After making the best start a new Inter manager has made since the days of Gigi Simoni in 1998, Luciano Spalletti wisely cautioned against getting too carried away. Try as he may, though, some people just can’t help themselves and a look at Inter’s upcoming fixtures led to predictions of them extending their winning streak all the way to the Derby della Madonnina on October 15.
Coming up in the meantime were games against Bologna, Genoa and Benevento – teams you’d reasonably expect Inter to beat, particularly after they crushed Fiorentina on the opening day and came back from behind to claim their first win against Roma at the Olimpico in nearly a decade. Although pleased with the progress his side are making, Spalletti wasn't about to let it go to their heads and felt it necessary to manage expectation.
Last season Inter finished 29 points behind Juventus, 25 south of Roma and 24 adrift of Napoli, and although they underperformed relative to the talent on the team, the “seven or eight” extra wins needed to be in contention for a place on the podium is a tall order. Not too tall for Spalletti, who averaged 2.36 points per game in his second spell at Roma. But the improvement needed is sizeable, even if some are forecasting that his old team will fall away a little this year. That said, strides forward have already been made.
Aforementioned wins in the opening fortnight against illustrious opposition were backed up in tests of a different nature. Last season Inter dropped points against bottom-half sides like Chievo, Palermo, Cagliari and Sassuolo. These games, Spalletti said, are like going through “check-in” for a flight to Europe.
So with that in mind, the victories over SPAL and Crotone were all the more satisfying because they made it look like Inter hadn’t forgotten their passport and could now concentrate on clearing security. It led to yet more hype around Inter but, as Spalletti reiterates, recent history tells us they “cannot take anything for granted.”
Two seasons ago Inter also got off to a fantastic start under Roberto Mancini, winning their opening five games only to collapse on the night before Christmas. Last term, Stefano Pioli stepped into the breach and won nine in a row in all competitions, only for the team to disintegrate when their (already distinctly improbable) chances of Champions League football faded into nothing. This ugly habit has never been far from Spalletti’s mind and, as the ex-Juve midfielder-turned-Sky Italia pundit Giancarlo Marocchi warned, Inter’s dressing room has an unwanted reputation for letting managers down.
While it’s far too early to predict trouble ahead, Tuesday’s draw at Bologna was a reality check. Afterwards Spalletti didn’t seem too surprised. For a start Bologna also played well against Napoli and Fiorentina, and deserved to get something out of those games just as they merited more than a point against Inter.
Maybe the opposite could be said of Inter, who were a little lucky to be nine from nine as they travelled to the Dall’Ara. Take the Roma game for instance. Roma hit the woodwork three times (admittedly from low percentage shots) and should have had a penalty while 1-0 up. In Crotone at the weekend, a man-of-the-match performance from goalkeeper Samir Handanovic kept Inter in the game long enough to turn it in their favour. Ivan Perisic killed that game, just as he did the one against SPAL, which again saw Inter get a result without putting in a totally convincing performance.
The ground had been prepared for this when Spalletti, using another aviation metaphor, said on Monday: “We’re not yet qualified enough to go on auto-pilot.” It’s too soon. There’s a new system, new players and Inter deserve credit for picking up as many points as they have while still figuring it out. No one, Napoli aside, look comfortable in their own skin at the moment. Not even Juventus. But the disappointment is palpable. The balloon hasn't been popped, just ever so slightly deflated. Perhaps because Interisti wanted to believe that things would be different this time and Tuesday instead felt like same old Inter. A missed opportunity, too, in a midweek round which sees Juventus play Fiorentina and Napoli go to Lazio.
Flat, slow and predictable, Spalletti is clear on what he wants - quicker build-up play, Mauro Icardi to come short and pull defenders out of position, his wide players to not stay wide all the time, but come five metres inside so the full-backs can bomb on and multiply the passing options available to the ball-carrier. Icardi had just two touches in the box at the Ezio Scida and seven at the Dall’Ara. Right now there is a sense Inter are too dependent on him and Perisic. The only goal from midfield has come from Matias Vecino and, while Borja Valero fits the David Pizarro-mould, the absence of a Simone Perrotta or Radja Nainggolan-style figure is notable.
“Our midfielders will have to take it in turns to do the Nainggolan or the Vidal,” Spalletti told Gazzetta. Finding the right configuration in midfield is a conundrum. The promise Inter showed when Joao Mario came on against Roma and Borja Valero went to a deep-lying midfield position hasn’t been sustained. The Portuguese made an impact against Fiorentina and at the Olimpico as a second-half substitute. He also helped break the deadlock against SPAL by winning a penalty. But pending an evolution in his game, Joao Mario does not look a natural in the position.
Spalletti loves “modifying” players; turning them into what many people thought they were not. Think of Totti the False 9, the 4-6-0 or how he inverted Miralem Pjanic and Nainggolan’s positions, not to mention the three-and-a-half defence. He improves and regenerates players: just look at Edin Dzeko, who went from zero to Capocannoniere hero, or Emerson Palmieri, who played his way into contention for an Italy cap before an ACL tear.
Sure, Spalletti expected more from Inter’s owners in the summer. He called their window “ordinary” and, certainly in comparison with Milan’s, it didn’t set pulses racing. But Milan Skriniar has been an instant hit, Dalbert could get the Palmieri treatment and it’s hard not to see Vecino and Borja making sweet music in midfield. Perisic is also like a new signing after coming so close to joining Manchester United.
All the positives should not be lost in one night. As Eder said, if you can't win the important thing is not to lose and Inter remain unbeaten. They're also fitter than they were at this stage last year, despite going on tour to China again. Inter are staying in games for longer and seven of their 11 goals have come in the final 15 minutes. Their defence is still the best in Italy, even if Crotone and Bologna both gave Inter a scare. Holes in this team have been filled.
Yet to Spalletti’s mind “the strength of this Inter side is that it’s still incomplete.” It’s a way of saying we can’t say for certain where Inter will end up this season. The answer lies in their imagination and, crucially, Spalletti’s. Mind over matter.
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