It’s another championship: Inter fans must accept the derby and Milan; Inter now have to take countermeasures
The spontaneous question is: how is it possible that Inter makes all of Italy rub their eyes against Atalanta, all of Europe against Manchester City, and literally alternates immediately afterwards respectively the mediocre performance in Monza and the inadequate display in the derby?
Simple. Because it’s football.
Because no one has two consecutive seasons like the one Inter had last year.
Because it’s an impossible pace, because it’s physiological that your hunger isn’t the same, because there are also opponents who get stronger and have greater motivation.
And, in the case of Inter, there is also a spell of quality in certain elements that had stopped time, but which necessarily cannot last forever without the performance being dented.
Because Inzaghi and the others rightly pointed out the error in the approach, in the head. And it was the same speech against Monza. There it was an opponent that you had taken lightly.
Here you obviously couldn’t have taken the commitment lightly, but equally obviously you didn’t have that fury, that sacrifice and that determination that in the derby are the basic ingredient, regardless of your quality, and that not by chance moved Milan beyond their limits.
It’s physiological, that’s how the world goes. Which doesn’t mean giving up to defeat and the passing of time, because the difference the great teams make is also knowing how to treasure the good that remains alongside the mistakes.
But perhaps Inter should open up a constructive reflection: the Nerazzurri must ask themselves if they can always sustain the beautiful and expensive way of playing, which evidently also requires optimal athletic condition. Now, it’s not that that condition isn’t there now, because otherwise Atalanta and Manchester City wouldn’t be explained. And that you simply can’t maintain it at every engagement like you did last year. And so Inter must learn to optimize its greater quality without necessarily having to work hard to win.
For example, in the derby, it could have happened that Inter started by letting Milan vent and giving the initiative. As long as it was clear that the transitions required cynicism and sacrifice in the movements without the ball, and not the passivity that Inter had, trusting in their superiority that sooner or later would have had to come out by grace received. You can also not always be a hammer, you can also be anvil when needed, but hard as iron and yet capable of adapting like rails heated by heat.
Metaphor aside, Inter can and must find the right countermeasures to the post-scudetto problems. Quality can drop. The spirit of sacrifice never.