STATS CRUNCH Inter, give Icardi the ball!
Last year, the 22-year-old Rosario native was a lonely bright spot in the Nerazzurri’s catastrophic campaign. Now, Inter are doing well enough…but Icardi is no longer the star.
With Mancini saying that Icardi had to improve, the striker defended himself by saying that there wasn’t much he could do if he was being served so poorly. “When I get good service, I score. I’ve had four chances in ten weeks, and have scored three times. I’d say my average was pretty good!”
According to the Gazzetta dello Sport, Icardi is touching the ball far less than last season, and is receiving inferior support compared to the 2014-2015 campaign.
The numbers also portray Rodrigo Palacio as a selfless teammate, whilst Stefan Jovetic helps Inter play through the middle, but tends to go it alone, too.
A year ago, Icardi would receive 20.5 passes a game. This time round, it’s only 15. So, from shooting an average of 1.22 times a game on goal in last year’s disastrous campaign, the former Sampdoria hitman only manages 0.56 this season. That’s very worrying indeed for a team that has only scored ten times, the worst total among Serie A’s top 13 teams.
Again, one can’t complain too loudly if Inter are winning games without playing well. Roberto Mancini’s first season with the Nerazzurri- coming off another shipwreck of a campaign in 2003-2004 under Hector Cuper and Alberto Zaccheroni – saw his Inter team score aplenty and create countless chances… but also fail to win enough games to keep up Juventus’ pace.
It looks like Mancini is doing the opposite thing this time round. But when will we see an Inter worthy of last summer’s investments?
