An absolutely shockingly bad performance by Inter today as they lost 3-0 at home to Bologna. Inter have now lost four of their last five Serie A games and that third Champions League place looks like a distant hope now.
Sometimes teams play poorly, and I understand that, but what worried me tonight was how confused and out of sorts Inter looked. There was no rhythm to their attack, no coordination between midfield and attack. How many times did we see a striker make a run in one direction only for the ball to be played somewhere else? It was as if they had never played together before.
Inter won trophies on the strength of its defense, but that strength is gone. Luciuo and Ranocchia were shocking tonight and were at fault for all three Bologna goals.
Defensive Mistakes
Lucio got beat far too easily by Ramirez on a thrown in and his cross eventually found its way to Di Vaio to score.
A minute later it was Ranocchia’s turn to give away a goal, as he chested a simple long ball into the path of Di Vaio for the second goal.
On the third, Acquafresca ran past Nagatomo and Lucio was to slow to come over and cut him off before he scored.
Missed Chances
Inter missed three great chances to score. When it was 0-0 Maicon was unmarked from a Sneijder corner but headed straight at the goalkeeper. Later in the first half Forlan was one on one with Gillet but the Bologna keeper saved it with his legs.
And then in the second half, after a great run from Nagatomo, he squared the ball to Forlan, whose weak effort was saved by Gillet.
Coaching Decisions
I don’t understand Ranieri’s system. Why play Forlan and Sneijder out on the wings when they are both much more effective playing down the middle? When trailing 2-0, why take off a forward (Forlan) and bring on a midfield player Poli. And speaking of Poli, why wasn’t he starting in the first place?
With Ranieri’s system their is no width. Sneijder looks to turn everything inside onto his right foot, while there is nobody taking on defenders on the right. It makes defending against Inter so easy as they funnel everything down the middle of the park.
So really disappointing display and it does not give me much hope or optimism for the Champions League trip to Marseille in midweek.
What did you think of the game and the performance?
