Inter Milan's woes continue with fresh loss

Week 23 of the 2011/12 Serie A season saw minnows, Novara, arrive at the Stadio Guiseppe Meazza. They were sitting at the foot of the league table with only three points from their last ten matches, conceding a huge 21 goals and having scored just five goals in that period. Inter were going through a rough patch themselves since their last three games and this match was thought to be a relative walk in the park.

The last time these two teams met was back in September and the heavy defeat suffered by the Nerazzurri then turned out to be Gian Piero Gasperini’s last game in his short Inter career before current coach Claudio Ranieri took over the reins. So how is it possible that once again this struggling team has embarrassed the mighty Inter?

It all started great for Inter as Ranieri finally started the match with the formation I have been championing for months seeing both Wesley Sneijder and Ricky Alvarez starting together behind target man, Diego Milito, in a 4-3-2-1. The midfield three consisted of Andrea Poli, Esteban Cambiasso and Dejan Stankovic – who returned from his injury. But the defensive line was a concern for me as Javier Zanetti covered the right back position for the suspended Maicon. Lucio started in his usual spot but the left side came as a surprise, instead of playing both Andrea Ranocchia and Yuto Nagatomo who were both selected in the squad Ranieri saw fit to include the ever useless Cristian Chivu and the aging Ivan Cordoba.

FIRST HALF

The first half was looked very promising as it progressed with Inter looking far more positive than in previous games and despite my reservations of the defensive line, it was holding well. Just before the first half came to an end, Poli, was brought down by Porcari. The Inter players, the fans in the terraces and all the Interistas watching, screamed for the obvious penalty to be awarded but, the referee wasn’t having any of it.

So the half ended at 0-0 and although there had been no goals for Inter, I was feeling very positive about the performance and had the distinct impression that it was only a matter of time before it all clicked and fell into place with this new formation and we’d start hitting the back of the net in the second half.

During the break we all knew Ranieri would make a change, let’s face it he always does! To be honest if I was in his shoes I would have took Cordoba off, moved Chivu in to the left centre of the defence and brought Nagatomo on as the left back or even removed Stankovic and replaced him with Angelo Palombo just to sure up the formation, but being the ‘Tinkerman’ he decided to change the formation to a 4-3-1-2 by bringing on Giampaolo Pazzini on for Alvarez which was disappointing for me to see as there was no need for a change of tactics.

SECOND HALF

Five minutes after the restart Inter had yet another chance to score with, Lucio, taking a shot that was easily denied by the Novara goalkeeper who then started a counter attack that caught Inter by surprise. With Lucio at the wrong end of the pitch, Novara, exploited the space and Caracciolo’s shot put the visitors in front. This was the point where it all started to fall apart for Inter as a hint of desperation crept in to Nerazzurri‘s play.

Just after the 60th minute this desperation had spread to Ranieri and with his second substitution he reverted back to his safety net of the 4-4-2 formation after taking off, Poli, who once again had been excellent, and bringing on striker Diego Forlan who took up the right wing position with playmaker Sneijder being pulled back to the left wing. The result was a disaster that left the Inter players looking deflated and lost on the pitch.

Inter still managed to hold on to possession but they just couldn’t flow properly and despite shot after shot still couldn’t level the score. 75 minutes in to the match Ranieri made his third and final substitution bringing on Nagatomo for Chivu (by far his most sensible decision of the second half). Even this change failed to make any difference and it became more and more apparent that this wasn’t Inter’s night for a come back even after Novara were reduced to ten men in the 80th minute. Even when Sneijder could only manage to rattle the crossbar with a vicious shot we all knew it was game over for us, and so the minnows Novara managed to claim their third win of the season and two of them being against Inter.

Capello for Ranieri?

So what has really changed since that previous game back in September? Apart from us having a different coach, the answer unfortunately is not a lot! We still need more depth of cover for our defensive line and we still rely on our old guard (Cordoba and Stankovic) instead of using them sparingly. Though against a team of Novara’s standing we should have comfortably beaten them no matter which players were handed the start. Let’s face it they’re a Serie B level club that are enjoying a rare season in the top flight. If we can’t win matches like these what hope do we have against the other giants of Calcio?

There is only one person who should accept responsibility for this loss – The ‘Tinkerman’ himself. Had he exercised more patience with his original formation of 4-3-2-1 then I’m fairly confident we would have been celebrating a win now instead of analysing his faults. I know I’m biased on this point as I’m a big fan of this formation but I’m also certain we could have got the required result if he had more trust in the 4-3-1-2 too. Constantly changing the formation makes it almost impossible for the players to find their flow and without consistency in the tactics there won’t be any consistency in the performances apart from losing matches.

For those of you calling for Ranieri to be replaced with Capello, that isn’t going to happen this season because Capello has said he doesn’t want to return to coaching in Italy. It is better to wait until summer to start again with a fresh outlook for the new season by replacing Ranieri with a long term solution. Changing for a third time this season would do more damage than good.