Former coach Arrigo Sacchi suggested Inter star Romelu Lukaku ‘cannot be judged yet’ but was unimpressed with Charles De Ketelaere following his arrival at Milan.
The two sides are currently in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, ready to fight for the Supercoppa Italiana on Wednesday January 18th. Inter won the competition last year, beating Juventus in the final, and Milan’s last victory came in 2016, when they beat the Bianconeri on penalties. Both Milanese clubs are hot in pursuit on league leaders Napoli, who hold a comfortable lead after 18 matches.
Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Sacchi first gave his thoughts on Lukaku and his disappointing return to Inter this season.
“Lukaku was the protagonist of another Inter, his return cannot be judged yet… But why spend to have the best if you then don’t create, but only wait for someone else’s mistake?
“I think Lukaku has the right temperament, but he is paying for the suffering of the last year and a half.”
The former Rossoneri coach was less impressed with the work of De Ketelaere, who arrived from Club Brugge in the summer. He has provided just one assist across 21 appearances this campaign.
“He comes onto the pitch almost like a loser. Confused. Frightened. Better, though, not to give final judgments, foreigners always need time. Of course, now he’s suffering, and it shows.”
Sacchi then commented on the various issues plaguing both Milanese clubs this season.
“Inter don’t have a plot, they rely almost entirely on tactics. On Saturday they were playing against an inferior team and, after an early goal, they gave the lead to Verona, it’s humiliating for the players and the fans.
“Sometimes it seems that Milan have a full belly, I see too much protagonism. Doing things by halves is not enough, this team can only win if they’re a collective and often they haven’t been.”
I hate commenting here since Football italia refused to upgrade it… someone has to suffer to post a comment…pathetic
Commenting here is an adventure for sure…
Harsh words but I can’t argue with them. Still not entirely sure what he does. Next season should be his season and hopefully better for Milan too.
He won’t play him because he can’t afford to. They way we played last season he would have gotten more chances but the team can’t carry him right now. I like Diaz starting on the right, that seemed to work well for a while, then he went back to 10 and form dipped. De Ketelaere definitely needs time, I’m not saying he needs to go at all but he won’t get much playing time until the team improves.
I disagree about Diaz. Hasn’t been great but again, neither has the team. Who knows, maybe Pioli changes and plays De Ketelaere 10 in the next game and we go on a good run. The last 3 games in particular have been terrible so something needs to change.
Last 2 games actually. We were great against Roma for 85 minutes or so.
charles is a hard working player, working hard to give his clubmates changes to score.
Don’t inflect too much rules and give him freedom to evolve and to play out his speed and precision.
And if you don’t like him, send him back to Bruges, we are rather in need of talented players of his pedigree
no sweat no glory
Comments section or asylum?
FI, can nothing be done about the unfunny American? It’s a football site, not a tribute to 70’s English “comedians”.
Eh, FI, you got rid of comments from the actual Rosario too. I was hoping for a delicate approach rather than a cluster bomb.