INTER: 1 Handanovic; 21 Santon, 25 Miranda, 24 Murillo, 5 Jesus; 17 Medel, 83 Melo, 77 Brozovic; 44 Perisic, 10 Jovetic, 9 Icardi. Subs: 30 Carrizo, 46 Berni, 7 Kondogbia, 8 Palacio, 11 Biabiany, 12 Telles, 13 Guarin, 14 Montoya, 23 Ranocchia, 27 Gnoukouri, 33 D'Ambrosio, 55 Nagatomo, 97 Manaj. Coach: Roberto Mancini JUVENTUS: 1 Buffon; 15 Barzagli, 19 Bonucci, 3 Chiellini; 16 Cuadrado, 6 Khedira, 8 Marchisio, 10 Pogba, 33 Evra; 9 Morata, 7 Zaza. Subs: 25 Neto, 38 Audero, 11 Hernanes, 12 Alex Sandro, 17 Mandzukic, 18 Lemina, 20 Padoin, 21 Dybala, 22 Asamoah, 24 Rugani, 27 Sturaro, 37 Pereyra. Coach: Massimiliano Allegri Very nervy about our formation. JJ hasn't played in god knows how long, no real creative force in midfield just a lot of good defensive pieces. Guessing we're just going to bunker and counter.
fair score, JJ had shaky moments but managed. Honestly no one looked bad today until the latter stages of the 2nd half.
kong/guarin are playing pretty bad atm, it really exposes nagatomo/telles when they lose the ball attacking wise palermo have been better though our defense is holding its own
good move from mancini to take out kong however we really should have won this game, palermo's keeper got some great saves in so kudos to him guarin is still frustrating to watch
aye aye captain pretty good highlights imo sometimes I miss matches so someone posting a link to highlights saves me a lot of searching time + they're legit
I made a comment on another forum that apparently exposed me as a fool, according to some. My point was that last year Inter had no skill or flow to their attempts at possession. They were kick and chase and created shots by picking up loose balls in the box. They couldn't string 4 good passes together. This year they seem to have a purpose and continuity in possessions, but don't have a final end product so goals are in short supply. 4 goals vs Frosinone was a shock after scoring 2 only once so far this year. Obviously defending has improved and is the main reason for where they are, but the FBs are more involved in the offense, there is better link up with the MF, and the passing is better all around. As the season progresses I guess we'll see if my observations are bogus or not.
I would say that assessment is pretty spot on. Icardi picked up 50%of his goals thanks to loose or badly cleared balls in the box in addition to PKs. Definitely not thanks to our possession plays which were as you said non existent. The only player that knew how to pass was kovacic but he would often fade and hernanes was injured more often than not so all of the creative pressure was on the young lad. Guarin was too inconsistent and brozovic didnt arrive until mid season. thankfully we now have a much better improved defense and depth in all defensive positions. Sadly kond still has to adapt otherwise we would be seeing an even better passing build up and counter attacks. We're going to get better, we are already seeing it with Ljajic and how well he can combine with JoJo + icardi. Perisic will get there too and if somehow we got a pirlo esque player I think that would set us up for a strong finish this year.
The additions to the back 4 are a huge plus. They still have some guys that are minuses rather than pluses like Guarin and you never know when Ljajic is going to be an issue with his attitude. Some key players that are on loan have buy options that are big money so you never know how that will affect future spending if FFP still has an influence. But all in all, at least they are interesting this year.
So now we're 4 points ahead of Napoli and Fiorentina with Roma and Napoli's draw. We need to take advantage because Juventus is only 6 points behind us. I am not worried about AC Milan really but these matches will challenge us and we need to keep this momentum going.
Juve is definitely re surging back. Roma got knocked out of the coppa and may or may not last too long in CL (who knows with RM under benitez these days). Napoli, fiore will be busy with europa so everything is in our favor at the moment. Tough games are ahead though with lazio(Jekyll/Hyde season), sassoulo who we usually rape but are doing fantastic and empoli is doing just as well.
take out biabiany, bring in brozo montoya looks tired and should be replaced asap also wtf melo? dude goes full retard on every challenge
Well I do hope that we can get another chance to increase the difference by 4 points again. We have three 'easy' matches that we should win before we face AC Milan. We should have a comfortable point difference in case shit hits the fan for us god forbid... Also, I hope that we learned our lesson when we face Napoli in the Coppa Italia. Toughest challenge for the year so far.
Honestly the luckiest team i've seen all season. This is ALMOST on par with Juve every bounce going your way. The difference is they actually control their games and you guys are outplayed every match
credit to empoli, a draw would have been fair but our quality in the back really got to them. Evidence of that is how many outside the area shots they had : 75% when they usually do 30-50% Nevertheless Handanovic deserves the MOTM, with out this guy a lot of the 1-0 would be draws or worse and today was no different. Defense overall was good, they knew who to hack and they disrupted dangerous plays. Midfield was okay, I thought kond should have done more with the ball same with brozo though he did create 2 very good chances. Now I know why mancini wanted perisic, dude pressure, tracks back, defends and he just effin runs forever. Ljajic was too individualistic and probably our worst player today, Icardi pressured and tracked back and deserves that poacher goal considering how few chances were created.