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Because our h2h record against big clubs has been ass so far this season, we've thrown a number of games we should have won, and Napoli look like a fucking grinding machine?

Yes of course they could still lose it, but I'd say it's quite unlikely from here. My personal prediction is we will never for the rest of the season have the league "in our control" from where we are now. Can see how it goes obviously but it seems fairly likely.

Napoli have been a grinding machine to this point. Through 22 games or so last year, so was Juventus. (Like Napoli, they didn't have European commitments clogging their schedule, either.)

Some teams can grind all the way to the finish line. Some can't. We'll see which way this Napoli side ends up going.

Frankly, there's the optimistic part of me that wants to say that, aside from a few flashes here or there, we haven't seen "prime" Inter all season, and yet here we are, still in arms reach of 1st place. If we do eventually find some groove here before it's too late, there's still every chance we can go on a run.

I'm far from a chronic optimist, so I'm not writing from that perspective. I just think the way it sounds like we're dismissing a 3-point deficit with 15 games to go sounds ridiculous.
 

.h.

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Napoli have been a grinding machine to this point. Through 22 games or so last year, so was Juventus. (Like Napoli, they didn't have European commitments clogging their schedule, either.)

Some teams can grind all the way to the finish line. Some can't. We'll see which way this Napoli side ends up going.
Of course, but I'd be willing to bet a Conte-managed Napoli doesn't make a massive fuck up from here (or at least a bigger fuck up than Inter).

We will look back and see these last two games as the point where Napoli pulled away from Inter and we didn't catch up, I'd bet to about 65% certainty.
 

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Of course, but I'd be willing to bet a Conte-managed Napoli doesn't make a massive fuck up from here (or at least a bigger fuck up than Inter).

We will look back and see these last two games as the point where Napoli pulled away from Inter and we didn't catch up, I'd bet to about 65% certainty.

If we can get a win on Monday - likely to keep the margin at -3 - then next weekend will be the biggest tell. Both of us have difficult away trips. If Napoli win at Lazio and we lose/draw at Juventus, then I probably agree that it's awfully close to being a wrap. Anything else and we're still in it.

But I guess after getting our shit handed to us by Fiorentina just two days ago, that we can't just assume Monday will automatically be better. Big response game coming up attitude-wise alone.
 

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Let's hope you are right, but nothing I've seen from his Inter side this year suggests we step up, rather than down, when the going gets tough
 

.h.

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Because apparently investing in like a billion euros into the team just isn't enough for some people anymore. Single handedly pulled us out of banter era, built a young core for the team, got us back into the VL, brought us some good managers, and yet not good enough for many people.

Owners who were going bust at home, yet still continued to invest heavily in Inter, we were lucky to have them compared to Thohir/etc.
 

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Let's hope you are right, but nothing I've seen from his Inter side this year suggests we step up, rather than down, when the going gets tough

I'll say this much - we've heard so much chatter about them taking the Champions League "seriously", right? That this is in no small part an explanation for their defensive record so far with 1 GA in eight games (though, if xG is an indication, they've had a healthy dose of luck too). They're more "dialed in" for those games. I feel like focus has to play a huge explanation for how they hold Arsenal and Man City scoreless across 180 minutes and nearly hold Leverkusen scoreless in their park too (with half the squad rotated) but then we see them cough up two goals to Juventus in the final 20 minutes and three goals to Milan in the final 30 minutes in domestic play here.

I dunno, this is purely my own conjecture, but it feels like a combination of factors at play here. I'll try to write this in an organized way but no promises.

1. We had such a dominant league campaign last year, yet our CL run was comparatively disappointing. It's not that we disgraced ourselves - we had the most evenly-balanced tie in the R16, and a 2-2 aggregate decided on penalties only confirms that it was evenly-balanced - but a 90+ point league campaign paired with an immediate KO round exit in the CL is disappointing all the same.

2. This disappointing CL run came on the heels of nearly winning the competition in 2023. Even if we largely got to the final thanks to a fortunate path, we had no control over that, it was our job to win those games and we did. Going from the final to a R16 exit feels like a huge step back even if Atleti was a much better opponent than any of our three opponents in the KO stage the year before.

3. Winning the league by 18 points probably helped make us feel more invincible than we were. And you know what? Among the other four CL teams from last year's Serie A, we're + 1 on Atalanta, +8 on Juventus, +13 on Milan, and +14 on Bologna right now. Among all those teams, we're about as far ahead of them (pace-wise) this year as we finished a year ago, with the exception of Atalanta. It's been the team who finished about 40 points behind us last year, the team with no European commitments to speak of, who have thrown the spanner in the works. We can't help the fact that Napoli will finish the season with a much lighter schedule than we played, and we'd rather have had CL games (and the associated revenue that comes with it) than not. We have to deal with it, but it's still fair to acknowledge this has given Napoli something of an advantage over us in terms of Serie A, and not just that we have the extra games to play, but that Napoli also often have a rest advantage when they play other teams who finished in European spots as well and have less time to prepare/train for meetings than Napoli does.

I think we also know pretty well by now that when you have a game in hand but it's an away game in hand, that it's really not an advantage at all. In retrospect, it really doesn't shock me that our flattest game of the entire season was that game on Thursday. Fiorentina were in better form when we originally went there in December, but so were we. It would've been more to our benefit to have played the game then and there. Having to make an extra travel, lose yet another midweek...these guys are professionals, this isn't an excuse for poor performance, this is just my reasoning for how it happened.

---

As I've written a few times by now, I have no problem at all saying Napoli are the favorites as things currently stand. Three point lead, the head-to-head is at their stadium (where we've only won twice in the last 20 years or so, and at a minimum we need to avoid defeat there as things currently stand), and the lighter/easier remaining schedule. I've written a few times that, if Napoli are in front by MD32, then it's probably done since I don't see Napoli dropping points from those games. But I also wrote 13 months ago that I felt Juventus had the inside track on us as well for the Scudetto, I wrote it on this forum, and then I turned out to be massively wrong. Juventus were also masters of grinding out those 1-0 wins, until they finally couldn't keep up that defensive rigidity anymore. Last week was Napoli's first game all season where they failed to win a game where they held a 2nd half lead. I've seen it happen before where, once this happens one time, it becomes liable to happen a second and third time not too long thereafter.

I don't think there's any guarantee we're going to find last year's groove, we might be too worn down, lacking enough focus, figured out too much tactically, any combination of factors. That we haven't really resembled the juggernaut of last year is troubling in its own right. But as I will say again, that we're still completely in the race despite that? It just suggests to me that there's a sleeping monster here, hopefully someone can wake them up in time.
 

.h.

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this summer, likely and definitely out includes Acerbi, Frattesi, Arnautovic, Correa, potentially Mkhitaryian, maybe Darmian, it's clear there's going to be a lot of change.
 

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Can't find that thread, so must be off-topic here... has Suning just declared bankruptcy?
 

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This summer Oaktree must give Marotta money and a free rein to fixed the holes in squad and not try to paper over the numerous cracks that are readily apparent with some "young potential" and not young proven is unacceptable. Failure to be committed to the Inter " first team" this summer make the piss and vinegar thrown at Suning texture seem like champagne praise.
 

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Wouldnt get my hopes up. Expect a number of 5-10 million signings of U23 type players who are unproven. Thats what we are dealing with in ownership atm. Maybe we'll be lucky and theyll spend on Castro due to his age profile but that's it.
 

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This summer is probably the most important summer we have had in a number of years. This team is in decline and something needs to change. Not expecting us to buy a bunch of stars/big names but this team needs an injection of creativity and pace so badly. The backbone/spine of this team will be fine for another year or two but we need some players that have game breaking ability. It's really god damn fucked Oaktree couldnt just eat the salary for a Rashford/Asensio/Felix when any of those guys would have been exactly what was needed to win the league. It blows my mind how many owners in football refuse to pay a miniscule amount in the grand scheme of things to potentially make more in trophy earnings. I mean if we add ANY of those three we are likely league winners because they have everything we dont have. Could you imagine being able to start Joao Felix instead of Taremi yesterday? But six months left on Arna's contract was too big of a deal for these assholes to eat. I'll give Oaktree one thing they wouldve never allowed Taremi. And that alone is the only thing keeping me sane about them.
 

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I mean hell look at Antony at betis. That would’ve even been worth a punt. He’s not great but has pace and dribbling. Aren’t united paying like half his damn wages too?
 

.h.

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He'd still need like 6m gross a year euros. We don't have the money, or the squad space. The real problem tbh is both Correa and Arna refused transfers.
 

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This summer is probably the most important summer we have had in a number of years. This team is in decline and something needs to change. Not expecting us to buy a bunch of stars/big names but this team needs an injection of creativity and pace so badly. The backbone/spine of this team will be fine for another year or two but we need some players that have game breaking ability. It's really god damn fucked Oaktree couldnt just eat the salary for a Rashford/Asensio/Felix when any of those guys would have been exactly what was needed to win the league. It blows my mind how many owners in football refuse to pay a miniscule amount in the grand scheme of things to potentially make more in trophy earnings. I mean if we add ANY of those three we are likely league winners because they have everything we dont have. Could you imagine being able to start Joao Felix instead of Taremi yesterday? But six months left on Arna's contract was too big of a deal for these assholes to eat. I'll give Oaktree one thing they wouldve never allowed Taremi. And that alone is the only thing keeping me sane about them.
IMG_6035.jpeg
 

.h.

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the figures are reasonably accessible for us, but we needed Arna or Correa to leave in Jan to do it, and both refused transfers. Obviously, though, from Muani'\s perspective he would probably not come to Inter with Thuram + Lautaro already here, at least at Juve its quite easy to see how you're the starting striker even with Vlahovic
 

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It's really god damn fucked Oaktree couldnt just eat the salary for a Rashford/Asensio/Felix when any of those guys would have been exactly what was needed to win the leagu
Rashford? He's been on autopilot for years. Mentally finished at the top, will play out the rest of his career at a leisurely pace. Which is nice work if you can get it but not at San Siro thanks.
 

Rodani

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Rashford? He's been on autopilot for years. Mentally finished at the top, will play out the rest of his career at a leisurely pace. Which is nice work if you can get it but not at San Siro thanks.
i'll still take him over the bums we have. everyone becomes good when they leave manchester united.
 
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