Blog Archives
Coutinho: "I Only Want To Win With Inter"
He is considered to be very important in Stramaccioni’s project. After spending a few months in Spain with Espanyol, Coutinho has returned to Appiano Gentile and he is ready to win for the black and blue shirt. But first he looks back at his time in Spain:
“Playing at Espanyol was a very good opportunity. I did well by showing my worth after a long time that I did not play.
Inter’s January Mercato Roundup
From January the 1st rumours were flying all over the world about who was linked with Inter and who was leaving Inter but the whole of the month seemed to revolve around the Tevez transfer saga in which it seemed Inter were half heartedly chasing Manchester City’s want away striker just to drive the price up for rivals AC Milan, I have no doubt that there was no real desire in the management of the Nerazzurri to sign him at all, but regardless this worldwide story dragged on for nearly the entire month.
This meant that the one transfer that we acknowledged as being lined up, which was Juan Jesus, still hadn’t been completed by the 30th of the month and with just one day left of the transfer window it was looking very likely that Inter’s mercato was going to be a complete disaster. Then on deadline day itself Branca & co did what they do best and pulled some great deals out of the bag.
Internazionale: January review
INTERNAZIONALE MONTHLY REVIEW: Gennaro/January
This is the first of what I hope is a regular monthly review of everything that has happened in the month just passed. Month by month I will look at all things Nerazzurri, the players, the goals, news and all things good, bad and little of the ugly from Inter this month.
SerieA: Inter 5-0 Parma, Nerazzurri start 2012 with a touch of class
First of all I’d like to wish all my readers a Happy New Year, and what a start to the year Inter had last night! Before the winter break the Nerazzurri found their form in the last four games of 2011 ending with the fantastic 4-1 thrashing of Lecce in December and then came the winter break, two weeks without a match that for me seemed to last for a lot longer but my main concern was that the great form we found would be lost with the lack of matches and momentum.
I shouldn’t have worried though because as it turns out, Inter actually managed to improve further during this time and started 2012 with what was undoubtably their best performance of the season, the game had everything from goals galore, moments of great skill, even when Ranieri brought on his substitutes they were the right players and most importantly we kept a clean sheet. All in all it was the perfect game for Inter.
SerieA: Cesena 0-1 Inter, Rannochia’s header secures three more points
For the third time in a row Ranieri’s Inter were victorious continuing the fantastic come back that has seen the Nerazzurri rise from sixteenth place to now sit in fifth with 23 points after winning five of our last six matches, ok so by the end of the evening we could be in sixth, if Napoli beat Roma tonight. But even if that’s the case the recent revival of Inter proves we’re still a force to be reckoned with and even if it’s a long shot we are still in the running for the Scudetto and more realistically Champions league qualification.
The home side lined up with a formation of 4-4-1-1 that consisted of Francesco Antonioli in goal, a back line of Gianluca Comotto, Steve Von Bergen, Guillermo Rodriguez and Maurice Lauro. Their four man midfield saw Luke Ceccarelli, Marco Parolo, Roberto Guana and Antonio Candreva take to the field, and the spearhead of the home team came in the form of Eder who was playing in front of their second striker Adrian Mutu.
Claudio Ranieri’s Inter again started with his favoured 4-4-2, which I seriously dislike but at least it’s getting results, Ahead of Julio Cesar in goal we had Lucio and Andrea Ranocchia replacing Walter Samuel who was being rested on the bench, the central defence was flanked by Maicon on the right and Yuto Nagatomo on the left. Disappointingly Andrea Poli was missing from the midfield lineup but Phillipe Coutinho and Javier Zanetti took up positions on the wings with Thiago Motta and Esteban Cambiasso working as the engine of the team in the center. And once again Ranieri saw fit to pair up Giampaolo Pazzini and Diego Milito up front much to everyones surprise considering that we had a fit Diego Forlan on the bench, though using this combination did mean that Milito reached 100 Serie A games in his career.
SerieA: Inter 2-0 Fiorentina, Nerazzurri get home win while Viola fall flat
Inter came out on to the pitch at the Guiseppe Meazza on a cold December Saturday night that marked his 90th Birthday and the tenth Anniversary of the death of Inter legend Peppino Prisco and the Curva Nord paid tribute through their banners to the great man who in my opinion was one of the most devoted Interisti to ever live. The squad themselves also paid a fitting tribute by securing the three points with a confident display and two great goals.
This match also marked the first ever Serie A match that our captain has missed in his career due to a red card in the previous match against Udinese, but our defence was bolstered by the return of both Maicon and Lucio. Ranieri decided to line up with a tradition 4-4-2 that consisted of Julio Cesar in goal after being rested midweek against CSKA Moscow, Maicon and Yuto Nagatomo took the wide defensive positions with our two powerful centerbacks Lucio and Walter Samuel in front of the keeper. Marco Faraoni again was chosen to hold the right-wing while Coutinho sat on the left of the defensive midfield duo of Thiago Motta and Esteban Cambiasso who was the stand in captain for the match.
Up front Ranieri had yet again decided to play both Giampaolo Pazzini and Diego Milito side by side even though previous games have shown beyond doubt that they are too similar in styles to work well together. Unsurprisingly throughout the first half this was again evident as both players continued to make the same sort of runs.
Inter: Convincing against Cagliari but not so much against Trabzonspor
First of all I’d like to apologise for my lack of match reports this week but I’ve been ridiculously busy and unfortunately haven’t had the time to dedicate to my posts, don’t worry though I should be back to my usual standard with a full report of Sunday’s match against Siena.
Inter 2-1 Cagliari – Serie A
To keep you updated though I’m going to combine a look at both of this weeks games in this one article starting with Saturday’s Serie A week 12 fixture against Cagliari, I like most Interisti was excited to see the Nerazzurri back in action after over half the month of November without a game due to the postponement of the Genoa match followed by the International break and I tuned in to the match with eager anticipation that this would be a fresh start for Inter only to be greeted by the news that Wesley Sneijder had been withdrawn from the squad due to a muscle injury picked up in the warm up, I presume this is the same one he picked up in Holland’s first game and it has now been revealed that he will be on the sidelines for three to four weeks, this combined with the fact that we were also missing other players including Maicon, Lucio & Forlan didn’t fill me with any great confidence that this game would go any better than other games this season.
Serie A: Bologna 1-3 Inter, ‘il Biscione’ strikes back
Finally Inter get their first win of the season and I couldn’t be happier, ok so Bologna are hardly the hardest team is Serie A to beat but after recent results under the guidance of Gian Piero Gasperini this win means so much more than three points, not only to Interisti but also to the players and everyone involved with the Nerazzurri. Before the game I was hoping for a win but as Claudio Ranieri had only been in charge of the club for three days I was expecting for Inter to still be looking a bit rough around the edges, especially when it was announced that Wesley Sneijder was out with an injury picked up in training. It has to be said though that already under Ranieri the Nerazzurri are looking like their old selves again and for me it just proves the point that our recent bad form was completely down to Gasperini and his stubbornness about his 3-4-3 tactic. After passing his acid test for Inter ‘The Tinkerman’ was pleased with not only the win but also with our players mentality
“It was important to get off on the right foot. The lads needed a confidence boost. I said it didn’t matter whether we played well or badly; what mattered was that we fought for every ball to get the result. And that’s what we did. These lads are hungry and they showed that. I was pleased with the self-sacrifice I saw in all of them. This is the right spirit.”
UCL: Inter 0-1 Trabzonspor, improved performance still not good enough
What can I say about last night’s Champions League group stage match against Trabzonspor? Well on a positive note Gasperini dropped his 3 man defence and Inter looked a lot better for it, they defended better, they passed the ball better, they looked more dangerous going forward but for some reason unknown they could not get a goal!
This of course means that Gasperini has now made appearances in all three competitions (if you count the Supercup as a Coppa Italia match) and also lost all three games, not a good situation for Inter or Gasperini as Interisti are now calling for him to be replaced, but it has to be said last night saw a marked improvement on previous competitive displays even though we lacked the right rhythm at times and as Massimo Moratti himself said Gasperini can’t be blamed for the goal that lost us the game. He isn’t entirely blameless though his biggest problem is that the squad don’t seem to have any confidence in him or his tactics and the Inter coach must be all too aware that he’s walking on thin ice meaning that if the result doesn’t come on Saturday against the struggling Roma he could have one of the shortest ever coaching careers at Inter.
