Berardi leads Sassuolo, Inter comes to terms with their mental limits.
– Inter suffer their first defeat of the season against a Sassuolo confirming itself as the killer of greats of our Serie A. The Nerazzurri did not capitalize on Dumfries’ advantage and suffered a comeback in a match that could already have been worth much more than the three points: Simone Inzaghi knew this very well and for this very reason he decided not to make a turnover and rely on the faithful. Beyond the usual, easy, criticisms, Inter pays for this choice given the evident tiredness and lack of clarity of its most important players, Mkhitaryan and Dimarco above all. Sassuolo, on the other hand, manages to beat the two favorites for the Scudetto in the space of four days. Dionisi organized the team well, reacted well to the match and found important tactical solutions on which to build the rest of the season, starting with the inclusion of Viti and Pedersen;
– Marco Parolo on commentary defines him as the “Italian Robben”; beyond the emphasis, Domenico Berardi he is the absolute protagonist of Sassuolo’s victory, thanks to a goal and an assist which confirm, if ever there was a need, the player’s value. In a world where flags no longer exist and professionals live with the list price tattooed on them, Berardi combines both these dimensions and carries Sassuolo on his shoulders as if the rumors of this summer had never existed. However, comparing him to Robben on the basis of the splendid slingshot with which he strikes Sommer is too simplistic. The Calabrian is Sassuolo’s offensive director, the fulcrum of the game around which the whole team revolves, at least from the waist up. Berardi who dispenses passes, passes, assists, who creates spaces with an exceptional vision of the game. But also Berardi who has acquired enough mastery in bank and physical work, as demonstrated by the ball served to Laurientè, in the final, for the missed 1-3. The last time a player was defined as the “Italian Robben” didn’t go very well, in Berardi’s case however the prospect of the big leap is no longer a remote possibility but something that every fan at this point anxiously awaits;
– If Berardi is the best protagonist of the match, all of Sassuolo proves to be an excellent supporting cast. Dionysis he prepares the match well, puts the team on the field well and learns from his mistakes: he organizes an ideal tactical plan to put Inter in crisis, closing spaces excellently with a high but balanced pressing, he has the courage to launch the almost unprecedented pair Erlic-Viti with complete success (with the hope that the former Nice centre-back will definitively replace Tressoldi) and masterfully inserts first Pedersen and then Castillejo into the mix. Precisely the work of the Spaniard and Bajrami, fundamental in shielding Bastoni and Calhanoglu, prevents Inter from thinking, while the former Feyenoord player (who comes from a season as a starter in the Dutch champions) is now ready for the starting shirt instead of a disastrous Vina. It’s not randomness, it’s not mystical, it’s not the market: Sassuolo wins against the big teams because they have individuals who know how to make the difference and a tactical organization that works to perfection in matches like these, when spaces open up and the opponents can’t help but force the play;
– In a match whose progress was in some ways similar to that of last week in the Champions League, Inter once again showed off the defects that have been with them for three years now. Inter seem extremely fragile psychologically when the match does not follow the pre-established plan, and absolutely incapable of recovering matches. When they fail to break through immediately, the Nerazzurri are assailed by an absolutely unjustified nervousness, by a performance anxiety that cannot be explained in any other way other than a strong shyness mixed with defeatism of the players: as against Real Sociedad, the difficulty to impose himself with the game, to overcome the first line of pressing, he immediately cut off the legs of Lautaro and his teammates, despite Dumfries’ advantage. The resulting anxiety produced a deluge of technical errors and long balls which, in Arnautovic’s absence, easily turned into lost balls. Not having managed and closed the match is in itself a huge fault, but even worse is having definitively exited the match after Berardi’s goal. In the following 35 minutes, more than enough time to come back, Inter never took advantage of the huge holes in the defense of a Sassuolo who never took refuge in their fort. However, Inzaghi’s men performed an unnerving sequence of poor passes and controls;
– While the DAZN cameras framed, at the end of the match, the faces of the Inter fans sitting on the bench, the feeling was of having returned to the Champions League final of last June 10, rather than of being on the sixth day of the championship. The disappointment after a bad defeat is legitimate, but the expressions of Dimarco and his teammates suggest that Inzaghi will have to work hard to restore serenity to the group and prevent an unpredictable accident from affecting the health of the group. Inter must mature, and to do so they must learn to metabolize defeat and approach matches better. Matches last 90 minutes and the season ends in June.
2023-09-27 22:36:21
#Inter #Sassuolo #scattered #considerations
