The New Inter

Following Luke's article for 'The new La Grande Inter' i thought it would be nice to look at how we developed from previous years. It's known that Inter has changed a lot since mourinho started. Mancini's Inter was completely different than Mourinho's Inter for one basic aspect: mancini's team was around one man and mourinho's team is around the whole team.

First of all it's nice to analyse witch would work better. There's no way to determine this actually, but put a team around a key player is not the best idea. Of course Rijkaard's barcelona was meant to play around Ronaldinho and won the champions league. But we do have to remember they had two excelent players: Deco and Eto'o. Mancini's Inter was built around Ibrahimovic and had also two excelent players: Adriano and Figo. But we do have to remember the traditional tactical system he played and the problems adriano had. We have also to remember that Ronaldinho was a star that season while Ibrahimovic became a real star two or three seasons ago, by the end of Mancini time at inter and Adriano was already gone and Figo not half the player he used to be. All in all, Mancini's Inter could've work out but it didn't. Partly his fault for not renewing Inter's players but the main reason were key players not providing.

Mourinho's idea of a team is a lot different. He needs a captain, a playmaker, a goalscorer and other 8 men. He has zanetti, sneijder and milito. Of course Zanetti is about to end his career, but Mou has other two very trustable men in Lucio and Cambiasso to be the captain. Sneijder is 25 and can still play many seasons at top level. The same can't be said about milito, or Eto'o for that matter, but inter has possibilities in that area. The best thing about playing with the whole team is that you have lots of possibilities. Even barcelona doesn't build a team on a player anymore. One might think Messi is the team but it actually isn't. This is actually the first season with a new inter, so we are yet to see what can happen.


THE TEAM


The team is more uniform and well balanced. The team of the four scudetto had a very specific and short line.

J. Cesar - Maicon - Stankovic - Ibrahimovic

Now we have more possibilities since both maicon and lucio have good passing. Besides that we have sneijder with stankovic and both milito and eto'o are clinical. But let's divide it in stages. Let's see first our defense.

This was always our best part of the team. Bringing in Lucio was the best thing that could happen to our team. The leader of our defense was materazzi, but he started to perform poor and the leading defender got to be our keeper. Now we a have a leader and potential captain in Lucio. We cannot forget he's brazil's national team captain and played World cups and important international games. Let's also remember he scored the winner goal for the Brazillian team in the Confederetion's Cup. Our defense got even better both defensively and offensivelly. Let's not forget that lucio and maicon are dangerous in set pieces. I don't think I have to mention Samuel also, as he scores a lot and Santon is growing strong in the team.

The midfield got a lot better. Stankovic was never enough and the midfield is the most important part of the team. We now have possibilities on midfield we didn't have one season ago. we can play, in a defensive role, cambiasso - zanetti or cambiasso - stankovic. Offensivelly we even have more possibilities since pandev came along. We can play four midfielders in a diamond formation or 3-1 or even 2-3 with only one pure striker. The biggest change in our team was the midfield. It's actually the point where we start defending and start attacking. Some seasons ago our midfield was half of it our defense and one guy struggling to get the ball and find Ibra. Now we are trully balanced in the midfield. Mourinho likes possibilities, he likes to play with formations.

Our attack completely changed, witch is easy since there's only two players there. Milito and eto'o are great together. Alongside with pandev and sneijder they can be great. Both are very clinical and one of them is very experient in European Cups having actually scored in finals. Eto'o has nothing to prove to noone and Milito, the one who needs to prove himself, is doing it game after game. Balotelli is very inconsistent but also very young. He's the kind of player that coming in the 70th minute of the game can put it on fire!

All in all we can see that this Inter is more ballenced and has more options. the bench could be better. We have few options for the attacking midfield. This might change with khrin getting more playing time and Coutinho coming next season. As I said previously i'm going to say it again: WE ARE NOT A PREPARED TEAM!!! People seem to think that Rome was built in a day. This is the first season for this team. It's not ready. Pandev's role in the team is unknown and Eto'o still have to adjust to his new role on the team, specially after pandev's signing. We still need to know what to do with Motta and Muntari. Both hasn't been playing what are expected from them. Muntari seems to be a lost case but motta has improved a bit, but not enough to what is expected from him.

I'm still hoping this team can make history. Good things are ahead of us.

Cheers,
Christian Cardoso


PS1: After my posts I'll try to update Coutinho's situation.

PS2: Updating Coutinho :) : he played the Guanabara's Cup semi finals and was the best Vasco player of the game. Still it was a no goal game and they went to the penalties. The boy is freezing cold. His penalty was unbelievable, completly safe of what he was doing. If i find the penalty kick i'll post it on the facebook page.