Simone Inzaghi

[Adriano@10]

As I said, though, the semis of the CL is probably the single most lopsided draw I remember in recent history for the CL. Not taking it away from him, he's managed to get us to the semis; fantastic - but its (almost) come at the cost of being top 4 next season, which is a substantially bigger disaster than the benefits coming from making the CL semis.

I kind of agree but remember how everybody and their momas were hyping up benfica before we threw them out? For fuck sake we were outsiders according to most pundits.....
We have not lost top 4 yet and assuming it s only cause of our CL run is probably not entirely correct either....
Why are you assuming we stop in the semis? Bigger disaster in what terms? Maybe us making the late rounds in CL finally attracted a new buyers as they see that we are capable to perform in Europe....
Again you re just assuming will lose to bbilan and our journey is over here...

While i think there is no way in hell we win it but if we d end up doing so everything you wrote there is wrong...


Also kind of funny how everybody agrees CL is the most important competition untill our coach does better in CL then he does in serie A

 

[.h.]

I kind of agree but remember how everybody and their momas were hyping up benfica before we threw them out? For fuck sake we were outsiders according to most pundits.....
We have not lost top 4 yet and assuming it s only cause of our CL run is probably not entirely correct either....
Why are you assuming we stop in the semis? Bigger disaster in what terms? Maybe us making the late rounds in CL finally attracted a new buyers as they see that we are capable to perform in Europe....
Again you re just assuming will lose to bbilan and our journey is over here...

While i think there is no way in hell we win it but if we d end up doing so everything you wrote there is wrong...


Also kind of funny how everybody agrees CL is the most important competition untill our coach does better in CL then he does in serie A

No, to be honest, even a run to the finals is very lucky in terms of the draw. We have a potato Milan team, and basically two decent portugese teams but we've not run into ANY really hard challenge - the people like City, PSG, Real, etc. I dont think its at all contentious to say that we're lucky this season in our draw. There's nothing wrong with that, either, its just a statement of fact?

The CL is the most important competition, unless its *at the cost* of the Serie A performance. 5th and CL finalists is a worse result than 4th and CL quarters, imho, because of the ramifications next season. The only acceptable non-top-4 finish in Serie A would be CL winners.


Like, yeah, I'd happily sacrifice 2nd place to get to the CL semis/final, AS LONG AS WE STILL finish top 4.

 

[bubba zanetti]

No, to be honest, even a run to the finals is very lucky in terms of the draw. We have a potato Milan team, and basically two decent portugese teams but we've not run into ANY really hard challenge - the people like City, PSG, Real, etc. I dont think its at all contentious to say that we're lucky this season in our draw. There's nothing wrong with that, either, its just a statement of fact?

The CL is the most important competition, unless its *at the cost* of the Serie A performance. 5th and CL finalists is a worse result than 4th and CL quarters, imho, because of the ramifications next season. The only acceptable non-top-4 finish in Serie A would be CL winners.


Like, yeah, I'd happily sacrifice 2nd place to get to the CL semis/final, AS LONG AS WE STILL finish top 4.

Stop defending undefendable. Yea,we are crap under Limone in the league,but in CL we are overachievers,and if we get to the final it will be SECOND bloody time that Inter play there since CL is formed in 1993. And dont give me that crap about the draw,we had Bayern and Barca in our group. And we beat Barca's best 11. Same Barca that was fucking around with Real,current CL winner, this same season. Two years ago serial winner, with five time bigger budget and much better squad, was losing against Barca B at home and couldnt score against Shaktar in 180 minutes.

 

[.h.]

Stop defending undefendable. Yea,we are crap under Limone in the league,but in CL we are overachievers,and if we get to the final it will be SECOND bloody time that Inter play there since CL is formed in 1993. And dont give me that crap about the draw,we had Bayern and Barca in our group. And we beat Barca's best 11. Same Barca that was fucking around with Real,current CL winner, this same season. Two years ago serial winner, with five time bigger budget and much better squad, was losing against Barca B at home and couldnt score against Shaktar in 180 minutes.

I give credit to us for qualifying out of the group - I didnt really expect it. But, From r16 onwards, you cant deny this is a very lopsided CL draw?

All of the 'heavy' competition were on one half. It's not even contentious?

One half you have:

Liverpool
RM
Dortmund
Chelsea
Leipzig
Man City
PSG
Bayern


On our side?

Milan
Tottenham
Frankfurt
Napoli
Brugge
Benfica
Inter
Porto



those are not alike.

I dont think highlighting that is defending the undefendable?

I havent scrolled back the history to check but I'd bet this is one of the most lopsided CL draws in recent history.

Arguably the biggest European team on our half was... what, tottenham? Since they made the CL final somewhat recently?


If you want to prove me wrong, go back for the last 10 years and tell me what the average uefa coefficient is for each half of the draw, and lets see how that pans out?

 

[#NotForMe]

Darmian is a better player for us in this system than skriniar was. You don't even feel the absence of our objectively speaking best defender. That tells you all you need to know about our defensive setup. It almost doesn't matter who plays there, we always maintained a level of vulnerability that is unacceptable for a team fighting for trophies.

This makes no sense at all.

It almost doesn't matter who plays there

If and only if players individual performance is irrelevant due to defense set up, cause it nullifies the individual aspect since it always maintained a level of vulnerability
Then whoever plays will be identical and there will be no difference

Results:

Darmian is a better player for us in this system than skriniar was

Proved by contradiction that it does matter who plays there. (The "almost" is just some half ass saving)

The thing is when you think Skriniar is better, it is a linear comparison, but the situation is dynamic, and truth is I like Skriniar a lot and he is a beast in 1 on 1 defemding and other aspects, but Darmian actually shows better understanding of the system, and part of his ability is more suitable like posing the forward threat which acts as a minor deterrence for the opponent team to willy nilly leave their space undefended when countering, act as a swapping WB etc.

P.S. Inzaghi has a weaker team in general, and it matters.

 

[#NotForMe]

If you want to prove me wrong, go back for the last 10 years and tell me what the average uefa coefficient is for each half of the draw, and lets see how that pans out?

Actually Last year Liverpool got some easy draws too, they played Benfica in QF like us and Villarreal for semi; their group stage wasn't particular hard either A.Madrid, Milan and Porto?

Basically, we subbed out A Madrid and Villarreal for Barca and Bayern so far.

 

[Superminion]

in my mind at least there's a real risk that scraping into the CL and keeping inzaghi for another year just means the problem spirals even worse. I dont see any improvements in his Inter, the defense is worse than it has been for like 4 seasons, the strikers have been a disaster, midfield is maybe just about ok sometimes... team cohesion is poor,e tc

Who's your propose candidates to replace him with? Depending on how this season wrapped up (do we qualify for cl win & some trophy other than super coppa), all of possible candidates might look like a downgrade to limone.

 

[.h.]

Who's your propose candidates to replace him with? Depending on how this season wrapped up (do we qualify for cl win & some trophy other than super coppa), all of possible candidates might look like a downgrade to limone.

I dont know, to be honest. For me, its less about specific names, more about trying to understand what each manager's vision is, what transfers/support they need to achieve that, and then deciding if we buy into those plans or not and are capable of executing them.

 

[.h.]

Actually Last year Liverpool got some easy draws too, they played Benfica in QF like us and Villarreal for semi; their group stage wasn't particular hard either A.Madrid, Milan and Porto?

Basically, we subbed out A Madrid and Villarreal for Barca and Bayern so far.

That's a fair point. Also quite lopsided, but I think it doesnt massively remove from my point - we managed a lucky run to the semis or final - in (most) other years we'd be going out at R16/QFs. Luck is an inherent part of the CL, obviously, so its fine, but we shouldnt hold it up as a crowning achievement like its an achievement purely of Inzaghi, but just as much, of our draw.

 

[#NotForMe]

That's a fair point. Also quite lopsided, but I think it doesnt massively remove from my point - we managed a lucky run to the semis or final - in (most) other years we'd be going out at R16/QFs. Luck is an inherent part of the CL, obviously, so its fine, but we shouldnt hold it up as a crowning achievement like its an achievement purely of Inzaghi, but just as much, of our draw.

Agree part of it, definitely not purely of Inzaghi, but we still have to give him credit, and he is a big part of it; I would say more than the draws, cause I can still see how Conte could've failed us. Also I think we shouldn't brush off what his tactic can do for us against big teams it actually showed last year when we played against Real Madrid and Liverpool too, obviously, there is a limitation on what tactic can do for you though, even we didn't get favorable results it shows that he plays a big role in these games.

 

[Corrode]

too many repetitive narration on this thread. in the end, Inzaghi squad are more weaker absolutely for this season. let just see how far this team at end of the season and make evaluation from that result. bring new quality players are welcome and recommended.

 

[.h.]

Agree part of it, definitely not purely of Inzaghi, but we still have to give him credit, and he is a big part of it; I would say more than the draws, cause I can still see how Conte could've failed us. Also I think we shouldn't brush off what his tactic can do for us against big teams it actually showed last year when we played against Real Madrid and Liverpool too, obviously, there is a limitation on what tactic can do for you though, even we didn't get favorable results it shows that he plays a big role in these games.

100%, I dont think we would have gone as far under Conte, I dont disagree.

 

[varmin]

I don't understand why people downplaying Benfica? They had one of the best attacks in this year CL, and won their group on the top of P$G and Jube.

 

[Sqnalkel]

The three original defenders under Conte are still here. The big problem we have in defense is Inzaghi doesn't have a fucking clue how to organize a defense properly.

What a ridiculous statement, de Vrij is a shadow of his former self and Škriniar have been injured half a season on top of his problems with management.

 

[Superminion]

I dont know, to be honest. For me, its less about specific names, more about trying to understand what each manager's vision is, what transfers/support they need to achieve that, and then deciding if we buy into those plans or not and are capable of executing them.

The vision seems to be qualifying for CL every year till we find some new owners or be taken over by oaktree. So inzaghi job should be safe as long as he get top 4.

 

[Sqnalkel]

No, to be honest, even a run to the finals is very lucky in terms of the draw. We have a potato Milan team, and basically two decent portugese teams but we've not run into ANY really hard challenge - the people like City, PSG, Real, etc. I dont think its at all contentious to say that we're lucky this season in our draw. There's nothing wrong with that, either, its just a statement of fact?

The CL is the most important competition, unless its *at the cost* of the Serie A performance. 5th and CL finalists is a worse result than 4th and CL quarters, imho, because of the ramifications next season. The only acceptable non-top-4 finish in Serie A would be CL winners.


Like, yeah, I'd happily sacrifice 2nd place to get to the CL semis/final, AS LONG AS WE STILL finish top 4.

So PSG somehow is a real challenge but Benfica who outplayed and topped their group isn't.

Yeah, Madrid and City are clearly above the rest, but Napoli and Benfica were also clearly 3rd and 4th best in the UCL (at least after Bayern became a joke after Nagelsmann firing), saying is one of the most lopsided draws in history is ridiculous.

 

[forzainter257]

Many people credit Inzaghi for our CL run, but forget that the vast majority of contributions are coming from players who were key under Conte and gathered years of CL experience. They have been slacking in the league and this is where Inzaghi's ability to manage should have come in handy, but he failed in that regard.

If you want some comparison, look at Barca, they weren't able to qualify from group stages for what, 2 years? Their team is also under construction and Xavi's work is giving fruits now that they are close to winning the laliga. Guess what, they will be a strong favorites next season if they continue their project with Xavi. And if somehow Barca decides to sack Xavi and hire let's say Valverde who will then reach the CL semis, would you not think that the success partly belong to Xavi?

 

[.h.]

So PSG somehow is a real challenge but Benfica who outplayed and topped their group isn't.

Yeah, Madrid and City are clearly above the rest, but Napoli and Benfica were also clearly 3rd and 4th best in the UCL (at least after Bayern became a joke after Nagelsmann firing), saying is one of the most lopsided draws in history is ridiculous.

I mean in terms of perceptions around big european teams, clearly any given day a team that's in the latter stages of the CL deserves to be there, but when was the last time Benfica were in the semis or final? They're basically chronically group stages and R16, with the odd QF appearance every now and then, they arent exactly european giants?

Like, to me right now, European giants (some are in poor form this season, but in general) are something like:

City, PSG, Bayern, Barca, Real, Liverpool as a starting point. You might be able to extend that on longer term rather than the last few seasons to include Juve, United, Chelsea as well, but like, if you wrote down at the start of the season who is going to be in the semi finals of the CL, I dont think anyone would have said Benfica, Porto, maybe a couple of people would have said Milan (doubtful). A lot of people would have written PSG, Bayern, etc.

And that's kinda the point - we've had a quite luckly run to the CL semi finals. I dont think that's at all contentious - its not our "fault". you play with the cards you get given... But we cant use it as a massive redeeming point on what otherwise is a fucking disaster of a season for us so far. We should be able to look at this pretty critically, appreciate the fact that there is a world where, say, we draw Bayern or someone at the R16, get knocked out, and suddenly this season looks like a fucking disaster fighting for 4th so late, rather than fighting for 2nd.


Top 4 is a simply-not-negotiable for Inter, because of the financial implications to us right now. CL performance is a nice to have against that. I know its all romantic and great that we're having this deep run into the CL, but for the sake of the future fo the club, we cannot compromise top 4 against that goal. 4th and CL group stages is a better result for Inter (in the long term) than 5th and CL Semifinalists. Our finances next season will be utterly fucked if we dont make the CL, more severely than any offsetting from even the CL final would get us.

Well, rather, CL qualification is not-negotiable - there is obviously a chance we do that by finishing out side of the top4 and still winning the CL.

 

[andrei]

I agree with you that is a dose of luck, because we didn`t need to fight with any powerhouse from Spain and England. But I think it is more often that it seems. And this is nothing against us. We didn`t choose our opponent.

If top 4 is not-negotiable for Inter as you say and I get your point, than we need to sacrifice from the beginning Coppa Italia and even CL if we qualify for knock-out phase. Our team is just too thin and even old to fight successfully on 3 fronts. We need to make our priorities pretty clear.

 

[.h.]

I agree with you that is a dose of luck, because we didn`t need to fight with any powerhouse from Spain and England. But I think it is more often that it seems. And this is nothing against us. We didn`t choose our opponent.

If top 4 is not-negotiable for Inter as you say and I get your point, than we need to sacrifice from the beginning Coppa Italia and even CL if we qualify for knock-out phase. Our team is just too thin and even old to fight successfully on 3 fronts. We need to make our priorities pretty clear.

Well, for me, its non-negotiable tbh. If we dont make top 4, we're going to end up having to sell like 3-4 people in the summer just to cover the 60-80mil revenue we'd be missing out for, let alone the (probably?) 60mil we'd have to raise anyway.

Obviously my priorities dont reflect the club's priorities, but in terms of the long term future of Inter, we need that CL revenue (esp since all of our sponsorship revenue is unreliable) to even have a chance of sustaining the club