Inter may have lost the Derby della Madonnina to intercity rivals Milan tonight, but Simone Inzaghi’s substitutions almost changed the result.
When the Nerazzurri lost 2-1 to the Rossoneri back in February of this year, one of the main talking points was Inzaghi’s usage of substitutions. In the 69th minute of the match, he took off an in-form Ivan Perisic and Lautaro Martinez for Federico Dimarco and Alexis Sanchez. Four minutes later, Hakan Calhanoglu was replaced with Arturo Vidal.
The pace of the game changed after this and Milan quickly scored two goals within 10 minutes of Inzaghi’s changes, leading to much criticism from Inter fans.
This was not a mistake repeated by Inzaghi tonight. It was an electric and tense affair at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza and the Nerazzurri coach made his first round of changes only minutes after Rafael Leao put the Rossoneri 3-1 up.
Inzaghi brought on Edin Dzeko, Federico Dimarco and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in place of Joaquin Correa, Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella respectively. The Bosnian almost single-handedly dragged Inter back into the match, scoring only a few minutes after coming on. He continued to prove a threat, immediately repaying his coach’s faith.
Dimarco and Mkhitaryan also had good outings, adding fresh legs to the Nerazzurri squad and giving them a little more life after a tiring initial hour. The former in particular did well replacing a lacklustre Bastoni.
Inzaghi’s usage of the bench was smart and even though his team lost, it’s a strong sign for ahead of a long season.
What strong sign. The team has already lost twice this year and league has barely started. Inter have the best squad in Italy still by a mile, but are being guided by you know who.
@Kieran Inter is not the best squad in Italy right now, when your cousins almost violated you. Inzaghi made a mistake putting Bastoni as starter when he clearly was not fit. And Di Marco was definitely the best option to start before Darmian
Let me know when Inter has a player who can win games by himself as Leao. I will wait
This is the last season for Inzaghi, probably he won’t finish it.
And if my gran hadn’t died, she’d still be alive today. Good article.
lol the Buffalo Bills fan who is defending his PhD hexagon for having 1 shot on goal all game and none in the second period.
It had nothing to do with his subs, at least not Dimarco and Mkhi. He did have to start the match with Dzeko since they were playing deep and used long balls, but the momentum changed when Milan subbed off CDK, Messias and Giroud for Diaz, Saladmaker and Origi and sat back. Those three were terrible and handed Inter a way back into the match.
Milan practically played the last 20 minutes down to 8 men.
inter needs to change tactics. i mean running your tactics around lukaku or lautaro or barella will not work as we can see. try running it around dzeko and make him vocal point in attack when he is on i mean he scored and put a ball on plater for lautaro and he sky the ball
Prince Simpletone Inzaghi strikes again…
Pioli still has a few things to worry about. Calabria and Tomori got exposed in the second.
Inter‘s bench is better than Milans. That may come into play later in the season, but if their starting 11 sleep like they did today, it may not make much difference.
Milan were superior. 4-1 would have been a more accurate score to how the game played out.
Seriously! This is an article worth posting. Not sure what happened with Channel4; last 2 years have been very low quality writers
Same as seria a
No matter sub Inzaghi might done Pioli gave him the chance by sub CDK and woes continued by sub Giroud for Origi. Any game against inter is like muscle to muscle so Origi doesn’t fit enough into the match.