Frank De Boer loses 13 (14?) players to International Duty

Now that Round 2 of Serie A has concluded players are departing to join their national teams for friendlies or World Cup Qualifiers. Typically I 100% hate these international breaks but this one actually provides a unique opportunity for Frank De Boer to have some extra (needed) time to work with his (leftover) players to help them understand his tactics and vision for the team. Unfortunately many of the players that are leaving are his best players, which means they will be a little behind everybody else once they get back.

Here is the list of departing players:

Assane Gnoukouri and Guy Eloge Yao : Ivory Coast vs. Burkina Faso (U-23 Friendly, 8/31)

Antonio Candreva and Eder Citadin Martins: Italy vs. France (Friendly, 9/1) and Israel vs. Italy (WCQ, 9/1)

• Eder must love International duty because ever since he joined Inter, that’s the only time he ever really scores.

Geoffrey Kondogbia: Italy vs. France (Friendly, 9/1) and Belarus vs. France (WCQ, 9/6)

• How did that even happen...?

Stevan Jovetic: Romania vs. Montenegro (WCQ, 9/4)

• Will he even still be an Inter player by the time that fixture takes place? Who knows

Marcelo Brozovic and Ivan Perisic: Croatia vs. Turkey (WCQ, 9/5)

• It’s also unclear if Brozovic will still be an Inter player by the end of the international break.

Ever Banega: Argentina vs. Uruguay (WCQ, 9/1) and Venezuela vs. Argentina (WCQ, 9/6)

Gary Medel: Paraguay vs. Chile (WCQ, 9/1) and Chile vs. Bolivia (WCQ, 9/6)

• Show of hands, how many people think Juan Antonio Pizzi saw yesterday’s match and though he should try Medel out as an attacking midfielder for the national team?

João Miranda and Gabriel Barbosa: Ecuador vs. Brazil (WCQ, 9/1) and Brazil vs. Colombia (WCQ, 9/6)

• Yes Barbosa hasn’t officially signed with the club but it’s so close to being official I’m just gonna risk jinxing it by including him anyways.

Jeison Murillo: Colombia vs. Venezuela (WCQ, 9/1) and Brazil vs. Colombia (WCQ, 9/6).

João Mario: Portugal vs. Gibraltar (Friendly, 9/1) and Switzerland vs. Portugal (WCQ, 9/6).

With those players gone plus the injuries to Marco Andreolli and Cristian Ansaldi, FdB only has 13 senior players available: all 3 goalkeepers, Andrea Ranocchia, Caner Erkin (who should be leaving soon) and the rest of the fullbacks (shocking that none of them were called up to international duty right?), Felipe Melo, Rodrigo Palacio, Mauro Icardi, and Jonathan Biabiany. While that isn’t an optimal group of players some extra time with the fullbacks and Mauro Icardi wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world. Plus maybe some 1 on 1 time with Ranocchia could be good for him.