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Champion's League Final: A Historic Defeat for Inter Milan
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In this episode, the hosts review the Champions League final where Inter Milan faced a devastating 5-0 defeat against Paris Saint-Germain. They analyze the implications of this loss on Inter's overall season, which ended without any trophies despite being close to achieving a treble. The discussion shifts to Simone Inzaghi's future as the head coach, evaluating his performance and the challenges ahead for the aging squad of Inter Milan. The conversation delves into the current state of Inter Milan, focusing on the coaching situation under Simone Inzaghi, the potential for managerial changes, and the club's upcoming summer transfer strategy. The hosts discuss the implications of keeping or replacing Inzaghu, the need for strategic signings, and the overall direction of the club as they aim to remain competitive in Serie A and European competitions.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Kaltrow Culture. On today's episode, we will be reviewing the Champions League final, which saw a 5-0 thrashing of Inter Milan at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain. Then we will be analyzing Inter Milan's season as a whole, defining it as a success or a failure.
00:00:15
Speaker
Lastly, we're going to wrap things up with a discussion of Simone Inzaghi's future at Inter Milan.
00:00:24
Speaker
Regazzi, thanks for tuning in to another episode. You have all your hosts here. This is Vos. We got Mots. We have Logues as well. Nobody on a hiatus today. We had the champion season has officially come to an end. We have some international games coming up.
00:00:37
Speaker
Club World Cup coming up. um So we're go have football all summer long. The season is officially over. I think i the Club World Cup might be considered the season. i actually don't know. That's an interesting one to try to figure out. But we're all here today. We're talking Inter Milan and everything going on there, but how are we doing guys? It was a busy weekend for all. I was at a wedding. Moths was at a wedding.
00:00:56
Speaker
Lugs, know what you're doing. Probably drinking. And I was watching the Champions League final. had to cover it for one of us. had to cover it. Paisans, good to be back off the hiatus. Listen, we got a good episode for you guys today. a little bit of a new structure coming up. so We have a ton of content coming your way.
00:01:12
Speaker
You do know where to find us on all the socials. ex Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, at Couchal Culture FC. And on your streaming devices, Spotify and Apple Pods.
00:01:24
Speaker
Mots, how are we feeling today? We're feeling good. Fresh off a nice inter thrashing in the champions league final, which was beautiful to watch. I know that on Calcio culture, we take a new school approach of supporting the Italian teams in Europe. And I think if you guys weren't watching the pregame Del Puro said it perfectly.
00:01:44
Speaker
He said, you can support the team up until the final. And then when it's the final, you can't. The rivalries come first. He said, you're not supporting specifically the team. So you don't want Inter to win when they're playing. You want Italy and Italy side to go as far as possible.
00:02:05
Speaker
Then it gets to the final and it's okay. They can't win it. it has to be your team to win it. I did exactly that. Del Piero read my mind. Glad that and we had a representative, although not a very good representative in the game, but happy that they lost.
00:02:20
Speaker
Let's get yeah was the best showing for a Serie A squad aside. I was also on the same train. Believe it or not, Milan is still red. AC Milan won trophy this season. Inter Milan, zero trophies. Just don't forget that it was beautiful to see Inter go trophy list. They squandered every single opportunity they had at some hardware this year.
00:02:43
Speaker
And you know whose side I was on on Saturday. It also helped that had I had a PSG future from the knockout runs. So if you ever need any betting tips, you come to me because who had the best Colby's record this season?
00:02:55
Speaker
was me. Master Huge asterisk there, but let's get right into it. Like we said here, Inter lost 5-0. Worst ever lost in Champions League final history.
00:03:06
Speaker
Simone Inzaghi is now 0-2 in Champions League finals. And Morata, who is the president at Inter, Yeah, president of Anser. His 0-4 in his last four finals, he has also been a part of the last four Italian clubs reaching a final.
00:03:19
Speaker
So we're now on a four losing streak for Italian clubs generally in in Champions League finals. And ultimately, this kind of sums up Inter Milan's season as a whole, right? Second best across the board, runners up for the Scudetto, runners up in the Copa losing to AC Milan, now runners up in Champions League, and then going out in the semifinal of the Copa Italia to AC Milan once again.
00:03:40
Speaker
But look, you want to just quickly talk us through kind of what happened? I know five nothing. we can probably go through this pretty quickly. I mean, very overwhelmingly, they got dismantled and it wasn't there's not much analysis to do because PSG kind of just had their day with them.
00:03:56
Speaker
There isn't much analysis to do, but there was a couple of key points that really turned this game in PSG's favor. And I think overarching theme here, and it was probably the biggest stat going into the game.
00:04:08
Speaker
PSG's average age their lineup was about 25 years old. Inter's was 30.4 years old. I think it might have been younger. 24. think it was it was young They still have Marquinhos in there, and I think Donovan was getting old these days. But in any case, the age gap was at least five years.
00:04:25
Speaker
And we had been hinting at and alluding to it all season that the really only biggest difference that Inter inter had between last year's Scudetto run and this year's absolute debacle of no hardware was that one more year of age, one more year on the legs. And this was a very long season for that Inter squad.
00:04:42
Speaker
especially the last couple of weeks. Even though Inzaki tried to rotate the squad at the end of the day, you could tell, and it was just so apparent in this game, that the age got to them. From the very start, PSG's press was unbelievable. It was incredibly organized.
00:04:58
Speaker
One thing that I noticed, and you don't typically... point this out, but Sommer was actually horrendous on the ball, and that's only because of Ousmane Dembele and his ability to track the ball up front.
00:05:09
Speaker
That front three for PSG between Dembele, Due, and Kfereskelia just had their day with the back line with Sommer on Inter, and so that really set the precedent.
00:05:21
Speaker
The other thing that I thought was a huge... tactical play from Luis Enrique and PSG was that they clogged up the middle so much and forced the ball to the wingbacks for Inter. Now, he didn't on the flip side, you think that that's one of their strengths, but they couldn't, they didn't have nothing to do with the ball once it got out wide. Even to Rahm and Lataro, when they had the ball were forced out wide.
00:05:46
Speaker
If you look at the average positioning map for PSG, they controlled the middle of the field. And if you look at it comparatively to how Inter had set up and where their average position was, Varela, Hakann, and Hank were all right next to each other in the middle of the pitch and everything else was strewn out to the wide.
00:06:06
Speaker
So there was a huge disparity, a huge disconnect between all the lines that Inter had, where typically that's kind of their strength, the connectivity between the back line to the midfield, to that front line.
00:06:17
Speaker
And so... Yes, maybe he's from an analytical point of view, there wasn't much to say because they just got absolutely battered. But I do think that those two points was a huge had huge contributions to why we did see the scoreline that we did.
00:06:30
Speaker
But in any case, shouts to the front line of this PSG attack. They had come to form. At the perfect time. I don't know if you remember back to it, but PSG actually came in 26th, I think, in the table.
00:06:43
Speaker
They had to play their way in to the knockout rounds. But the way that they had played and the way that they had progressed through the stages of the Champions League here, they just happened to be playing their best ball at the right time. And Inter, on the other hand, was playing their worst ball at the worst time.
00:06:58
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting when you say that because up until the Barcelona tie, they had been, I mean, they still were presumably the best defensive team in the Champions League. But you just go back to last two rounds conceding six goals over two legs against Barcelona. Now you have five goals in one game.
00:07:12
Speaker
So it's the defense really let them down at the end of the day. And I don't think it's necessarily surprise that PSG won. I think if Inter won equally as much so, it wouldn't have been a surprise. It's the manner in which this actually happened that makes it so shocking because this is not...
00:07:27
Speaker
an accurate representation of what Inter Milan were for a lot of this season. They were one of the hardest teams in Europe to score against consistently against some top clubs. But I think what it comes down to is something that Mons had actually alluded to at the very beginning of this season in the Scudetto race saying he didn't believe that Inter was going to run away with it because people would be adjusting to how they're playing and being able to kind of compete with that and adjust for it.
00:07:50
Speaker
And you saw a manager in Luis Enrique who has tactical plans for every game he goes into in a way that he wants to play, which ultimately Inzaghi kind of does the same thing every game.
00:08:01
Speaker
And they weren't able to exert their will on a highly skilled PSG team. I'd even say Luis Enrique kind of did... Nzaghi ball better than Nzaghi in the fact that they were, PSG has been over the last, since December, the most fluid team in Europe. And Nzaghi usually has that with the center backs playing striker and the center mids playing defense.
00:08:26
Speaker
You saw... ah a PSG team who the midfielders did not have one single position. They were interchanging. The front three did not have one single position, constantly interchanging.
00:08:38
Speaker
Hakimi was playing striker. He scored their first goal. Didn't even didn't celebrate as he was an inter player before. I thought that was very respectful, but... The point is, that's what you see with Nzaghi ball.
00:08:48
Speaker
You see guys all over the pitch. You don't know where they're at and what position they're in, and people get caught out of place. And they did it perfectly to enter. And specifically on that left-hand side, which is normally pretty stout with Bastoni, but DeMarco was out of position everywhere.
00:09:06
Speaker
A Cherubi looked like he couldn't stay in front of one of them because Dembele and Cavada were too quick for him. so It was a mismatch all over the pitch. There were tired legs, old legs for Inter.
00:09:17
Speaker
And hats off to PSG. They deserve to win. i tidbit cat to Luis Enrique as well. Yeah, tip the cap for him, very happy for him, especially after all the hardship that he's gone through family-wise.
00:09:28
Speaker
But I do also just want to point out, and I know that we want to talk about Inter and the future of Inter Milan, but I do just want to say that I think that this PSG team needs to go down in the history books as how to construct a roster, how to construct a lineup.
00:09:45
Speaker
Because... As of the past couple of years, and I think it would have played more so into Inter's favor if this was the case, that a lot of teams are looking for that one guy to take over, that one point person.
00:09:57
Speaker
They had Mbappe, they let him, and he walked, right? Real Madrid had ah had a terrible season compared what they used to while they had Mbappe. PSG now has a mixture of a bunch of different guys.
00:10:10
Speaker
No one point man in particular, although Dembele will naturally take it home because of the his stats. And I think Kvairz Skellia had ah a very average output, but was obviously a huge...
00:10:20
Speaker
portion of this team, there was no one place that you could say where this attack was going to come from. It came from everywhere, whether it was Hakimi from the wingback position, whether it was Kavaritskelia driving with the ball, whether it was Dembele laying it off, whether it was Matinia who had an absolute game in the final, driving the ball, playing one-two with Dembele and then playing the final ball to Due.
00:10:44
Speaker
It came from every which way. And I think that needs to be understood and replicated going forward because at some point, and I think Inter does it a ton, especially with a Cherubi.
00:10:54
Speaker
If you have that one guy that can just be taken out of games, you kind of lose your spunk. You lose that green thing. PSG had it from every single angle. And if Inter even had a game plan for one or two of those attacks, they still had three more in their pocket. So again, like Mott said, tip of the cap to Luis Enrique, tip of the cap to PSG, tip the cap to this whole team in a well-earned first Champions League final win.
00:11:17
Speaker
One more thing that I'll say, and then we can kind of shift to the Inter conversation. Inter didn't have the ball a lot. They had 40% possession, but when they did, it was better for PSG because they were making mistakes all over the ball. They could not beat the press of PSG, and a lot of that is because of Dembele. And Luis Enrique actually came out and said after the game, Dembele should win the Ballon d'Or on this game alone just because of his pressing.
00:11:43
Speaker
Summer had no idea what to do with the ball. he was making mistakes. He was giving the ball up. I think they scored one or two goals off of a direct inter mistake from their press. So Dembele, he didn't have like the stats for like the gaining the ball in terms of stealing the ball back high up inter's pitch, but every, all the work he did off the ball and pressing led to a lot of goals.
00:12:04
Speaker
And That's kind of also as good as a job as Luis Enrique did. That's a little bit on Anzagi because, listen, you got your ass kicked in the first half 2-0. The game is still in your hands. and You came back from 2-0 before.
00:12:17
Speaker
Make some changes. No changes were made at all. They kept trying to play interball, which we have seen pay off. But he clearly had your number and you made no changes, which I think is a big ah big blunder on Anzagi.
00:12:33
Speaker
Yeah, and but I think one of the things that makes me feel a little bit worried about this team going forward is that one of their biggest strengths actually is when you press them, them hurting you.
00:12:45
Speaker
Because usually Hakan and Barella are so good at beating that first line of pressure and then releasing a ball to like their wing back, whether it be Lataro dropping in. That one pass, and then they kill you on that. And the fact that PSG were able to snuff that maybe goes to show they are too old. They're getting a little bit older.
00:13:03
Speaker
And on the flip side of things, kind of their strengths, I mean, their weaknesses were really exposed in Federico DiMarco, which we've talked about on numerous occasions, being his defensive side of the game, being weaker. We talk about it when he goes to Italy and whether or not he can even play for Italy because of how weak he is defensively.
00:13:18
Speaker
And then on the flip side, also Acherby's biggest weaknesses are exposed. His best trait is he locks down number nines, like pure, strong, dominant nines. They didn't have that. They had two quick guys going at him and it was a problem.
00:13:33
Speaker
It's going to be interesting going forward. And I think this kind of flips the script now to Inter as a whole this season in kind of a discussion going forward. But to start with Inter this season, now we talked about it, the summary of the season, runner-ups across the board.
00:13:48
Speaker
And the question is, was this a successor or not a success? And that's kind of what we want to talk about with every club. um But we're going to start with Inter Milan, because if you look at it, they were almost perfect. And that that is kind of what you can point to. They were games away from a treble.
00:14:03
Speaker
They could have had four trophies this season. But on the flip side of things, they had none. well That's your answer. They had no trophies. And I do not think as a fan of it any fan of Inter can say that you had a successful season with no hardware coming out of the season, coming out of four chances over the course and how it went down, really.
00:14:23
Speaker
We talked about it before we got on here, but the inability for Inzaghi to get this crew motivated to bring home the trophy and the continued opportunity Poor performances on that final stage just goes to show that this team just wasn't in it.
00:14:37
Speaker
They didn't have that motivation all year long to win any of to bring home any of these trophies. And I think that that might be, do they feel like they had already done it? i don't I don't know. I think that there's a lot of players in this team that can be hungry, but it comes from the top. And they just weren't ready for for any of the sides that they faced when it came down to the to the big game.
00:14:59
Speaker
Yeah, if you think, if you're saying this a successful season for Inter, you're grasping at nothing. This, you cannot label this a successful season at all. 13 points less than last season in the Serie Letting Napoli, you had Scudetto in your hands multiple times.
00:15:17
Speaker
and you fumbled the bag. You had the Supercopa in your hands and you fumbled the bag. You put up an absolute goose egg of a game against a rival in Milan for the semifinals of the Coppa Italia.
00:15:32
Speaker
And then you weren't even on the pitch in the Champions League. It's hard to argue this being a successful season in any shape and form for Inter. And it's a crazy statement to say because as you mentioned, Boast, they were inches away from a treble.
00:15:47
Speaker
So this is not a successful season. They have a lot of questions that need to be answered in the offseason. Yeah, I agree. It was unsuccessful. And I think that going forward now, it's more so looking ahead, right? Like this season's done.
00:16:02
Speaker
Everybody would agree it's unsuccessful. But the question's now, where do we go from here? Because you have a squad that's kind of an aging squad with a little bit of youth in it. Some good signings in Zalewski has been made permanent.
00:16:14
Speaker
You still have young guys in Bastoni, Augusto, DeMarco, Dumperiz. You got to keep those players. Yeah. And I think if they had won the Champions League final, the case for keeping everybody is much stronger. And the willingness for people to stay on is much stronger.
00:16:30
Speaker
But the amount of emotional and psychological taxation that has gone into this, and now they've come up short twice... just in the Champions League. They come up short in the Scudetto race three times.
00:16:42
Speaker
How willing are players there going to be to stay with each other at this point when other big clubs come knocking? I mean, Latar Martinez is going to be linked away every year, and he is the captain of the club, but at some point, is he going to be... Who who knows who's going to show up Because it is somebody every year, and we don't know. It might be a Barcelona. We don't know. It it might be a Real Madrid. I think that's a stretch. He's linked to Atletico right now, but I mean, to Rom...
00:17:06
Speaker
has been linked away. Barella usually doesn't get a lot of rumors, but he's one of the best midfielders in the world. He's going to be linked to away. Dumfries as well. So there's going to be a lot of things that they need answers to answer this offseason. But what I want to bring up here is...
00:17:21
Speaker
This last four years under more, more so Murata than, than Nzaghi before we kind of have the Nzaghi discussion, right? He built up Juventus and had that powerhouse for that nine years, was able to reach two Champions League finals and lost as well as as Vos mentioned earlier.
00:17:40
Speaker
But if you really zoom out and what Inter have done under Murata, It's vastly underachieved because this inter side has been the best team in Italy for the last five, six years.
00:17:55
Speaker
And to get one Scudetto, a couple Coppa Italia is like they vastly under. We include Conte era. It's two Scudettos. And you'll remember that this happened to Juventus, like Beppe Moranta built them up and they reigned for nine years and then poof, they.
00:18:14
Speaker
Because their average age was 32, they were paying everybody way over what they should have been paying. He made a ton of maybe not bad decisions because they got they got to the Champions League, but he over he gambled too much, didn't deliver, and now Inter's going to be stuck.
00:18:34
Speaker
And it might take a while for them to get out of this position. ah From my perspective, this is, i think, with the with the Champions League losses, officially the end of the cycle for Inter.
00:18:46
Speaker
I say that because a lot of the guys that have now been very pivotal, Hakann, I would say, Cherby even for this past two seasons, ah Somer now for this past season, Darmian, who's been in and out of the lineup and very important. Darmian is not, good enough you can't have him as an anchor of this dynasty. Not anchor, but he's definitely been around since how long did he come from? No, no. Ignore that one, everyone.
00:19:11
Speaker
The rest of this squad is now going to have this whole prisoner's dilemma because it's going to be, okay, what is Lattaro thinking? What is Dumfries thinking? What is Borello thinking? Are they going to stay?
00:19:22
Speaker
Are they willing to weather the storm now? And every single player is going to be thinking the same thing. And it's going to be who's going to let it, who's going to break the dam first. And so I do think that if you get one guy to go,
00:19:35
Speaker
du for Dumfries gets led away. I really don't think Borella's going anywhere. He's had offers throughout the couple of seasons here, and he's always decided to stay. i do think Lattaro could go. But once one goes, I think the dam breaks, and you're going to very quick outflow of a bunch of guys.
00:19:50
Speaker
I know we noted earlier that Fertesi has already linked away to Napoli. So there's a couple of guys here that if they're not willing to stick it out, this quote-unquote maybe hardship next year, I don't know.
00:20:02
Speaker
I think that this, like Mats was saying, this could be the start of a couple of very hard years for this inter-squad. Yeah, I think it's a little premature to say that the cycle is over because there are so many key guys that are very young. And I mean, particularly you look at the Bastoni, DeMarco, Perella.
00:20:18
Speaker
If you have those three guys, the cycle's not over. Like that is the spine of your team. And that there's always guys to add it around there. I think your point, that's a very good point. is if one goes, who else is going to go? I think that is a legitimate point that is the scary part about this.
00:20:33
Speaker
But going back to what you were saying about Maratza Mats is, I actually don't think any of this is on him because he's built the best team in Italy over the last six years, and they are the best team in Italy. And I don't know who would argue against that, that they going into every season, they were not the best club.
00:20:48
Speaker
But wasn't Zaghi the guy is more of the question. I think what is kind of an interesting comparison in the way I've been thinking about kind of managers over the last couple weeks or so, with Juve at the beginning, with Inter Milan now at the beginning, there's there's two kinds of managers, really.
00:21:03
Speaker
There's a one two-year manager, and then there's like your five to six, eight-year manager, right? And at the beginning of both cycles, he went with the mercenary manager, Antonio Conte.
00:21:14
Speaker
We have one year, let's get it done. And then you kind of build off of that. They got it done with Antonio Conte, and then they handed the reins to Inzaghi. It took them two years, yeah but they did get it done, right? Let's get it done right now. We might see that with Napoli, with everything that's going on.
00:21:28
Speaker
But then the reins were handed to Inzaghi. You are the next five-year guy. And this kind of brings us to the Inzaghi conversation now of where do you stand with him? Because I would... Struggle to say that he has succeeded in his role.
00:21:44
Speaker
One Scudetto, two Copa Italia's, two Champions League finals, two Supercopas if we want to throw those in there. But really, you're pointing to the Scudetto's, the Champions League. And I i would say the Copa Italia's are important, but they don't diminish the failures.
00:21:59
Speaker
Being the best team in the league for the four years you've been in the league, one Scudetto, and again, we keep referring to it, in every year, apart from the Napoli year, because they were so much better, when AC Milan won, Inter, it was kind of theirs to grab.
00:22:13
Speaker
This year, everybody would say it was right there to it was right there to grab. And this is what I was saying a couple weeks ago now. do we It's a tough decision for Inter. Do you keep Nzaghi? Or do you let him go? Because the the discussion is what's your next option, but is you is a worse option just staying with the option that isn't particularly working?
00:22:34
Speaker
I also think there's an added layer to this now as well, where Nzagi is taking a step back and kind of seeing what me and Logs just said. Average age of 31, 32.
00:22:45
Speaker
Are all these players going to stay? i got a so two-year, $60 million dollars offer on the table. Maybe I just leave and then they have to go find a new manager. So it's I think both sides need to evaluate it. But I do think that your take from a while ago or from a couple of weeks ago that maybe you do move on from Nzagi,
00:23:04
Speaker
isn't that bad of a take anymore. And I definitely think the four years that he's been at Inter has now been, you can now clarify, like finally classify this as a failure for Inzaghi over the four years, as good as they've been.
00:23:16
Speaker
And he's kind of been able to sneak under the radar by not necessarily delivering trophies because of how beautiful they play. And that's something that Italian teams struggle with. And they really want that is a very,
00:23:29
Speaker
beautiful style, attractive brand of football. He's also done a very good job of bringing in people on freeze and getting the most out of them. Is that more Morata is that Inzaghi? That's a good point because I see both sides because obviously it's good on Inzaghi for getting a lot from somebody like Taran was very underwhelming and the in the Bundesliga, right?
00:23:50
Speaker
And he's gotten a ton out of Taran. But then you look at it in a different light and you say, why on earth did Fertesi not break into this starting lineup? And he kept playing Mkhitaryan, an old man who who also in the Champions final got destroyed. He was not on the pitch, basically.
00:24:07
Speaker
Like, you need to be able to to kind of implement these new signings into your system. And he very much wasn't able to do that. It was only his 11 that...
00:24:18
Speaker
Inter could be playing their beautiful Calcio, right? Like Taremi struggled this year. Arnautovic never really did much when they brought him in, right? There hasn't been a lot of guys that have been brought in that Inzaghi's been able to get the best out of kind and ah kind of teach them his couch oh it's really justice 11 yeah and that that's i i that's part of my reasoning i'm being like the what is in zaki like he isn't really a guy that's going to develop he doesn't think long term and i've i've said this all year he's not like a thinking two to three years ahead kind of guy so then that because that otherwise he'd be playing for tezzy right because i think makatarian did have a good season again
00:24:57
Speaker
but you have to give those guys minutes and let them develop. I would even say as but as much as I don't like Eslani, he should have been playing more given Hakan missed so much of the season. like These are the decisions that need to be made to further the club two to three years out.
00:25:11
Speaker
So if you say he's not good at that, But now he's also not good at finishing things off. I mean, he's clearly shown that he can't out tactic other managers. We talked about it in the league this year.
00:25:23
Speaker
We had basically for the last four weeks, you had a week to prepare for every single game you were playing. Didn't get it done against Lazio. If they beat Lazio, they maybe win the league. You go ahead of points so against Napoli.
00:25:34
Speaker
Didn't get it done there. Couldn't get it done over two legs against AC Milan, who were abysmal the entire season. Couldn't get it done in two Champions League finals, albeit the other one could have gone a little bit differently.
00:25:45
Speaker
And you can just go through the list and it kind of becomes, what is he good at? Good at tactics, but not really getting it done at the end of the day. I just think that his floor is really high.
00:25:58
Speaker
He's a really high floor guy ceiling. It's there, but I don't know if he's ever lived up to that ceiling in any case. You look at the two two of the three seasons that they they really should have won the Scudetto.
00:26:11
Speaker
Where they didn't, you look at that Napoli roster, not very strong. Definitely not stronger than the Inter squad. And you look at the Milan squad from a couple years ago, definitely not as strong as the Inter squad that year.
00:26:22
Speaker
So the expectation there, yes, you you should be winning those Scudettos. For whatever reason, I'm sitting here as you guys are talking and I'm thinking, okay, you let Inzaghi go, but what do you bring like what are you bringing in?
00:26:33
Speaker
and how And what does that floor look like? Because then... you know why is Why is the leash and why is the evaluation here so tough? when And i know what you're going to say, and I'll just counter my own point as soon as I say it, but Klopp won one Premier League title over how many years? Ten years?
00:26:50
Speaker
And we don't win back. Champions League, though. Benzoghi delivers the Champions League. And he won one Champions And again, this is a very different conversation if Saturday goes very differently or even if two years ago it goes very differently. But my point being is...
00:27:03
Speaker
clop We don't look back and say Klopp was a poor nine years at Liverpool, right? And I understand that the comment is going to be, well, Man City's just the better team across that entire timeline.
00:27:14
Speaker
Sure, I get that. But at the same time, why wouldn't why is one of the top clubs in the world in Liverpool not looking to replace Klopp if he's just not getting the job done? well And so i think like so my conclusion there is if I'm inter...
00:27:29
Speaker
What am I bringing in that's going to be better than what Inzaghi has produced? and And where else can you put the blame? Mots, I know you had something to say really, but I just want to say really really quick on Jurgen Klopp.
00:27:41
Speaker
The difference with Jurgen Klopp is when he took over Liverpool, they weren't even competing for anything. Inzaghi took over when this was the best team in the league. Go ahead. Oh, Well, like Logan, to your point of he has a ah high floor, his floor is Supercoppa and a Coppa Italia in the same year.
00:27:59
Speaker
That is probably Inzaghi's floor. He'll get you two trophies and and you could be in the Champions League, like top four. But when you are Inter, as Voz keeps mentioning, the best team, they have the best players, best team.
00:28:11
Speaker
They spent the most money, the highest wage bill, last four years. That is not a good floor. You almost did that this season and you would have been like, we need to do better. The team, like that would be a great, that's great for Lazio when he was on Lazio.
00:28:23
Speaker
That's overachieving for Lazio. That is underachieving for Inter. So it goes to the level of the club that you're at. And I do agree his floor is high, but after two years of a Supercopa and a Copa Italia, you're going to want more for being inter when you keep bringing in better players and but what i would even say further than that is can we say that that's in zoggy's floor or is that just because he has the best players in the league like can we point to that being they are that's the floor because of the manager or they would they get to some appeal i think maybe they get to some appeal legitimately like no no in zoggy has in zoggy very clearly has tactics that's not yeah but He only won the same number of Scudettos as Inzaghi did with a vastly inferior squad.
00:29:09
Speaker
Also got one won in the semifinals of the Champions League. So you can say that, but yes, Inzaghi has clear tactics. You can see instruction on the field. But Carlo Ancelotti is a man manager and is presumably a top five manager of all time.
00:29:25
Speaker
So and where are we dividing it? Because I'm not sure that it's Inzaghi is the reason that there's a floor on this team. I think it's the squad itself. And I think there's other managers in this league that could presumably do the same thing as him.
00:29:38
Speaker
I think Vicenzo Italiano, if you give him two years at this team, what does that look like? Probably phenomenal.
00:29:46
Speaker
So the question then I guess that we have to answer for each of you, do you keep Inzaghi this year?
00:29:53
Speaker
It might not even hang out. It might not even be up to the club because he could go to Saudi Arabia and become the highest paid manager in the world. If he goes to Saudi, then mean... I mean, you know, it's, well, it's also just like, okay, like go get your bag. Right.
00:30:05
Speaker
But if the only two decisions are okay we keep him or we let him go. And the whole decision is on the management of inter. I'm probably keeping him right now. Huge majority of that is I do not know what I'm able to replace him with.
00:30:18
Speaker
Given the crazy carousel that's going on in managers in Syria are right now, the one name that keeps coming up for inter. is Fabregas. And Fabregas doesn't want to leave Como. I do not think that he leaves Como for this Inter squad. He's not stupid. He knows there's opportunities out there for him. And he's come out and been pretty strong about not wanting to leave.
00:30:37
Speaker
So if I'm Inter, I do not know what is on the other side of this fence. And coming from a Milan fan who lost Pioli, who hated Pioli and was incredibly wrong about wanting him out.
00:30:49
Speaker
I just think that it's not always greener on the other side. So definitely not always greener on the other side, agree with that. But when you are Inter and you have you're just two Champions League finals in the last three years, you you can, Fabregas will leave Como for Inter immediately. If they see that he's interested, I guarantee Fabregas will go to Inter.
00:31:11
Speaker
Just because it's Inter, it's the next step in his career, it's a bigger club, bigger money and better players, so on and so forth. With that said, I think it's really, really tough. I think that for Inter, if I was in Inter's shoes, I would want him to make the decision for me.
00:31:30
Speaker
Like, either he leaves and then we've got to figure it out, or he's going to stay, and this will be his last year. And whatever yeah whatever he does, then this is his last year, and next year we'll find somebody new. And if he leaves, then we'll go try to poach Fabregas or DeZerby or someone else.
00:31:48
Speaker
Um... Because it's tough. like i like I agree with everything you said, Vos, that he's underachieved. Is he really that good in terms of in-game tactics? We know that his caucho and his style of play is beautiful, but in-game adjustments, motivating for a 90-minute game consistently. We know he could do it every once in a while for a couple of games, but consistently doing that, delivering results. So...
00:32:14
Speaker
It's tough. So if he leaves, I would be like, I wouldn't try to convince him to stay. I wouldn't give him more money or be like, hey, come back. If he says, I want one more year, I'd give him the one more year. And that would kind of be what i I would wait for him to make the decision.
00:32:28
Speaker
Well, think what's interesting there is what you're saying is that's where we were at at the beginning of the year for him. Right. Like we were like, you've done enough, but like, this is the year you got to do something.
00:32:39
Speaker
And then you're kind of going into that cycle. And if it was a different club, I would say, stick with, it i'm I'm saying they need to move on. Let me be very clear. And I say that because of where they are at as a club, I think if they were at a different stage, they're in win now mode, right? Like this is what happens with clubs.
00:32:56
Speaker
your best players are kind of going into their peak age, but like in Bastoni, they're still young, but Bastoni, DeMarco, Barella are in like peak age. You need to start winning the titles now or that window is going to close. And I think it already is. It's starting to close.
00:33:12
Speaker
And if Inzaki hasn't proved that he's the guy, you need to go hire one of those mercenary managers to get this done in year one, year two kind of thing. Who that is, I'm not sure. but But money talks. Inter is also a massive club.
00:33:26
Speaker
It's a very desirable job. And i would, i know he we're going to talk about this another time, but I would just say like Gasparini is a better option than Inzaghi for me at this point, you know, he's going to push in different competitions.
00:33:39
Speaker
He's proven to underachieve with a good squad or overachieve with a poor squad. I would rather take that risk given that I believe that the floor of this club is finishing fourth place in Serie A with any manager.
00:33:52
Speaker
just because they're better than everybody else player to player. So I would rather take that risk and have the best case scenario be, let's bring in a guy that's going to get one of these done every year, rather than get us far in three and get done. So you've got one trophy?
00:34:07
Speaker
ah That's better than what Nzaghi's doing. Well, mean, Nzaghi won the league by 15 points last year. Yeah, and he should have won the league four times. Antonio Conte won the league in two years. You've got to bring in somebody else. You can't just keep kicking the can down the road and saying, okay, now we're going to reevaluate. Now we're going to reevaluate. Now we're going to reevaluate. a good point. I mean, if Nzaghi... don't think it's kicking the can, though.
00:34:29
Speaker
If this four years was for Juventus, he would have been gone. Yeah, 100%. They let Pirlo go. as he Didn't he win? That's why I'm saying. If Nzaghi would have been gone in these four years if he was at Juventus...
00:34:44
Speaker
So we'll see what happens. But it'll be an interesting offseason for Inter. Lot to decide. And Zaghi, new coach potentially, what players are going to, if they can keep players, what they're going to bring in. Because they did win the most amount of money, obviously going extremely far in the Champions League.
00:35:02
Speaker
They got a budget. Are they going to spend the budget? We'll have to see in the summer. Inter can go, they can improve, they can get worse. as They can go in a lot of different directions and we'll have to see what they do this summer.
00:35:14
Speaker
Yeah, the summer is going be incredibly pivotal, and we already touched on that a little bit, but they do need to spend money. They went an entire summer last last year putting money away. that They must have saved a bajillion dollars because they bought literally nobody besides Fertesi.
00:35:27
Speaker
And so this summer is going to be massive for them in the transfer market. They've already started linking themselves to some pretty big names. And so it'll be interesting to see what the management does in terms of, okay, do they keep Inzaki and help him out?
00:35:43
Speaker
Do they bring in somebody new in give him and they get a wish list? Either way, enter Spending Money the Summer. They have to. I mean- I think you guys are being a little bit dramatic, I have to say.
00:35:55
Speaker
I don't think they need to spend that much money, personally. I really don't. What do you mean? I mean, where where are you going to say they need to spend a significant amount of money? Strikers. They need a center. what do you mean they need? They don't necessarily need to spend a bunch of money on a striker.
00:36:08
Speaker
Yes, they do. Taremi's leaving. Arnavich is another year older. Terrible. And I do really think Tarama's on the outs. Tarama's going to leave. Even if you keep Terram, a problem with Inter this year was they did not have a game changer to bring on and score a goal and at the 75th minute plus. They had, Taremi did nothing every year. Arnautovic did, had a couple good games in the Copa.
00:36:30
Speaker
The only goal scorer that they could bring on off the bench was a midfielder. And Arnautovic came up massive so many times this year. couple games in the Copa Italia he came up massive. He really didn't come up that big. I think he was good, but going to another year older, which we've already seen as a problem for this inter-squad.
00:36:45
Speaker
But regardless of the striker who we've already seen Lataro just can't consistently do it by himself, you would have hoped that Lataro would have had a bigger output this season.
00:36:56
Speaker
But then go to their back line. They only have Bastoni. And Pavard has been in. Bissick's injury in the game on Saturday apparently is very long-term, so he might be out for the start of the season next year. But you look at Cheruby and Darmian, who have played a bunch of minutes this year, they need to go.
00:37:13
Speaker
Those are not. Did Darmian play a little bit at the beginning of the season? Get Darmian out of your vocabulary. But you can't ignore Benjamin. major mistakes in a lot of games. Yeah, Pavard was the second best center back this season. Pavard was exceptional when he played.
00:37:29
Speaker
um but But my point is that they, yes, they need to spend money. i'm not going to sit here and say they don't need to add things, but they don't need to replace like a bunch of starters in the 11. They need to add some firepower to bring in off the bench, and then they need to buy a center center back.
00:37:47
Speaker
But like to to sit here and say like we need to go spend $100 million dollars or something like that is, I think, a little bit a little bit much. If they spend a decent amount of money, like 30, 35 mil on on a backup striker, I think that would be a very good signing.
00:38:02
Speaker
But as an inter-squad who we just said just was second best, why wouldn't you spend 100 mil after not spending anything last season to ensure that you are going to be that top squad?
00:38:13
Speaker
That's why I don't understand why they didn't re-up as much as they should have because you can never just be stagnant. That's not a winning recipe. They have enough money to go out and make sure they're getting guys that are going to be real difference makers. You definitely need a new starting center mid because Hank is way too old.
00:38:27
Speaker
Peter Zielinski is basically a new signing. That's what Hakann's doing. And Zielinski, like, what do we know? What do you know? What going get out of Zielinski? That's not a surefire. I'm going to this. got what ze ze linny lin deal Zielinski has been a probably top seven midfielder in the league for years. But he barely played this past season. Because he was hurt for half the season. How do you know he's going to come back? You need to make sure that you have a surefire replacement there.
00:38:52
Speaker
I mean, I don't know. Why wouldn't you spend it if you have the money? I don't know if they're going the money. I don't know if they're to given the money to spend. I mean, didn't spend any money last year, and they came in second this year in both the Champions League and Serie A. They should have funds. but Here's what I'll say.
00:39:08
Speaker
Inzaghi clearly doesn't utilize Zelensky well either. He's played 26 games in this year. He played 39 total games. That's a pretty good amount of games. He plays them as the regista, where I think Zelensky excels more as a more of a box-to-box like a Barella or in the McIntyre role.
00:39:26
Speaker
Another reason I don't understand why. He kept going with Mkhitaryan. He had two different options in Fertesi and Zielinski. Two, Hakann was in and out of the lineup. They are way worse without Hakann. And Aslany's not it And Aslany's not it. They need a Hakann replacement as well.
00:39:43
Speaker
They have a lot of holes. They do. Their defense has to be addressed. They need a backup striker. I looked up. Arnavich only had seven goals this season. It was the Coppa Italia he did well in.
00:39:53
Speaker
They need... two backup strikers. They need a center mid. He needs to figure out how to use Zelensky. And then they need probably one or two center backs pending on if Bissek is gone or not.
00:40:05
Speaker
But even that goes back to what goes back to our conversation. Like, You are now at a point, too, where if you're keeping Nzaghi, you're buying players for Nzaghi, which could be a big issue because that Regista spot, not every manager uses a guy the way that Nzaghi wants to use him.
00:40:22
Speaker
And you presumably have three to four midfielders that you can be playing in another system and probably excel in. And Barella, Fertesi, obviously Mocotarian's a little bit older, but even Aslani could maybe be better in a different role because I do think he's a good player, but he isn't Hakann in that position.
00:40:38
Speaker
um This is somebody to absolutely sling passes for you to be successful, but where if you keep Nzagi, you absolutely need to replace Hakann. But I just don't think, I think they do need to add a midfielder. I agree. Especially if the hard part is is if you have Nzagi, you need to spend a bunch of money on a center mid, I guess that is true to replace Hakann.
00:40:58
Speaker
But apart from that, like you're buying backups and I think center backs, you can kind of get like, you don't need to spend all the money in the world to get one, in my opinion. I can tell you something, Milan did try to spend money on not very good guys and they don't have a center back right now. So I would assume that Inter can go out and attract a top notch center back, but we shall see.
00:41:21
Speaker
Like I said, it's going to be an interesting summer for Inter. They are going to, I think they'll be linked with a lot of players. They'll be linked with managers, obviously, and it's going to see, we're going to see who they can bring in.
00:41:33
Speaker
ah wait, they're linked with a center mid from Marseille. Uh, Luis Hernandez or Luis Enrique or something like that? they did They did buy i think they already bought him. I think so. 30-something. Which could go to show they're spending money. I mean, Logan is right.
00:41:46
Speaker
They earned like 250 mil from UEFA from making it to the finals. So they got money to spend. We know that they don't always spend it, but they definitely have money to spend. So we'll see if they continue because they obviously are already splashing the cash.
00:42:01
Speaker
Paisans, we want to hear from you, though. What are your thoughts? I know that Vos got some people going a couple weeks ago with his Inzaghi takes. Not so crazy anymore, but certainly let us know what you think Inter needs to do this summer to bring them back to a surefire Scudetto winning trophy hunting team.
00:42:17
Speaker
You know where to find us. Twitter, which is now X, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. And you'll hear us live on the podcast site, Spotify, Apple Pods. Vos, any last thoughts?
00:42:30
Speaker
little A little heated today. i
00:42:34
Speaker
move on from in talking that's all i have to say with that being said mods take us away always a pleasure paisanos do not be a got goods and forza
00:43:24
Speaker
Bye.