Inter 2 – Udinese 5

Inter fold at home against an Udinese squad that has won 8 in a row 2-5. There certainly aren’t any heroes to take away from a game like this in which the players were only hoping for the end to come as quickly as possible. Unfortunately Udinese were just as happy to play the entire 90 of the last game as Inter were to pray for its demise.

For one side of this contest it was a training match in which attendance was voluntary and punished. The other half of the contest saw itself gain what would in all likelihood be another pointless European experience. It’s hard to say who the winners are. It most certainly isn’t the supporters of Italian football who will pay for another season of a big club missing European money and coefficients. But then, this isn’t the only game occurring on Sunday at 2:45 EST in the US in which the supporters of Italian football were shortchanged...right Bonolis and Fiorentina?

I think it’s pretty worthless to go through each player and ream them a new one just because more likely than not, they were just hoping to get through the game uninjured so that vacation time wouldn’t have to get eaten up by surgery and rehab. I will say this, if this season has to be remembered for the amount of losses by the club, I personally will remember it for the advent of Juan, Kovacic and Handanovic. As bad as this team was at times, these 3 will give hope to the others that we have found in previous seasons like Naga, Guarin and Ranocchia.

But it’s hard for me to make any conclusions about the team from this game except this: if there was a game that I would point at and said, “The players weren’t with Stramaccioni here!” This is the game I would point at. And it makes me sad for the team to have come this far to bow out without any pride, but it also makes me sad for the coach. He obviously has a good relationship with the individual players, but perhaps he lacks a bit of menace over them. And it’s chronic to the history of the team under Moratti. The coach doesn’t have – again Mourinho the exception – the whip to tear performances out of the players consistently. You want a reason for Pazza Inter? Here it is: as long as the team is allowed by Moratti to rise and fall on the whims of the players and not restrained to a consistent level from the coach through fear of employment/embarrassment there is going to be outings like this one. The players have a good relationship with Strama but there isn’t any menace to it. The love is unconditional, and it shouldn’t be. Is this his flaw? That he wasn’t strong enough with the players or is it to be part of the legacy Moratti leaves us with, that there needed to be a stronger man then him to be able to get his money’s worth out of the players?

All that being said about the motivation – or lack thereof – in the players yesterday, I will say that it was worth the price of admission to see another youth player playing in the defense for a full 90. I am a total mark for the youth players getting time on the senior team. Pasa and Benassi getting more time in this game – as they should, considering – was a smart move. No one is going to remember anything about this game, really so if they made a dozen mistakes… who cares?

Now for some house keeping. There will be an end of season review, player eval and there will of course be rumor updates, because a transfer window without rumors is like a fish without a bicycle. How many I inevitably work with depends on how maso I feel.

FORZA INTER