The best news: we've got a real team now

The match against Empoli is a match we need to keep in mind more than other victories because it was the demonstration we've finally got a team. We won with no difficulties and the three chances occurred to our rivals don't have to distract us because the score has never been in discussion.
There are two particular aspects that are really important:
1) BIG TEAM
Yesterday we played as a top team. Even in other victories, we played without the right mentality. We entered on the pitch and we started playing as if we should win only because we are Inter, but not yesterday. Against Empoli I saw eleven players that since the first minute wanted to score a goal and win the match, aware of their strengths. I can't call it "the eye of the tiger" because we played with the calm that a top team must have. This is really important: ok, Empoli isn't a good team, but we lost matches against Hapoel, for example, only because we started the match sure that we could have won 4-0 only because we are stronger. Not yesterday. And let me say this is the most important aspect because we didn't just win a match, we won it as a top team.
2) GREAT KONDOGBIA, EDER AND GAGLIARDINI
Gagliardini has given a balance in our team and he is very good in keeping connected the defense and the attack, but he is much more, he is a total midfielder in a modern way. He can play defensively, offensively, he had to score at least three goals saved by their goalkeeper, perfect! There is one particular aspect that shows us we are looking at a top player: he always does the right thing. I mean, not the most spectacular, just the right one. He's not Gabigol or Ibrahimovic or Cristiano Ronaldo that like to play with the ball, no, he possesses the ball just for the time to do the best thing. He plays with one-two touches and this is amazing.
His game has been a benediction for Kondogbia too. Let me say, if the real Kondogbia is the one we saw the last two months, well, he must play in every match because we do have a top player. Now, the +30 million we paid for him are really justified. Amazing players.
Eder is a player I don't really like because I prefer those that play in an area on the pitch and they do their best in that positions. Eder can play wherever, but he's not a striker such as Icardi, he's not a winger such as Perisic or Candreva. Maybe is a second striker or maybe not, his role is not clear, but yesterday his continuous motion was amazing and in some moments seemed to play in twelve because he was everywhere in their half portion of the pitch.

@Inter.it

3) THE DEFENSE
In Italy we play differently and the first idea is: not suffer a goal. If your opponents don't score a goal the match can end 0-0 and you get a point. But, maybe you're lucky and you score a goal: you get 3 points. Maybe the best difference that Pioli has done is to correct our defense.
These are our last matches after the loss against Napoli:
Genoa 2-0
Sassuolo 1-0
Lazio 3-0
Udinese 2-1
Chievo 3-1
Palermo 1-0
Pescara 3-0
Juventus 0-1
Empoli 2-0
We suffered just 3 goals in 9 matches. This is our biggest secret and the biggest job Pioli has done so far. Even with DeBoer we knew that we could score a goal but we suffered too many goals and we lost a lot of matches. Now the music has changed. Go!

Lessons learned from Juventus-Inter

We lost an important match, ok, but now we must avoid the worst problem: thinking we are not as good as we thought. We do are good, but we are not as good as Juventus, simply. Anyway, these are some lessons we have learned from this match:
BIG MATCH: We haven't played these type of matches since 2011 when we won the Coppa Italia final and we lost in the Champion's League. Since then, we have played a lot of matches that we called "big" but they weren't "big", moreover, every time we played a match that could be "big" we lost (think of the Europa League's matches, for example). The answer is simple: we don't have the habit to play these match when you don't have to make any mistake, you must be concentrated for 95 minutes and all of your players must play at their best. Juventus knows how to play them, because they have played the Scudetto for 5 times and because they have played a lot of important matches in the Champion's League against top team such as Barcelona and Bayern, but we don't.
We need to improve this aspect because next year we'll want to win the Scudetto and every match will be a "big match".
TACTICS: The defense with 3 players has worked fine. Murillo, Medel and Miranda have played a good match and this explain why Higuain or Mandzukic haven't played a good match. Not only, D'Ambrosio has played a good match against Cuadrado and this means he can play well on the left side as well: he isn't a winger so we can't expect to see him crossing the ball near the opposite's area, but he is important in that position because he can protect Perisic (more than Ansaldi).
Unfortunatelly this means we lose a player in the midfield, but this also means that we can play with three offensive players (Gagliardini, Joao Mario, Brozovic). Problems are that I'm not sure Candreva can cover the whole area as a wingback, and Perisic is a winger and not a withdrawn striker. I don't know if we can play with a 3-4-2-1, because the actual team is perfect for the 4-2-3-1.
THE GAP: It's still too big. We have the good first half in our eyes when both Juventus and Inter could score a goal and when Inter played at the same level and it could shot at least one of the three penalties that were denied bu the referee. However, there is also the second half, and in the other 45 minutes, we didn't shot a single time toward Buffon. This is not a performance by a top team. We had the ball for a lot of time, Juventus decided to play defensively, so we had to shoot and to score a goal, but we didn't. This is the gap: Juventus has played a normal match until the goal then it has controlled the match and Buffon was like a tourist in the second half. We must play for 95 minutes.

@Inter.it

Why the match against Lazio is the best defeat we could have

Well done Inter! I know, it sounds strange to celebrate the defeat against Lazio, especially because it kicked out from the Italian Cup but we must go a bit further the simple result.
MENTALITY: After this match, I’m pretty sure we will end this season with a qualification in the Champions League tournament, even more than after one of our last victories. Psychology is strange: you must lose to understand how strong you are and, moreover, you must lose to understand that you’re not the best one in the world. Strange, huh?
But it’s true. After 8 victories the idea that we are very strong has overwhelmed our minds. “The best team after Juventus is Inter”, “Inter is the only team that can compete against Juventus” and so on as if we weren’t the team trained by DeBoer that used to lose against everyone. We are building our structure, our mentality and enthusiasm are ok but too much enthusiasm when you’re not as good as a top team is a bad thing.
At the same time, we lost because Lazio played a good match tactically, but from the 60’ we have controlled the match and we have transformed it in a monolog even if were playing in 10: we scored a goal but we could score more. This shows to us that we lost because of our underestimation of Lazio and for that idea “ok, we can win easily” that we already had against Hapoel. The last 30’ demonstrated that if we play concentrated we are really strong.
ATALANTA: The history of this sport is full of example but the first one I remember is the match against Atalanta in the first year with Mourinho. We lost in Bergamo and that match and the Portugues Coach said: «You won the first Scudetto in an office, the second against nobody and the third in the last second. You are a s**t team». A strong and bad statement but the result of that speech and of that defeat was the first stone towards the Triplete.
It’s strange, but some defeats are better than victories.

@Inter.it

TACTICS: Pioli is a good tactic-man but yesterday he lost the match tactically. And this is really bad because he lost against his former team about it is supposed he should know everything.
Ansaldi: Inzaghi has played with a 4-3-3 that was a 4-5-1 with Lulic and Felipe ready to go in a counterattack. He used this solution in the Serie A’s match as well. It’s easy: Lulic plays more defensively and Felipe is more offensively. And what do you do? Pioli placed D’Ambrosio (a defensor) against Lulic (a defensor) and Ansaldi (a defensor that can’t defense) against Felipe (an attacker). Simple: Ansaldi was always behind Felipe and this brought Miranda to mark him. Pioli should invert his players: D’Ambrosio against Felipe and Ansaldi against Lulic. Or, better, place Nagatomo (faster than Ansaldi and less attacker) as left-back.
Banega-Palacio: Banega played very well against Lazio in December and he needs to play to understand the Italian style, but he really needs to find a new position because he can’t play in that position behind the striker. He is supposed to mark Biglia and to enter in the area to be the second striker, but he didn’t mark Biglia efficiently and he never entered the area, an action that was easier with the Palacio’s movements to open space for midfielders. Then, Palacio is a former soccer player. It’s sad to say but he can’t play at this level anymore and he can’t play as a sole-striker. The sooner Pioli understands it and the sooner we will avoid this sad performance by him.
Palacio needs another striker because he likes to play in every zone and this means that nobody is in the are to get the advance from his movement.

Anyway, behind these tactical issues, the big problem is the approach and the mentality: only on the 0-2 and in 10, our mind became as clear as three months ago when we were in the 12th position.

Inter-Fiorentina: the reality behind the fog

It was easy to predict they were waiting for our defeat. What is that quote? The higher they bring you, the deeper will be your fall. Ok, I can understand media, I can understand our oppositors and other teams' supporters but I don't think it's time to dramatize the last match against Fiorentina.
Or, at least, there are some aspects we should analyze but they aren't about our strenghts or our chance to win the Championship because we're still on the run for it.
THE PRESSING BY FIORENTINA: Sincerely, I have seen a match played for 30', maybe less and I haven't seen this "lesson" by Fiorentina. I have seen players that run more than ours, and if I add this to the Fiorentina's pre-season I can only imagine Paulo Sousa has athletically prepared his players to have a strong start on the season. Or, at least, you don't think Fiorentina is better than Barcellona.
I think the key of the match was the strong pressing that they made starting from the two strikers that used to attack our defensors. We weren't ready to take on this situation: Sousa must have watched some matches of us and he must have seen that we like to start the action from Handanovic to one of the two central defensors. Letting Kalinic or Ilicic pressing Miranda and Medel meant to cut our actions from the beginning.
Was this the "good soccer"? Yes it is, it's a good tactic but it's also a tactic you can do if you have a good energy in your legs and it's not normal to have this fuel in this moment of the season, at least you don't prepare the team to have a fall during the autumn and this would mean that Fiorentina will drop energies from next november, but this is another subject. What it's important to know is if Fiorentina didn't manage to score one or more goals could be a problem for them because they should have lost their energies on the second half.
So, we should resist for the whole first half, and focusing our efforts to the second half.
HANDANOVIC AND SO ON: We've talked about Fiorentina's match so far, but now it's time to write about Inter. Well, I've just wrote that we should resist in the first half but we didn't, moreover, we have played FOR Fiorentina and not AGAINST Fiorentina.
The mistake done by Handanovic after one minute with the following penalty was the best gift to Fiorentina because it allowed them to play exactly as they wanted: defense and pressing to our defensors to cut our actions from the beginning and, being on defense finding the counter-attack knowing that our physical condition is not optimal now.
Anyway, not happy with the Handanovic's mistake, we have continued with mistakes by Guarin and Kondogbia. Guarin didn't cover to Alonso and to any others on his side, and the same happened with Kondogbia: he should intercept or tackle the Ilicic's shot in the action of the second goal.
Little particular: have you seen how Kalicic flied to score the goal? Simply because of his condition, better than ours.
MANCINI: In the condition of 0-2 after 18' Mancini tried to change something defensively: he saw that our defense was suffering too much and he decided to renforce it sliding Perisic from the attack to the wide and Santon from the wide-back to the center. Defense with three defensor.
Little problem: Perisic isn't a wide and his defensive skills aren't as good as the offensive ones and wasn't a problem for Fiorentina's players attack from his side. Adding this to the fact that Santon can't play as central defensor because it's not his role and the 0-3 was easier than what expected.
0-3 after 23'. The 3-defensors system was a big mistake by Mancini that, if he really wanted to do it, should change Ranocchia or Juan for Palacio (at his age we should take him off this kind of matches).
THE LAST GIFT: Now, it was clear the match was finished after 23' but we decided to give another gift to them: the red card to Miranda. Playing in 10 players, after 30' meant that we could end the game in that moment because it was impossible for any team in the world to correct the match. Impossible because the Fiorentina put 10 players behind the line of the ball and because we don't have a physical condition acceptable in this moment (and this also explain the many matches won for 1-0). Yes, any team, including Barcellona that lost 1-4 against Celta Vigo: do you really think Celta Vigo is better than Barca? Of course not, but in this moment it's possible to see this kind of results.
THE FUTURE: Has the team that won 5 matches just disappeared? Of course not, we have done a suicide, but the future is clear. We must archive this match and trying to learn from this mistakes.
The "amazing soccer" of Fiorentina was a normal strategy on the pitch but it was helped by our fundamental mistakes. Without the mistakes by Handanovic, Guarin, Kondogbia, Perisic, Santon we will be able to take on this strategy, resist to it and defeat our oppositors. It's nothing special, but it isn't only if you don't score to yourself.

Sometime happes (c) Inter.it

The importance of being Felipe

Many things have happened since my last post (sorry, but my job has asked me for an additional work). It was the 19th of August and we had just sold Kovacic to Real Madrid; we were in the middle of a bad pre-season and a hard discussion about the confused ideas of Mancini (Too many new players? Too poor quality? Too little players? Too much money spent for Kondobgia? Will we be better than Milan or the new Napoli by Sarri? and so on...). 

Over the last 3, 4 weeks we have sold Hernanes as well, we have bought Perisic, Ljalic, Telles, Melo, and we have played and won the first three matches, we have understood that Mancini prefers everyone else to Ranocchia, and that Medel is a good player even if he should play as striker or goalkeeper.

Many bloggers and journalists have wrote about the new Inter, the different options Mancini has, and bla, bla, bla, but there is one particular point that I want to focus on. Now we are a team. Let me explain my idea of team.  

A team is composed by a group of people that use their abilities for achieving a goal. There are two opposite type of teams: the "Artistic with Creativity" ones and the "Strong with Personality" ones. Such as Atene and Sparta: both of them made the history even though they were completely different between them. If you prefer you could call this difference: Quality and Quantity.

The job of a leader is trying to create a team with some good components from both of these types, and it's exactly what Mancini tried to do in the last market session.

Last years we didn't have a bad team. We had artistic people such as Hernanes, Kovacic, Icardi, Palacio and others, and we also had strong people such as Juan, Medel, Guarin, and others. 

The problem was that on a scale rate from 1 (poor personality) to 10 (good personality) and 1(poor creativity) to 10 (good creativity) all of our players were around 5, the middle: no good artists, no good strong. They were the middle, in the average, in the mediocrity.

So, what did Mancini do last months? He bought players at the top of their abilities: Melo, Kondogbia, Murillo, Miranda (strong with personality) and Jovetic, Perisic, Ljalic (artistic with creativity). 

The results? Even players such as Juan, Guarin, Santon and Medel have took advantage from them. It's not been a case if Juan has played his best match since his arrival at Inter. It's not been a case if Medel has played better than Ranocchia or most of defensors in Italy. It's not been a case if Guarin has been finally crucial against Carpi (assist and penalty) and Milan (goal). 

Did they improve during the summer? No, they are improved thanks to the arrival of players with a strong personality. In particular Felipe Melo (top personality). Probably he has been the most important acquisition together with Jovetic (top creativity with good personality as well: the champion is the one that has a top creativity and a top personality, such as Messi or Ronaldo). 

Since his first match (the derby) he has put his strenght, his ambition, his anger, his ability to be the Boss of the midfield on the pitch. He came into the pitch with the eyes of the tiger, he knows what he wants, he wants to be the Boss and everyone will try to take him on will be cleaned away. 

His screams against Balotelli awoke his teammates: Juan, for example, was another person. The save against Luis Adriano was an action that seemed impossible for him until a couple of weeks ago (the problem of Juan has always been his concentration: he's a good defensor, but he's rarely concentrated for 90' and this brought him to make mistakes in positioning).

This is what Melo has brought to us: top personality (and also a bit of creativity). Melo and Jovetic are our real top players this year because this is what a top player does: he improves his teammates. Do you remember Luiz Rozario de Lima, called Ronaldo? He was the top player and thanks to him players as Taribo West and Francesco Moriero seemed top players as well. But they weren't. They were good only because of the presence of Ronaldo (and Simeone). 

So, let me paraphrase the title of a famous Oscar Wilde's book, because with a player such as Felipe Melo anything seems impossible. 

(c) Inter.it

The secret to be a top player

Kovacic has gone to Madrid. I say it at first: I'm fine with this decision for many reasons:

1) PRICE: It's impossible to refuse $35 plus bonus (if they confirm this amount of money). It's impossible because we aren't a healthy company and we are under the control of the Uefa and its Financial Fair Play according to it every company must be financed by itself. Currently, we can't finance ourselves so we need to increase our profits to cover all our debts and meanwhile we need to spend 0 euros during the transfer market. Until now we have spent a lot of milions and we needed to get some money back from sellings. We have sold some young players but it has not been enough and we need more cash. In this situation is impossible to refuse 35M.

The second reason is that currently Kovacic is a top player in potential. I mean, in his game we can see he will become a top player but at this moment he's not as good as any other normal player. He doesn't add anything and he probably pull something off. Have you seen the goal scored by Milan during the TIM cup? Kovacic had to be there, covering on Bertolacci, but he was somewhere else. If two expert coaches as Mazzarri and Mancini hasn't found the right position to him means that at this moment he's not as good as we need. Because we must win (= qualification to the next Champions' League) now.

Let's see the last years average rate performances: 

2014-2015: 5,84

2013-2014: 5,84

2012-2013: 6,04

These are numbers of a common player, not a big one. So, we have sold for 35M a player that will probably spend more of the next season on a bench or questioning: Is he really a top player? Currently not, he'll become one day. Maybe.

2) AGE: Now, let's go to analyze some features a bit deeper. Let's start with his age. Anyone says he's too young to be a top player. Ok, generally it's true because he is only 21 but we are talking about a top player and a top player is good at 30 as at 20. I'm not talking about Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo or other super players but also other normal players that became amazing over the following years. One could be Coutinho (now 23): when he arrived at Inter he was only 19 and he showed amazing skills and a good potential. He didn't play a lot only because he had players like Milito, Cassano, Eto'o, Pandev and so on, but if Coutinho had been at place of Kovacic he would have played every match and, let me say, he would have played much better than Kovacic. The age is not important: or you are a top player or you aren't. Well, I mean, I'm talking about the level of Di Maria, Ozil, Fabregas, this kind of players and at 21 years old everyone of these were already good players. Kovacic isn't. 

3) TACTICAL: Is he a midfielder? No, he's not. Is he a playmaker? No, he's not. Is he an attacker, a striker, a wide or a player that could play in one of the offensive roles? No, he's not. Or, at least, he is not at this moment. This is another important aspect fo being a top player. You can have a bit of confusion with your role when you play during your youth, but once you play in the First Team you must have understood which is your role on the pitch. Anyone has understood where Kovacic could play. The same, if we're talking about a top player he should have the power to change the game or, at last, he should have the power to give you the maximum result in a position, even if that position is the wide back. Kovacic can't assure nothing. At all. Which is his role? In Spain is different, positions aren't very important and maybe Kovacic will have the chance to play freely and he will probably excel, but not here, not in Italy where if you are a midfielders you must know how to defend and how to attack. Especially if you are a top player.

Let me give an example. Curently Gnoukouri is better than Kovacic because he knows his position and in that position he can improve himself. He could also change a bit his way of game playing on the side, but it doesn't matter. Gnoukouri can give you a better performance, and we are talking about a teenager of 18 years old. Is Gnoukouri better than Kovacic? I don't forecast the future, I can only see that currently Gnoukouri is much more useful than Kovaci.

4) PERSONALITY: There is one last aspect that a lot of people pretend to hide. The personality. If you analyzed the story of each top player we could see that the talent isn't enough. A good talent without a lot of suffering, workouts, determination is completely useless. We aren't in the 60s' when a player like George Best could have a popstar lifestyle and being an absolute champion on Sunday afternoon during the match. Actually is not possible. Look at the career of players like Balotelli, Adriano, and a lot of others that only focus on their talents. No, you must work everyday on your skills, on your problems, and every fall is a chance to improve yourself. 

If we could see the career of Bobo Vieri we see an outstanding star, an unbelievable striker. But if you look at that a bit deeper we could see that the first young Vieri wasn't so good, when he played for Juventus he wasn't the amazing striker as when he went to Lazio and Inter. Why? Simple. Because he worked a lot on his mistakes, on his body, on his skills. 

What is the difference between Cristiano Ronaldo, Bobo Vieri, Messi, other successful players and Kovacic? The fact that his last months haven't shown a big improvement than his first months at Inter. He doesn't seem to have the personality and the determination to be a top player. 

I don't know him personally, of course, so I can only talk about what I can see during the match, but he gives this image: it's like the student that knows he will be promoted because he is intelligent, and for this he doesn't study. The legend says that Einstein wasn't a good student but afterwards he has become the best scientist in the world. I think that Einstein wasn't good at school in those subjects he didn't like, but he was really curious in improving and studying in those he liked. And all of this work has brought him to be the genius he's been.

If Kovacic wants to become a top player, I guess he should work at first on his personality and then on his position on the field. Real Madrid is a big milestone on a carrier, but you must demonstrate you deserve the camiseta blanca, otherwise next summer we'll be here talking about a Kovacic sold for 5M to a smaller team.

Anyway, good luck Mateo!

(c) Inter.it

Why I am not worried. Moreover, why I think we are getting better

There is a strange vibe around our team along this summer. It looks like we are a confusing team, with no strategy, with a confused manager on the bench. The two derbies lost against Milan have brough the feeling we are far away from a good point. Is that true? My opinion is no, at all.
• MATCHES: Let's take a look of our pre-season matches.
Bayern Monaco, 0-1. We have played a good defensive match with a couple of good chance until we have played with out best players. Bayern scored the goal only when we changed the whole team (and with a positioning mistake by Juan).
Milan, 0-1. We have played with a team full of youngsters for 70' and Milan has never been really dangerous. Then it scored with an amazing goal (but a bit fortunate) by Mexes in a corner action. With out best players (for only 20') we didn't score, but we played much better than Milan.
Real Madrid, 0-3. It's been our best match for 20' playing at the same level with the Real, having some chances to score a goal, but then Cristiano Ronaldo and friends scored the first goal and the match changed at all.
Galatasaray, 0-1. Icardi, Palacio, Hernanes and others have had the chance to score a goal against a team that it's champion in its country. I guess it has been a good match by Inter, when only a goal has missed.
Bilbao, 2-0. We have seen a very good Inter, with an outstanding impact by Jovetic, at his debut with our shirt. I think this is the real Inter, even though there weren't some players that are going to arise our level.
Tim cup. Milan, 1-2. We started with a really strange tactical set by Mancini and apparently it was really strange, but not completely (after I'm going to explain it). For 30' we haven't managed to figure out the situation and Milan was completely full in control of the match. Afterwards, Mancini changed Brozovic for Hernanes changing the set up as well and everything has changed. The Brozovic goal, the second Brozovic chance by Brozovic saved on the line by Romagnoli, the goal scored by Nagatomo, the Kovacic chance in only 15'. Playing only 15' we could score 2 goals against.
Tim cup. Sassuolo, 0-1. We haven't played a good match, but it wasn't the real Inter. Schelotto, Manaj, Delgado aren't our best players and it's impossible to evaluate this match.

And now, let's go to see our rivals preseason matches:
JUVENTUS:
Dortmund, 0-2.
Lechia, 2-1
Marsiglia, 0-2
Lazio, 2-0
LAZIO:
Auronzo, 14-0
Cadore, 9-1
Vicenza, 0-1
Anderlecht, 1-3
Sigma, 2-3
Mainz, 0-3
Juve, 0-2
MILAN:
Alcione, 5-1
Legnano, 5-1
Lione, 1-2
Inter, 1-0
Real, 0-0
Bayern, 0-3
Tottenham, 0-1
Tim, Inter, 2-1
Tim, Sassuolo, 1-1
NAPOLI
Anaune, 8-0
Ferlapi Salò, 5-2
Cittadella, 5-1
Nizza, 2-3
Porto, 0-0
ROMA:
Gyirmot, 1-2
Real Madrid, 0-0
Manchester City, 2-2
Lisbona, 0-2
Barcellona, 0-3
Valencia, 3-1

I don't see 7-0 against big teams by our rivals. I see that each team is trying to do its best to find the right set up asap.
• TACTICAL SET UP: Mancini has always said that he wants to play with different systems. Getting the defense with 4 players we can have these modules:
4-4-2: we don't have any wings, so has tried a module with two attacking midfielders on the sides. During the TIM cup, Kovacic and Hernanes shouldn't play as common wings but they should start from the side for going to the center. If you remember the first Mancini did the same with Emre and Veron. In the 2004, we played with this team:
Zanetti-Burdisso-Materazzi-Favalli
Veron-Cambiasso-Davids-Emre (Stankovic)
Neither Emre and Veron were wings but they started from those positions to go to the center and becoming dangerous with their fantasy. So, the idea wasn't bad, the problem is that unfortunately both Kovacic and Hernanes aren't good players, currently they are half players and it's not possible to ask them to play as Veron or Emre/Stankovic. Anyway, I guess we'll see again this system, but only when we will have Perisic on a side and a Guarin/Brozovic/Kovacic on the other side.
4-3-1-2: I don't think Mancini likes this system but it could be the best to support an offensive set up. Kondogbia and Medel on the side and Kovacic in the middle could be a solution, but not only because we also have players like Brozovic, Guarin, Gnoukoury, Hernanes that can play in these position. These players could also play as attacking midfielder, especially Kovacic that is still searching his best position (I hope it is ahead of the defense).
4-2-3-1: It's the module Mancini prefers, and I think it's the best one, because it becomes a 4-5-1 on the defensive phase and a 4-3-3 in the attack one. Salah would have been the better to play with Perisic and Icardi, but he's gone to Rome and now we have Jovetic that is not a wing, but he could play there.

At last, I guess we haven't seen the full potential of players like Brozovic and Kovacic and I guess that over the next season we will see the explosion of these two players, especially by Brozovic that could really become our new Stankovic. Waiting for the physical improvement by Gnoukoury (this is why Mancini wants an elderly in that position), I think we have the right players to do a good season.
We only need a new left wide back (it's not possible to see Juan over there) and an attacker like Perisic, one that cold play in attack and on the side, one like David Silva, or Pedro, or Eto'o. We need an attacker like this.

I believe in the Inter that Mancini is jellying day after day. I'm trustful. It's only August, and I want to remind you that last October people wanted to sack Pioli as Lazio's manager because of an horrible start in the season: he has arrived on the third position. So, let's give the right time to Mancini and to this Inter, we have all the prerequisite to do an amazing season.

(c) Inter.it