

This is the lineup I like:

Toldo

Capitano-Matrix-Cordoba-Coco

-----------Veron

-------CZ--------Davids

-----------Emre

--------Chino----ADRIGOL

Bench: Burdisso ZeMaria Cambiasso Stankovic Kily Martins

Overall we should have a better season than last seaosn no doubt.I mean how we cannot have a better season without ZAC?!As I said our transfer market this season have been great barred from Canna and Kallon departure.I mean what the hell Choutos?!The concern I have is that Canna transfer would haunt us,hope we could get someone in at Jan if things not going well.With Mancini he gave us something I never ever seen since I was an INTER fan,nice floating football and team spirit.I mean ask Mr Recoba,ask that punkarse how many times "blackface" when he got substitute in all these years he has been with us?!What we saw at San Siro 10 days ago was unreal!Smile and shake Mancini's hands!!?!Probaly Mancio fed him with a lot more carrots than Simoni Lucescu Lippi Cuper and Zac add together!! My wish this season would be at least mount a seious challenge for Serie A and at least a semi-final spot at CL!Also to play some nice football which would likely to happend and ADRIIIIAANNOOOOOOOOO to score more and more and more great gols for INTER!!!!!!!

Joe Yue

Discuss the article at the FORUM

' Does Our Defence Really Sucks? '

Fabio Cannavaro,Javier Zanetti,Marco Materazzi,Ivan Cordoba,Francesco Coco.I think most people would agree that all of them are world class defenders (Some may refute Marco but not me) but why INTER still leaked rather many goals last season?What was the main reason behind it?

It is easy to say our defenders have to bear the responsibility based on the amounts of goals we have conceded last season.Some may say signing Cannavaro was a mistake,which I agree in some extent,not to mention his below par performance last season.2 seasons ago we have a great defencive record but with a Canna-plus and a Gresko-less defence this season we have gone backwards.To me,the main reason,which from what I saw people have overlooked,is the mentality that we approached the game.
Does anyone still remember 2 seasons ago,at the start of the season Bobo Vieri and the traitor was injured and we have to play our reserve duo Mohamed Kallon and Nicola Ventola up front for the first 8 games or so.After those 8 games,both did wonders for us and we sit comfortably on top of Serie A with like 1 draw and 1 lost only.And in that season,Kallon has featured in many games at INTER's lineup alongside Bobo Vieri.My point here is that Kallon and Ventola are 2 players with very high workrate and they like to press the opponents alot.Well,some may question does that make much difference to our defence,well my answer is YES.To be able to defend outside the defencive line provide an extra shield to it.Putting pressure to the buildup of opponents' play and ease pressure from the defence.
That exactly what INTER has lacked last season.Besides Crespo before his serious injury,no one has been able to do this job.Not even our midfield did the pressing.Besides Emre,Di Biagio hardly did much pressing.Christiano Zanetti has missed the first half of the season and his performance after his comeback was far off from the previous season when he ruled the midfield.I think INTER fans would not forget these games:

Barcelona 3-0 INTER
juventus 3-0 INTER
Valencia 2-1 INTER
We were totally dominated especially the infamous clash at Mestella.When we have at least 9 to 10 players around our own penalty area for 83 minutes.We just sit back and wait for the assults by Valencia.We never really tried to defend from a lot far from our own area.Most of our matches last season played out like this.We sit back,wait for opponents to attack us,allowing them to have all the time in the world to buildup attack.

And that to me,is the main reason why we conceded so many goals last season.You just cannot afford to play like this in such high level.You just cannot let teams like Valencia or Barcelona to have so much freedom in their attacking play.It made our defence unprotective at all far from the defensive line and therefore became vulnerable when we suffer so much pressure.It was all about mentality.I dont know if it was Cuper's idea to play like this or the players just didnt listen to him.But we just cannot play like this next season.No matter how good the players are,without the right mentality to approach the game,the team could hardly improve.
Actually our defenders should be credited in some occasions for their incredible performance,like the match vs Valencia and the first Euroderby.With so much being said,not to say our defenders dont have to bear responsiblity,as we have seen the obvious underperformed Cannavaro and some bad display by Gammara.Injury problems was another reason for sure, ie Christiano Zanetti was a great loss.But the main problem for our defence,in my view, was not from our defence.It was the mentality that we approached the game and the fact that we did not give our defence enough protection as we did not press our opponents enough.

So,I hope next season we could see a more initiative,a more aggressive INTER.
FORZA L'INTER!!!!!!!!!!

Joe Yue