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The last 30+ days came with a ton of speculation on how Inter Milan would bolster its forces to make a push for the Champions League in the final half of the season.
But, it never happened.
Sure, we picked up Barcelona midfielder Rafinha and Benfica defender Lisandro Lopez, but that’s about it.
So, to be clear, we got a midfielder who has been on the bench more than on the pitch and a defender who has been good but has also been not-so-good – suggesting a lack of consistency.
On the flip side, we parted ways with midfielder Joao Mario and defender Yuto Nagatomo and failed to find any significant backup to what our utterly lackluster attacking has been of late.
We basically swapped personnel.
Not sure if that was the plan all along, but for all the discussion of the genius of Walter Sabatini and Piero Ausilio to construct deals that left little financial exposure to the team seemed to produce a whole lot of nothing over the last month.
All the talk of Paris Saint-Germain’s Javier Pastore or Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge were for nothing as Pastore is staying in Paris and Sturridge was sent out on loan to West Bromwich Albion just before the transfer window closed.
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Now, I am not a pie-in-the-sky person and I knew as soon as Suning Group said there was no money for the transfer window and that any loans would have to be creative in nature, we wouldn’t be making any blockbuster signings.
But, I figured we would address what we need – better attacking options in the midfield and an attempt to shore up our defense (which hasn’t been all that bad to be honest) – but I am not all convinced we did that.
Perhaps we dealt Mario who didn’t seem to have his head in the game for Rafinha who is likely itching to play consistently on the pitch. Then, we let Nagatomo go to Turkey to get more playing time so that we can see the full potential of Dalbert or marked improvement by Davide Santon.
Maybe Luciano Spalletti plans to tinker with the lineup more now that puts players like Joao Cancelo Matias Vecino in attack and moves Borja Valero to a defensive position.
There’s also the possibility that we are going to change things up a bit offensively because, let’s be honest, other teams have figured out our offensive strategy and it isn’t really working anymore.
I still have hope that we make the Champions League. I still have hope that we halt this four-game tying streak and I still have hope that we will find that attack we Interisti have been holding our breaths for all season long. Is it Ivan Perisic moving to the center? How about Rafinha as a trequartista, fulfilling a role we have been looking for?
How about Milan Skriniar and Lopez becoming an “Iron Curtain” of sorts on defense?
I would like to think we break the slump, finish in the top four and tweak things a bit in the summer before having a breakout season next year.
Hey, a guy can dream right?
What do you think? Post your comments below!