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Horncastle: 'Pazza Inter' have given the rest of the league hope
Isn’t it remarkable what a difference three days can make?
A sceptical and hostile media had already been suggesting names of possible replacements for the Dutchman. Fabio Capello, Cesare Prandelli, Rudi Garcia. The three of them shouldn’t expect a call anytime too. Whilst defeat to a team ranked 279th by UEFA did represent one of the lowest moments in the club’s history and will have naturally been cause for reflection, the pressure on de Boer appeared media driven and did not actually emanate from the club itself.
At Joao Mario’s unveiling on Friday, Pier Ausilio, Inter’s director of sport, bristled at the notion that, barely a month after de Boer’s appointment, his job was already in jeopardy. “There are ladies present. Do you really want me to use bad language?” he asked. “[The reports] are rubbish.”
Even so, the temperature had been turned up. Inter’s former president Massimo Moratti said de Boer had landed himself in a frying pan after the team’s humiliation in the Europa League and would do well not to get burned. Inter’s new owners, Suning, were also in attendance at San Siro and rightly or wrongly, given the club’s public support of the manager, this did have the feel of a huge game for de Boer and his players, a perfect storm when the Derby d’Italia just so happened to fall on Judgement Day for him.
Regardless of the assurances offered by the club, de Boer asked for patience, pointing out that his colleague Giovanni van Bronckhorst lost nine games in a row at Feyenoord not so long ago and the club still stuck by him. On Thursday, they were rewarded as Feyenoord recorded a famous win against Manchester United in the Europa League. Could Juventus be de Boer’s United? It better be, Inter fans hoped, otherwise they would find themselves eight points behind the champions.
Even the most optimistic Interista found it hard to give Inter a chance, especially after seeing their team fall behind in every game this season. Many, including myself, thought it would be one-sided. Some were predicting the biggest home defeat in the Derby d’Italia since 1928 and already preparing for the worst, arguing that de Boer shouldn’t be judged on this game, but the winnable ones coming up instead; the subtext to which was victory against the Old Lady seemed a distinct impossibility.
An alternative take was that Inter’s preparation for this game had been perfect. Losing in the manner they did to Be’er Sheva must have wounded their pride. They would be desperate to save face and prove people wrong. Juventus, counter-intuitively, promised to be the ideal opponent. Unlike in other games, the players would have absolutely no problem getting up for a Derby d’Italia. The adrenaline would be pumping and maybe get them to overreach themselves and play with an intensity that had hitherto been absent from their performances. All the hype around this Juventus team might also help focus the mind.
In hindsight, it now looks as though it were Inter’s destiny for it to play out this way. But, come on, that is easier said than done and, regardless of whether the conditions facilitated it, Inter still had to go out there, channel this energy, hold their nerve and execute. It was just as easy to see a team short of confidence, buckle under the pressure and suffer a beating. A common refrain after the Be’er Sheva game was that it couldn’t possibly get any worse. With Juventus, however, you never know. A heavy defeat looked on the cards and considering the context and how Inter deservedly won, this should only add to the scale of de Boer’s achievement.
We quite reasonably expected more from the Nerazzurri after Thursday. For starters, one of the explanations for the Be’er Sheva loss was de Boer’s excessive rotation with the Derby d’Italia and a congested fixture list in mind. Only four players kept their places. Key personnel like Miranda, Joao Mario, Ever Banega, Antonio Candreva and Mauro Icardi returned to the starting line up and when you list their names like that - and remember Gabigol was watching in the stands - you are reminded of the quality Inter have got. The question up until now has been can they unlock their potential and make the most of it?
De Boer nailed the tactical approach. Icardi, Eder and Candreva hurried Juventus’ defenders, making it difficult for them to pass out from the back. Joao Mario and Banega took it in turns to press Miralem Pjanic while Gary Medel did his best to close the passing angles and thereby stop the supply line to Paulo Dybala. It helped that Higuain didn’t start, Chiellini is in bad form, Pjanic is struggling to adjust to a new role and Kwadwo Asamoah frequently took 10 touches instead of one and then misplaced his passes. The tendency of Juventus’ wing-backs Stephane Lichtsteiner and Alex Sandro to get forward, as they did for the goal, but also forget or at least be slow about tracking back also contributed to their downfall.
This was very telling as over the years the thing teams have most envied about Juventus is the mentality. On Sunday, however, Inter’s mentality was the envy of Juventus. Afterwards, de Boer explained that Inter's set up was exactly the same as against Be’er Sheva. The difference was to be found [in the personnel and] the attitude. “Everyone believed in what we did,” de Boer explained to Sky Italia, “and this is the reward.” When Inter went behind for a fifth straight game, they didn’t lose their heads unlike against Chievo or Be’er Sheva. Inter didn’t panic and remembered how well they had played up until then. They stuck at it and in the end came back to win from a losing position in back-to-back league games.
Icardi, it must be said, was magnificent. The knock on him has always been that he is a goalscorer and that’s it. On Sunday, he debunked that myth and showed how far he has come, not only by scoring yet another stunning header, but setting up Ivan Perisic for the winner with an outside of the foot pass. It wasn’t a one-off either. Candreva should have buried a chance Icardi created for him earlier too.
“A team is born,” declared Gazzetta on Monday morning. The bigger picture is Inter have given the rest of the league hope. Maybe the title race will not be over by Christmas after all. Predictably there is renewed talk of Inter challenging for the Scudetto. De Boer, however, is wisely only looking at one game at a time and wants his team to play with the same determination in Empoli on Wednesday night.
Not to rain on Inter's parade, but we have seen false dawns before. Inter’s last win in Serie A against Juventus was the first by a visiting team at the J Stadium and ended the champions’ 49-match unbeaten run in the league. Andrea Stramaccioni put on a tactical masterclass and was hailed as a coaching wunderkind. After Christmas, however, Inter fell away quite dramatically. While the signs were encouraging on Sunday, the lesson to learn from 2012 is that it’s one thing to raise your game against Juventus, it’s another to get up for against Empoli and Bologna and play at the same level. Can Inter back it up?
