Inter, the scudetto and the club’s structure: Vocalelli’s comment

Alessandro Vocalelli

April 28 – 09:31 – MILAN

It would be a mistake, and it would be short-sighted, if we reduced everything to a sixteen point advantage over second in the standings. A margin so large that it gave Inter arithmetic certainty. The scudetto is in fact the seal, the well-deserved symbol, of an overwhelming superiority over the competition. But what should make the opponents reflect, and suggest a boost to their projects, is the how versus when of this Nerazzurri success. How did the Inter managers manage to dig such a deep furrow? With serious, effective planning, which means thinking about the present, stamping it with strong choices, while at the same time imagining the future.

separation from rivals

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The title that Inzaghi and the team will celebrate on and off the pitch on this Sunday at the end of April is in fact something that goes well beyond a “simple” finish line achieved with arms raised, without the obligation to look over one’s shoulders: because the gap is at least five curves. And it is from here, from an objective examination of the situation, that the rivals should start. Called to resolve some primary issues. Milan and Juve, for example, are grappling with discussions regarding coaches. In short, we must start again from the foundations, because it is the coach who has to chart – in harmony with the club – the path. But ultimately it is the same for many others: the two Romans have recently chosen their technical guides, replacing two points of reference such as Mourinho and Sarri. Napoli, after three changes on the bench, feel the strong need to give themselves a solid structure again. Demonstrating that it is not enough to try to replicate the past – by dictating or imposing a form – to obtain the same results. The arithmetic formulas – 4-3-3 or 5-3-2, 4-4-2 or who knows what else – simply represent a stroke on a blank sheet of paper. Which must be filled with sighs, ambitions, convictions. Football is much more than a mathematical exercise. It’s head and heart. And it cannot be reduced to a pattern. This is why the current advantage over the competition, called upon to respond, goes – as we were saying – well beyond the sixteen points with five corners to go.

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the value of managers

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Inter’s advantage is determined by the managers, by Inzaghi, by the players. And from a property that – can we say? – however, it has clear strategic merits. If only because from Marotta to the coach, and through to many players, there was evidently someone who made these choices. And now we have a very effective three-story structure. 1) A management that knows how to anticipate the market and the competition. 2) A coach who has been there for three years, in the name of continuity, and – compared to many situations – already knows how and where to intervene, how and where one can grow and improve. 3) A team that is a perfect cocktail between young people and more experienced players, because there is no project linked to the registry. But more simply a long bridge that links the various generations in the name of quality. This is why two like Frattesi and Asllani – who would be top starters almost everywhere – represent internal resources that are still partially unexplored. And that’s why two like Zielinski and Taremi, at the dawn of their thirties, are already in the pits to ensure more fuel and more experience. Because it is in this, in the ability to think of one success while imagining another, that – as we were saying – Inter has moved in recent years. Managing, if you think about it, to cushion without repercussions – indeed – departures that could really have been the basis of remorse and regrets. From Lukaku to Hakimi, from Onana to Skriniar, from Perisic to Brozovic, from Dzeko to many others, an almanac could be filled with excellent transfers, which in other places – and in other clubs – would have inflated the talk of preventive alibis. Inside of. For someone who leaves there is always someone else ready to replace him. With Lukaku, who in a crazy summer of second thoughts suddenly decides not to be found on the phone anymore, paradoxically elected as the symbol of an Inter that always knows how to regenerate. Mirroring himself in Thuram and his phenomenal run. Always three steps ahead and his opponents frantically chasing him. It is from here, even ideally, that he starts again at the end of April. There is a team on the run: and not just because of what the rankings clearly say.