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.