Inter have now made it 6 wins in a row and 5 successive clean sheets, after an aesthetically pleasing 5-0 win over Salernitana.
There were so many positives in this match and it was the perfect way to start the weekend! We are now sitting 4 points clear on top of the table.
Let’s look a bit further into the match itself.
Man of the Match –
I just can’t fault this guy after another special performance. Hakan Calhanoglu has been on a mission for the past month to prove all his haters wrong.
Ever since the Milan game, the confidence being shown is adding another element to this Inter team. We saw Hakan provide two assists today which now puts him at 6 goals and 7 assists in 16 Serie A matches.
The first assist was Inter’s first goal of the match, and it’s only right that it’s come from another set piece. This team look very dangerous from every set piece as we seem to create a great chance and today was no different.
Perisic beat his man from the corner, then smartly placed the ball past the Salernitana keeper into the back of the net.
The second assist was the best goal of the match as it was a fantastic movement in transition.
Sanchez broke from the back field passing to Dzeko in space, Dzeko then found Calhanoglu on the edge of the box before he put Sanchez through on goal. Sanchez would make no mistake as he smashed the ball into the bottom corner.
There is no making up for the player we lost in Eriksen. However, Hakan is playing the exact way which Inzaghi envisions his side to play so it’s a great pairing.
Tactically impressive –
The best thing about Inzaghi’s Inter compared to Conte’s Inter is that any player can be at any position on the field, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Inzaghi’s style is almost like “run anywhere as long as you have someone covering you”. We’ve seen Bastoni, Perisic, Dumfries and D’Ambrosio make long runs up the field without causing any imbalance to the team.
These tactics are finding out opposition teams, and makes it difficult for our opponents to figure out what’s happening. The perfect example was Dzeko’s assist for Dumfries today as the defence were completely caught off-guard.
Dzeko was able to make a superb run as Brozovic put him into space. The Bosnian then had enough smarts to put the ball across the face of the goal. Dumfries made no mistake smashing the ball into the crossbar as the ball bounced over the line.
We need to praise the club, players and most importantly Inzaghi. He could’ve easily made excuses after losing both Hakimi and Lukaku, yet he decided to go to work. Finding ways to make this Inter team competitive as Simone now has us in first position and through to a knockout match against Liverpool in the Champions League.
A place we haven’t comfortably been in a very long time so applause needs to be given. We can’t get carried away, as we haven’t won anything yet but the signs are very good at the moment.
Special mention –
After opening the season strongly we then saw Lautaro struggle and run into a poor patch of form.
A credit to him, as he’s come back stronger than ever in the last 5 league matches. We’ve seen Lautaro add 6 goals and 1 assists since the match against Napoli.
I believe Lautaro is a confidence player so lean patches and hot streaks are something we need to get accustomed to seeing in the future. Right now though, he’s definitely on a hot streak as he only played about 40 minutes today and was able to grab his goal.
This is what the great strikers do, and we definitely have that in Lautaro. He will only keep improving as the season continues, so fingers crossed he can help us go back to back in Serie A, and also give us a great opportunity against Liverpool.
Where to next?
Inter will host their final game of 2021 at the San Siro against Torino. If Inter win this fixture, they would’ve gone the entire year of 2021 undefeated at home. Potentially, the record could go to 19 wins and 2 draws which is a mind-blowing statistic.
Prediction – Inter 3-0
As always, Forza Inter!
