Those two weeks were long. So long, in fact, that I have completely forgot what we were doing before it started. Something about points and kicking ass (or not, as the case may be)… It will come back to me, I’m sure. Anyway, here we are back to the championship, off to Bologna in an attempt to retain our meager lead while simultaneously avoiding the trap a lower half team before a big game poses. So far, all the press this week has been about the Champions League game next week and poor Bologna has sort of gotten lost in the shuffle. I only hope the boys aren’t similarly distracted. Bologna certainly wont be.

What: Bologna v Internazionale
Where: Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, Bologna
When: Saturday, November 21, 6pm (local time; 9am pacific, noon eastern).
How to Watch: FSC is showing this delayed at 2pm pacific, 5pm eastern. If you want to watch it live, catch a stream (MyP2P, Rojadirecta, Ustream, and ATDHE.net).

Strangely, last year we also played Bologna away the weekend before an important mid-week CL game (the first ManU tie). We managed to pull out the win, despite a whoopsie from Cuchu, thanks in LARGE part to the heroics of Julio Cesar. Here are the highlights (note the gleam off Cambiasso’s newly shaven head and the unbelievably adorable way JC says “big match” in the post game interview):

THEM

I really hope Ben posts something for this game. I thoroughly enjoy his Surrealist forays into calcio. Just in case he doesn’t, I will try to whip up a little something (it wont be as interesting as Ben’s though, I’m sure).

Wow. That sure is a whole lot of bald Bolognese ‘ballers!

With 11 points, Bologna are hovering just above the relegation zone. They had a not-so-nice start to the season and did not win their first game until day six. After a change of coaches (out with Papadopulo, in with Colomba), things have been looking up. It is true, they have still struggled a bit (especial against teams from Liguria), but have also managed to pull of some impressive results, including holding Juve to a 1-all draw and, most recently, beating Palermo (3-1).

Inter and Bologna share a long a storied past and back in the day, mighty Bologna used to pretty regularly thrash Ambrosiana and Internazionale at the Stadio Dall’Ara. It was only in the last couple years before they were most recently relegated (Bologna has tasted the depths on more than one occation) that Inter beat them with any regularity. Bologna has excelent record against us – especially when playing at home: out of 71 games, Bologna has won 34 and drawn 12. That’s right, Inter have only won this tie 25 times. Not so great.

Colomba has likened Inter to a tank, but pointed out that: “I have often lost to the Nerazzurri, as is normal for a Coach of provincial clubs, but don’t forget my Reggina beat them and cost Marcello Lippi his job.”

One of the goalscorers for that Reggina game was Marazzina, now reunited with his old coach at Bologna. Spooky, isn’t it?

Colomba has called up 22 players:
Portieri: Colombo, Spitoni, Viviano
Difensori: Britos, Lanna, Portanova, Raggi, Santos, Zenoni
Centrocampisti: Bombardini, Guana, Lavecchia, Mingazzini, Mudingayi, Valiani, Vigiani
Attaccanti: Adailton, Di Vaio, Gimenez, Marazzina, Osvaldo, Zalayeta

You may recognize a couple names in that list. Viviano is an Inter youth product (and is still half owned by us), while Zalayeta (recently of Napoli) has a nasty habit of scoring game-winning goals against us. Di Vaio has found himself at Bologna, and last year was in hot competition for the capocannoniere title. As for the rest… well… I have always liked to say “Bombardini” out loud. Try it, it’s fun. Bombardini. And I am pretty sure Guana is bird poop – isn’t it?

Our very own Carro Armato P 40

US

Mourinho (the world’s best Portugese coach) has given us a bit of a surprise with his call up list:

Portieri: Toldo, Julio Cesar, Orlandoni;
Difensori: Cordoba, Lucio, Maicon, Materazzi, Samuel, Chivu;
Centrocampisti: Zanetti, Stankovic, Quaresma (!), Thiago Motta, Muntari, Vieira, Krhin, Cambiasso, Mancini;
Attaccanti: Eto’o, Milito, Balotelli, Arnautovic (!!).

Wow, there most certainly are some interesting names up there. Well, first, Suazo isn’t back from international duty so it only makes sense that Arna is on the list (Mou likes to come prepared). Quaresma and Mancini must be part of that turnover he spoke about in his presser today. It wont be as much as in the Livorno game, but there will be a bit of a rotation. What does that mean for our line-up tomorrow? Well, La Gazzetta thinks the only big change will be Cordoba in place of Lucio and Stankovic back to his less-than-fabulous role of play maker. Really, not so much of a turnover. We will see, though, La Gazzetta has been wrong before.

As for the rest, Santon has had his surgery and, while everything went well, he will be out of commission until next year. Sneijder is still injured, although seems to be on track for Barcelona. Aside from those two, Mou has a full squad at his disposal. Hooray.

Muntari is in a bit of hot water with his National team. Apparently Essian, Asamoah Gyan, and Muntari were meant to go last week with the Ghanan National team to Angola to play a friendly against the Palancas Negras. Instead, they left to return to their respective clubs without the permission of the Black Star’s coach. The Ghanan Football Association has launched an investigation into the matter and is looking into whether or not any punishment will be handed out. Yikes. Muntari has not said anything about it. I wonder if this means he will be going to the Africa Cup of Nations.

Mario Balotelli has put himself back into the spotlight again. He went to visit with some handicapped children and, when one of them asked which team he was a fan of, Balotelli said “Milan, of course!” Needless to say, this caused all sorts of ruckus with the children and with the press. His sister later said that it was all a joke, and besides, Mario had liked Milan when he was a child. Mourinho’s take was that it didn’t really matter which team Mario liked as a child, we should be much more concerned about the reports that Balotelli likes to drive his car 240 km per hour (that’s about 149 miles per hour for us non-European types).

On the transfer front, besides Galloppa and Ranocchia, Inter are also supposedly looking at Lyon midfielder Jeremy Toulalan. Super double plus wonderful, we may get him in partial exchange for Vieira. Sold!

Ok. So lets focus and keep our heads, and most importantly, lets keep on track and take home the three points.

FORZA INTER

Wow! Take a look at those knee muscles! Yowza

This isn’t true, of course. There are several Italians contributing to Inter’s success. There’s over 100 years of history that is filled with Italians who were the building blocks of what the team has currently achieved, the thousands of Italians who owe their livelihood to the club, the owner and his family, the front office, the Board, the bureaucracy of the organization, the coaches and several players. What they really mean, of course, is that there aren’t many Italians football players directly contributing to the success of the current Champions of the Italian League and that we should be ashamed of this. Some of us, through the comments section, have said that we don’t really care what the nationality of the player is, as long as they put in effort and have positive results.

After reading several books lately, two on watered down popular global economics commentary, two the “business” of football, several commentaries on Italian football (from English writers) and an infinite number of discussions with opponents of globalization of Italian football, I have come to understand a notion that I, and apparently others here, have had all along. Namely that many foreigners on a football team isn’t an evil thing. Additionally, I have come to the conclusion that if Serie A is going to survive then foreign players are going to be essential to its lively hood.

First, a small comment on the “business” of football, it isn’t really a business. If it was, then we wouldn’t have an Oil Man in charge of our team, Juventus wouldn’t have a Car Man in charge of theirs and Milan wouldn’t have the Cable Guy in charge of theirs. Keeping this in mind is pretty important. There is a notion that the Super Teams of Europe will be self-sustaining, profit making machines in a couple of years. I, personally, have a good laugh when I hear people talking about this. I would like my team to be as close as possible to the black, not because it’s a source of pride that my team can make a buck, but because that means that we can afford more. We can afford more quality facilities, more quality equipment, more quality talent and everything that comes with “more” – like titles.

It also denotes a certain cunning in the transfer market that has recently been a pleasant surprise. We are getting more for our money than we had previously, and while it isn’t my money, it lends a certain confidence to think that the caretakers of my team are getting better at their jobs. But, as I said, I don’t expect too many miracles. Moratti, last summer said something to the effect that you can either be a good team or a profitable one, not both and I think that he was very close to the truth.

The Talent Pool

One of the first things that people who support leagues from other countries ask me when they find out I support a team from Italy is, “Who is any good there?”

It’s a simple question and an understandable one. The English speaking media hasn’t really discovered several players that most of us think are good. But there is an underlying problem, namely that if I had to name a top starting 11 in Serie A based on the last 14 months alone, I don’t think that I would name many Italians to that squad. I might name Buffon in front of Cesar but it would be close, especially considering the injuries of last season. Chiellini would be one of the defenders. D’Agostino might be discussed as a midfielder. Cassano would be a forward. One of Pirlo, De Rossi or Camoranesi might be in the conversation, but honestly, none of those midfielders were really great last season.

But, that would be it, 2 players definitely and maybe 2 others. Italy has a lot of football talent in a country with the limited space and population that it has, but the big picture is that population might not be able to produce such a high level talent year in and year out. There are going to be some gaps and a country that has 4 professional leagues with about 20 teams per league needs to supplement those gaps with outside talent. However, at the highest levels, TV rights and stadium seating need to be bought, therefore, big teams need to be big enough to convince enough people to purchase these things. In Italy there are 3 big teams at the top. Is there enough domestic talent to fit into 81 (3 teams of about 27) roster spots to maintain Champions League money coming into the country and generate enough interest for people – domestically and internationally – to continue to buy cable/satellite TV football packages? Personally, and objectively, I don’t think so.

Finances

Most Italian players are over-priced. So are most Brazilians over the age of 20, the majority of English players, French players and Argentine players over the age of 20. Part of the reason they are overpriced is because those countries have had some success in the past proving themselves powerhouses.

If you want a bargain, real bang for the buck, buy the contract of a player from Scandinavia, Croatia, Slovakia, Bosnia, the Ukraine, Russia or any country in Africa. The bargain isn’t because those players aren’t talented, it’s because they aren’t on TV all the time, no one has hyped them – or their paycheck – up and there aren’t preconceived notions on how great a Croatian player is, for example. A Slovakian player would be happy to be paid a lot of money in England, Spain, Germany or Italy. It’s safe to assume that an Italian player would probably expect to be paid a lot of money to play in Italy.

If you are a football team that is leaking money, and to be honest they almost all are, those are the countries to buy from. Here’s an example, Goran Pandev’s transfer to an Italian team (assuming he was brought in from Lazio and not through the current ugliness) at 26 years old is going to be less expensive than G. Rossi’s transfer to an Italian team, even though Pandev plays the same position, will have more experience in Serie A than Rossi and has more International experience than Rossi. Is Rossi better than Pandev? To be honest, I don’t think so, not right now.

Does this matter to a team like Inter, who have the money to pay for overpriced Italian talent? Yes and no. Young players like Arnautovic, Rene Krhin, Vid Belec, Obi Mikel can be kept on the team training with the first team because they don’t cost very much to sit the bench. There is money, however to pay for Brazilians, Argentines and Materazzi to be a dressing room leader, or Toldo to be a backup even though these are expensive former Italian National teamers. But the well isn’t endless; even we need to cut costs where we can.

Of the 27 players on the official roster on Inter.it, 15 of those players come from overpriced powerhouse nations and 12 of them are regular contributors – including the backup goalkeeper. 12 players come from underpriced countries and only 6 contribute regularly. The verdict? Inter are paying premium price for most of their contributors and are paying bargain prices for the most of their backups.

So to summarize, many of the youth players on the first team and the backups are from countries that one would expect bargain pricing. Most of the contributors are from countries that one would expect to pay top prices for. There are exceptions. Quaresma is getting premium wages and not contributing at all, and Lucio and Motta were fairly inexpensive signings considering that Brazilians – especially a national teamer – are usually considered big money transfers.

That’s good for us, but actually very good for other teams who aren’t as lucky to have the deep pockets that we have. Teams like Napoli and Lazio for example, are definitely moving in the same direction. They want the talent to compete but it’s obvious that they are looking at alternatives to high priced Italian and Brazilian talent. Udinese is also joining the party. Taking a quick glance at the incoming transfers’ nationality there is a marked increase in talent arriving into the peninsula from Eastern Europe, just as at one time there was an increase in talent arriving from Brazil, or Argentina. Untapped potential and 2nd or 3rd world economy equals cheap labor – any financial advisor will tell you that cutting employee costs is step one to increasing profits.

Conclusion

Although I have never understood why it was so important to have only Italians on the team, or a majority of Italians on the team, I can understand that it’s important to some people. In my personal view, I think that view is overly nostalgic and really smacks of an ethnocentric regionalism. I really think that kind of limited scope is in the past forever. There is no way, in my opinion, that a team can be both successful competitively and financially by imposing boundaries on themselves. I think it would have been hard to do 30 years ago, let alone today.

There is a chestnut that increasing the amount of international players is somehow hurting the National Team. Someone should tell Spain, who won the 2008 Euros, who’s domestic League has more internationals than the Italian League, that all those quality internationals that all those Spanish players tested themselves against every weekend should have hurt them. By the way, most of the Brazil national team play abroad outside their own hemisphere, and have for years. How is it they enjoy so much success with none of their best players even in their own domestic league?

The cold hard truth is that the game is globalizing and teams have to follow suit to survive. It’s not going to get easier. UEFA will never be able to limit the big teams on spending. The first time it tries to penalize a team for spending, the biggest teams will break away from UEFA and form a Premier League for European Super Clubs – UEFA’s own private TV deal up in smoke nightmare. There is only the fear of bankruptcy and collapse into Lega Pro that makes anybody in Italy think about the bottom line anymore.

And if you are worried at all about the bottom line, then there isn’t a place for sentimentality about nation of origin or what color the players skin is or what kind of blood he has. Do you want to win, or do you want to be homogenous? It’s an easy question to answer, check out the season ticket sales for Inter’s home games and the bump that away teams get when Inter comes to town. People might complain on Tuesday about foreigners, but no one is protesting with their wallets on Sunday.

FORZA INTER

What: Dynamo Kiev v FC Internazionale Milano, Group F Champions League Matchday 4
Where: Valeriy Lobanovskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Wednesday, November 4, 8:45pm local time (11:45am pacific, 2:45pm eastern)
How to watch: FSC is showing the game at 10pm pacific, 1am eastern. If you want to watch it live, you can see it ppv at UEFA.com ($9.99) or try to find a stream. (MyP2P, Rojadirecta, Ustream, and ATDHE.net).

Right. So we haven’t exactly made Europe our bitch or anything. Still, we haven’t completely embarrassed ourselves either (well, the Lucio own goal was pretty bad, but it so could have been worse – it could have been the winning goal). Still, our position is precarious and this game is very, very (very very VERY) important. Basically, if we don’t pull a win out, then bye bye CL dreams. No pressure,though.

Last time we met, we just about had them but for a slip of the head by Lucio. In the end, Inter and Kiev shared points with a 2-all draw:

Ok, confession time: I haven’t really been watching our Champions League matches.
There, I said it.
I think that the only one I watched from start to finish was the first Barcelona game. After that, I watched a bit here and there, followed the game on the UEFA live match thingy, but I have not really watched any of them. To tell the truth, I am having a hard time really finding the will to care. I mean, I would love to finally win a game (winning is always fun), but… well, the champions League just doesn’t mean anything to me. I know, all you Milan and Juve fans are saying that is because Inter hasn’t won one in recent memory – if we had, I would be pumped to win another. And I am sure that is probably the case. To me, the CL has always been like winning the lottery: it would be fantastic, but I am not holding my breath. Still, I know that other, more sports-savvy minds than mine say it is important so I will play along. That, and I wholeheartedly support my team in all of their endeavors.

So if I seem a little blasé, you all know the reason.

If this were a Mustache-off, that man would win the blue ribbon

THEM

Not all that much has changed since I wrote the preview for the home leg of this tie. I still dont know who any of these folks are (aside from Shevchenko), and their coach still has an insane amount of facial hair.

According to UEFA, Valeri Gazzaev has some players either injured or doubtful:
Out - Badr El Kaddouri (ankle), Olexandr Shovkovskiy (stomach), Pape Diakhate (knee)
Doubtful - Andriy Nesmachniy (knee)

In addition, Leandro Almeida, Gérson Magrão, and Artem Milevskiy are a caution away from suspension.

Apparently, Dynamo have not done all that well in their last two fixtures: they went down 0-2 to FC Shakhtar Donetsk in the Ukrainian Cup and held 1-1 by FC Karpaty Lviv in the league. Gazzaev says all this adversity has just made them more motivated for this upcoming game. Great.

Only Marco would have a huge #23 hat.

US

Well, Mourinho brought just about everyone with him for this match, fit or no.

Goalkeepers: Toldo, Julio Cesar, Orlandoni, Belec.
Defenders: Cordoba, Zanetti, Lucio, Maicon, Materazzi, Samuel, Chivu, Santon.
Midfielders: Stankovic, Quaresma, Thiago Motta, Sneijder, Muntari, Vieira, Krhin, Cambiasso, Mancini.
Strikers: Eto’o, Suazo, Milito, Balotelli.

Even though they went to Kiev, Thiago Motta (thigh), Sneijder (thigh), Muntari (heel), Chivu (thigh), and Balotelli (flu) are all in doubt. Mourinho said:

“I am only concentrated on Inter and today I want to see if the five players that I currently have in doubt will be able to take part in the game. I will talk to them after dinner, face to face, me, them and the doctor, because who goes on the pitch tomorrow will have to be at one hundred percent, and because it’s too important a match to have uncertainties in the hours before the match. For all of them I need replies in the last training session.”

So, we just wont know until tomorrow who will actually be available to play. T.Motta says that he “feels well” but I guess it is up to the doctors. I certainly dont want him to play before he should. The Chivu news, on the other hand, is new to me. I had no idea he was hurt. I guess now is the time for Santon to find himself. Either that, or Zanetti will play again in defense.

Both Chivu and Maicon are a booking away from missing a game. Chivu we could/can probably do without. Maicon would be a blow. Still better to lose him for Kazan over Barca, I guess. Vinod has kindly pointed out that our next CL game is actually Barcelona, so Maicon had better mind his Ps and Qs.

Vai Deki Vai Deki Vai!

For those of you who are worried about what our less that terrific start to the CL campaign might mean for tomorrow, take hear! Stankovic says:
“We will do everything to change this start to the European campaign and win tomorrow. We have worked a lot on this aspect and we know where the problem lies.”

See, problem has been identified, and you know what they say: Knowing is Half the Battle.
Scoring lots of goals is probably the other half (or, maybe scoring goals is 32.5% while keeping their goals out is the last 17.5%). Luckily, Mou has that covered as well, saying: “What do I want? I want to score a goal more than Dynamo. Nothing else.”

Lineups are a bit tricky at this stage, what with so many players on the maybe list. If anyone wants to hazard a guess, go ahead. The right one gets bragging rights for the rest of the week.

As for the stadium situation, it looks like the game will go on, as planned, with the doors open. The Mayor of Kiev had suggested that the game either be canceled or played behind closed doors, but both clubs and UEFA were none too keen on that (football stops for no man – no matter what infectious disease he may have). Basically, there have been 67 flu deaths in Ukraine this fall, which, according to the Deputy Health Minister, is not much different from previous years. Just in case, though, Dynamo (the club) has purchased 20,000 face masks to hand out to fans and the stadium staff for the game and the Mayor of Kiev is still telling people to just stay home.

It may be cold outside, but it looks like Lucio got a warm reception at the Kiev airport. The masks are a bit worrying though.

Anther issue for our boys will be the climate. According to The Weather Channel, it will be about 29°F (feels like 23°F) tonight. Nippy. At least it will be dry – no one is ready for snow.

Everyone appears prepared for the cold (love that Inter-branded puffy coat, Lucio), but I cant help but think our Brazilians will suffer. Julio Cesar is ready, saying: “I will have to cover myself very well in Kiev, I have already packed so many sweaters and protective cremes, we hope that the boys do not make me suffer in that climate too much…”

IN OTHER NEWS

Despite what Michel Platini says or thinks, F.C. Internazionale Milano is not in debt. Now, we may sometimes return a loss, but Daddy “Deep Pockets” Moratti is always there to cover the shortfalls. Inter does not owe anything to banks.

Buon Compliano, Figo.

Today was Luis Figo’s 37th Birthday. In true famous football form, he spent the day partying with half-naked models and other glitterati visiting sick children at the Institute of Neurosurgery at the Medical Science Academy and the Soleterre charity’s hospital in Kiev. Wow. I love Luis Figo. I am so glad that he is hanging around with the club.

Alrighty. To recap:
– Important game.
– Chance for redemption.
– Gotta win (but no pressure).
– Having a hard time working up the will to care – but I will. Important people say it is important so I will find the way.
– Deki is gonna solve all our problems
– FORZA INTER

What: Livorno v Inter, Matchday 11
Where: Stadio Armando Picchi, Livorno
When: Sunday, November 1, 3pm local time (6am pacific, 9am eastern)
How to Watch: Live on FSC, or on the internets (MyP2P, Rojadirecta, Ustream, and ATDHE.net).

Last time we played them at the Armando Picchi things got a little tetchy. There were penalties all around, a red card, a goal was disallowed (Ibra was offside), and Roberto Mancini was driving me mad with his inscrutable substitutions. But what I remember most about this game was how terrible Aparecido Cesar really was (I am getting a bit worked up just thinking about it now). I can usually find some redeeming qualities about any Inter player – the fact that they play for Inter is certainly a good start – but this guy, he was just so bad. He is like that cousin that you know you are supposed to like because they are family but you just cant because he is such a hateful jerk – lets just say we never bonded. Anyway, he was bad in this game. Here are the highlights; you will notice that he does not feature:

THEM

Livorno is not doing well this season. They are third from the bottom on the table and have only scored four goals. Yep, four goals from 10 games. Not good. A couple weeks ago the club took matters in hand, though, and fired their “coach, ” Gennaro Ruotolo (remember, he is the guy without the proper credentials to actually coach in the Serie A). They hired Serse Cosmi and things have been looking up. Cosmi has a great record in helping teams achieve great things: he took over Udinese and they beat Sporting Portugal and after taking over Brescia, they beat Juve 3-1 in Serie B! Under Cosmi, Livorno has won their last two (against Atalanta and Roma), doubled their goals scored, and all without conceding themselves. As Mourinho says, Cosmi is a wizard.

Livorno may have finally found their footing in the Serie A.

Mourinho’s take on the upcoming match and Cosimi is that:

“…he has won two games after just arriving, bringing different ideas of play, building a very solid defensive team that defends with many and that arrives in the attacking zone three or four times, scores a goal, then closes even more. I was never in the stadium in Livorno, but it seems a simple field in the atmosphere, size, and the adversarial public. It will be a tough match. “

I have not been able to find a call-up list, but Cosimi dropped some hints today at his press conference:

“Usually I present the 3-5-2 against everyone even if we can employ two or one point with an added midfielder like Pulzetti, like was deployed in Rome.” He added that Danilevicius, Tavano, and Rivas will likely play, while Lucarelli will not (he is suspended). I am very interested to see if Rivas has improved with his time in Tuscany.

Given all of that, La Gazzetta has come up with:

DeLucia
Diniz Rivas Miglioncio
Raimondi Pulzetti Candreva Moro Pieri
Tavano Danilevicius

Aside from not scoring, Livorno actually have a pretty good defensive record so far. They have only conceded 10 goals (as opposed to Genoa who have 20 or Bari who have 7). It appears that they are starting to find a system that works for the team. Two 1-0 wins dont look all that convincing, but when you look at what came before, they are stupendous.

US

With an eye to the midweek game, Mourinho has mixed it up a bit with the callup list:

Goalkeepers: Toldo, Julio Cesar, Orlandoni.
Defenders: Cordoba, Zanetti, Lucio, Maicon, Materazzi, Samuel.
Midfielders: Stankovic, Quaresma, Thiago Motta, Muntari, Vieira, Krhin, Cambiasso, Mancini.
Strikers: Eto’o, Suazo,Milito, Arnautovic.

Clearly, there are a few names on the list we are not used to seeing and some notable absences. First, Santon and Balotelli have been left home. Mario is unwell with the flu and his allergic reaction so has been sent home to get better. Santon, on the other hand, is having some mental difficulties (Davide non sta attrversando un momento di tranquillità) which, according to Mou, have been exacerbated by the “lies” printed on the front page of La Gazzetta. He said that the press paid far to much attention to both Santon and Balotelli, especially given that they are just boys. And then things got really fun.

Can you explain what this lie?
“On the first page of a really important and credible newspaper it has been said that after the game against Palermo, I phoned the player to talk about what had happened on the pitch.”

It was not Mourinho who phoned the player?
“No. I talked with Santon yesterday for an hour in my office, face to face with my assistant coaches who are Italians and who have known him for many years, they were the boy’s coaches and they have the rapport of a friendship with him that has lasted for years. ”

In this possible lie, which it is in your opinion while in the opinion of us journalists, it isn’t, what is so bad?
“Are you the lying reporter?”

Yes, I am the journalist, but it has not been said that I was the liar. But what’s so serious in the news reported today?
“If I’m the liar, I can not answer”

So there you nasty journalists. Quit bugging our babies or Daddy Mou will come down on you like a ton of bricks. I just love him.

Eventually, he did get back to the game and formations. He had wonderful things to say about Materazzi:

Materazzi is an intelligent person: he is aware that he has had a fantastic career and that now his is a role of a man important in the squad and in the dressing room and for his coach and this is a player who, when he plays, he always does well. And so he did last year when he took the field, for example against Juve. This season, for example, in the game against Catania, when he was on the bench, his squad was in difficulty and the coach had need of a defensive reference in the game in front of Plasmati, he was on the pitch 10 minutes and had absolute control of the situation. He has been called up for tomorrow, he will be for Kiev as well and he knows it. He is a player that is always available and that I consider indispensable. Sometimes you think that only those who are indispensable in the field are essential, but for me, so is Marco.

I know that he is just a shadow of what he was, but he was pretty great – the shadow should at least be adequate, right? As for everyone else, Mourinho said they were largely precautionary. Livorno is far enough away that he doesn’t want to get down there only to have a player come down with the flu and no understudy available.

Raise your hands, who wants to win tomorrow?

As for the upcoming CL game with Kiev, we still dont know whether it will actually happen. The Ukrainian government says no, UEFA says yes, Mou says someone better decide right now ’cause we are supposed to leave on Monday. I think that with all the difficulties in scheduling, it will happen but the venue may be moved. We will see.

So here is where I would usually put a lineup, but looking back over my last bunch of previews, I tend to totally suck at it. Most of my lineups have been flat out wrong so I am not going to bother today. I guess we will all just have to wait and see tomorrow morning.

As I said above, this will be a test of Inter’s depth and mentality. I think Livorno will play a very defensive game and hope to score on the break. Still, they play with a 3-man defense, and looking at our record against other teams who play that formation, Inter is quite good at exploiting the gaps. If we can keep our head in the game and not on next Wednesday, we have a pretty good shot of increasing our lead. If we play like we think we are better than they are, they will show us just how wrong we are and slap us down. I will be quite upset, though, if they score on us. We have just got to do something about the goals we are hemorrhaging.

Personally, I will be snug in my bed, sound asleep at 6 am. I suspect that there will more than one of you out there who will be in an alcohol stupor (if you are not already) so will also be AWOL for the match. Just remember, dont pass out with candy in your mouth – milk duds are almost impossible to get out of your hair the next morning. Blech.

Happy Halloween
and
FORZA INTER

Well, each of us can answer those questions on our own. At the moment I will just answer the question, “What the hell happened on Saturday?”

Well, not a lot. The game itself was a snoozer until the last 15 minutes or so when Julio Cesar and the ref made things interesting. Julio left his line to contest a 50-50 ball and wiffed. Julio, the FSC announcer and I all thought that Julio also missed the player. The ref begged to differ. I don’t think that it was a bad call per se, the ref was in a no win political position. If he lets it go, the media – Berlusconi owned and all – and the supporters of Juve and Milan were going to rise up and protest. Actually, the Roma supporters would too, but who cares about them, really.

Anyhoo, there were still two other goals scored that were not handed to anyone from a ref. Yep, those would be the goals that Inter scored. This brings me to my Inter player of the game:

Highlights after the break

Stats Home team first

Shots (on Goal) 9(4) 13(6)
Fouls 16 22
Corner Kicks 6 3
Offsides 4 1
Time of Possession 62% 38%
Yellow Cards 2 3
Zanetti 139 continuous games played
Zanetti 476 appearances ties Facchetti for 2nd in team history
Attendance @50,000

I think that last stat is pretty significant. We are one of the best, if not the best, attended football teams in Serie A. Consider that attendance is up from last season as well. Not only is gate revenue up, but so is sponsorship. Not too long ago Nike and Inter unveiled a 10 year deal starting in 2010 that will net Inter over 12 million Euros a season. No other club has such a sponsorship deal with Nike. Some of you may also have noticed the Herblife signs in the stadium this past weekend. That is also a new sponsor this season. Add all this to what could be a new stadium deal and Inter are looking very financially stable for the new UEFA rules governing clubs’ finances.

Pagelle:

Julio Cesar: It had to happen, I guess. The best goalkeeper in the world for my money had an off day and conceded an iffy penalty. Until then, he had a clean sheet despite a good chance here and there. 6.0

Maicon: Maicon is developing a nasty habit of trying to dribble up to 3 guys at a time, losing the ball and then stopping or dogging it back on D. I thought that he had better games. 6.5

Lucio: Here’s my thing. He had an iffy deflection off of his foot. If he doesn’t make that deflection of the ball, then it’s a goal for Catania, so kudos on the interception. However, he’s going to make my hair turn white. 6.5

Cordoba: In an earlier post I have said that Inter are lucky to have the depth at CB to be able to put him back there. He had a nice game. 7.0

Chivu: I am losing confidence in Chivu in yet another barely average game performance. 6.5

Zanetti: There is a temptation to grade the last 3 years of continuous play here. But for the game, he was solid, selfless and commanding. He laid a hell of a tackle right before the half that I thought was a message that he didn’t like the sleep walking. 7.0

Vieira: Wasn’t this the guy that was complaining about playing time? He did okay, which at his age and physical ability probably says more about Catania then it does him. By the way, I think that he’s in the best shape he’s been in for years. I still don’t like him. PS. he blew a 24 karat gold chance at a goal… argh. 6.5

Muntari: If there were only 3 players running and making an effort on Saturday, then Muntari is definitely one of them. Here’s a guy who was booed a month ago, and he played his heart out, even when most looked like they wanted to go home. I really like his attitude and the way he scored only shows why that attitude was important. He was pressing forward, pressuring Catania and trying to feed Eto’o. Good Karma could only come of all that. 7.5

Sneijder: I gave this guy a hard time, but he has showed a lot of heart. I said in the comments that he should have been subbed off at halftime to rest. I understand why he was kept on, though, he was one of the few who didn’t show up to get paid and nothing else. 8.0

Balotelli: Mario played a decent game, but I didn’t think that he played great. He might be one of the few attacking players in Italian football who can keep possession in the attack and wait for help or get the foul. He reminds me a lot of a young – more skillful – Toni. 6.5

Eto’o: Another one of the few who worked hard all game. Even on his gimpy foot he looked like he wanted to score more than anything. I like the attitude. I would have liked him to score too. 7.0

Krhin: He was robbed on the foul called against him. That was a hell of an effort. The few times I have seen him play he reminds me of an energizer bunny type. A midfield dynamo, if you will. He always seems to make a cunning pass in there too. He intrigues the hell out of me. There are rumors surrounding his departure. I am still laughing at those. He won’t go anywhere if we don’t want him to. 7.0

Stankovic: We will see more of him since Sneijder is out. I hope he got all the rest he needed… He was average on Saturday though. 6.5

Materazzi: Marco was put in just to get some game time in. I don’t think that Mourinho thought that Marco was going to seal the victory. I am extremely nervous that Mourinho is trying to get Marco up to game shape to use in a Champions League game. Not a good thought. 6.5

Analysis

This looked very much like a tired team that played midweek and wasn’t interested in going up against Catania. The first half was wonderful. It wasn’t a sharp exhibition, but it was dominating. The second half was another story. It was sloppy and really just a bore. It’s not a big deal. You can’t expect a team that played a tough, good team and left the field thinking that they deserved more and were eager to prove themselves to get psyched for Catania. I can’t even get myself up to write about it…

However, with Sneijder, et al. injured and a high flying, surprising Palermo coming to town, I think that we are in a boat on a certain creek without propulsion. Palermo looks, as always, unpredictable. The difference is that the highs this season are very high. I don’t know which Palermo is coming to town, but I am worried about which Inter is gong to show up. We might need to play the shell game and go for points in this one.

FORZA INTER

What: Inter v Dynamo Kiev (Group F – Matchday 3; Uefa Champions League)
When: Tuesday, October 20, 8:45pm local time (11:45am pacific; 2:45pm eastern)
Where: Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, San Siro, Milan
How to Watch: Fox is showing it live (what a shock!), you can find a stream (MyP2P, Rojadirecta, Ustream, and ATDHE.net), or for $9.99 you can watch it live through UEFA (it is only $1.99 to watch it after the fact).

Bobo got the winner last time – who will it be tomorrow?

This is actually the third meeting between these two teams in Champions League. Inter met Dynamo in the group stages of the CL during the 2003/4 season. We drew the away game while a late goal from Bobo Vieri allowed us to take all three points at home. For those interested in trivia, UEFA has kindly assembled a whole list of interesting Inter v Dynamo fun facts (for instance: did you know that Dynamo’s coach Gazzaev was the coach of CSKA when Inter beat them both at home and away in the 2007/08 group stage? I didn’t!). Anyway, there are too many for me to go into here so follow the link if you are interested.

Shevchenko scored 14 times in all competitions for Milan against Inter. I hate him.

THEM

First, let me say it is really difficult to find info on the Ukrainian League. ESPN doesn’t have any coverage so I have really had to dig for what little tidbits I could find. In other words, dont expect much here.

Valeri Gazzaev has brought 19 players I have never heard of and Sheva to Milan:

Goalkeepers: Bogush, Rybka;
Defenders: Betão, Yussuf, Almeida, Khacheridi, Magrão;
Midfielders: Vukojević, Aliyev, Eremenko, Mykhalyk, Husyev, Ninković, Kravchenko, Harmash;
Forwards: Shevchenko, Milevskyy, Kravets, Yarmolenko, Zozulya;

They left two starters home with injury: goalkeeper Shovkovskiy and defender Ghioane.

FC Dynamo Kyiv are currently at the top of the Ukrainian table with 28 points after 10 games. They are unbeaten, having won all but one of their games. In fact, a quick look at the results table on their web page shows the only loss they have suffered this season in all competitions is the game they played against Barcelona. It is also the only game they failed to score in. As for goals, Dynamo have scored 28 goals and only conceded 6 (in 10 games) so they definitely know how to hit the back of the net (interestingly, the Kiev fans have predicted the game will end 1-2 in their favor).

[insert theme from Rocky here]

US

Mourinho has called up 22 players:

Portieri: Toldo, Julio Cesar, Orlandoni;
Difensori: Cordoba, Zanetti, Lucio, Maicon, Materazzi, Samuel, Chivu, Santon;
Centrocampisti: Stankovic, Quaresma, Sneijder, Muntari, Vieira, Krhin, Cambiasso, Mancini;
Attaccanti: Eto’o, Suazo, Milito.

Saturday Mourinho said that both Milito and Motta would be unavailable for this game. Today Mou said that there is a “small chance” that Milito will be available – Motta is still a no (although he will be back for Catania). As for Eto’o, he is on the list and he trained with the team – I think he is more likely to start over Milito. Plus, there is always Suazo.

He looks ok to me.

Both Samuel and Cambiasso came off during the Genoa game as a precaution. Both are on the list (and in the training photos) which makes me super happy. Marco is also on the list, and although I highly doubt he will see the pitch, the thought of him against Sheva makes me all kinds of nostalgic for those derbies days of old. Well not the losing, but… well, I am sure you all know what I mean.

For the record, MAD has predicted we will play the same line-up as on Saturday with Eto’o playing in place of Balotelli (it is official now!). For those of you who did not see the game, that means the lineup will be:

Julio Cesar
Maicon Lucio Samuel (Cordoba) Chivu
Zanetti Cambiasso (Vieira) Muntari
Stankovic Sneijder
Eto’o (Suazo?)

Mou gave very little away at the press conference today. When asked if Inter’s approach would change at all from the last CL game, he said no: [my translation]

“I will leave things to go naturally, the victory will come. I think it will come tomorrow, if it doesn’t come tomorrow, it will come in Kiev, if it doesn’t come with Kiev, it will come in Barcelona, if not in Barcelona, it will arrive at the house of Kazan, if it still doesn’t arrive with Kazan, we will go to the Europa League and win there, if we don’t go to the Europa League, we will all come home. [smiling] But joking aside, we will go forward with ease: the team has a great mentality, they are aware that tomorrow’s game will not be decisive, but it is important to me. With peace we can do anything, anything is possible, with the understanding that in football, it takes two minutes to go from paradise to hell and from hell to heaven. Like I tell my players, don’t read the papers too much when they write negative things about Inter, similarly, I advise them not to read the papers when they describe Inter as the best team in the world.”

As for if Inter’s 0-5 thumping of Genoa will inform on the coming game, he also said no: [my translation]

“It’s the same thing I said to the players Saturday night before going out and that is that the best way to prepare for the Champions was not resting, playing at 50 percent or to leave the important players on the bench, but to exit the stadium in Genoa with joy. The joy comes when you win and play well, obviously after that race the team was very happy and confident, every player did his job very well and I think that in these hours before the game against Dynamo the team is happy and, I repeat, in my opinion the best way to prepare for an important match is to be happy.”

Still, he thinks that Inter can give Dynamo problems and vice-versa, saying: “The match tomorrow will be difficult for us but not easy for Dynamo.”

“I came on the pitch against Udinese with a strange face? That is my face.”

Muntari (strange face and all) was much more decisive saying:

“We’re in good condition. We will play a good game and we will win,” he told journalists in the pre-match press conference. It’s true that Inter have had more difficulties in Europe than in league games, but we want to win at all costs tomorrow. These are three important points for us. We have the potential to do well. We haven’t won in Europe in seven games but we will start winning from tomorrow.”

So, where does that leave us? Well, I think in a much better position that against Kazan. We have recovered Sneijder and will be playing at home (always easier). Plus, I can’t believe the Ukrainian League is that much more difficult than the Russian one, so I suspect that Dynamo is about at the same level talent-wise as Kazan. Both are at the top of their respective leagues with a bit of a cushion. I think with Sneijder and without Balotelli sending off, we could have beaten Kazan and therefore I am cautiously optimistic about tomorrow. I know we are in a bit of a crunch up front, but I swear I read somewhere that Eto’o said he is feeling much better and will be ready to play (I just can’t remember where). Of course, that could be my subconscious planting false memories to stop me from worrying, but right about now, I will take any little hint of good news and run with it.

And since it had such a great result last time: Everyone think positive thoughts.

FORZA INTER

No nekid Samu this time, but how about fun with Matrix and Deki?

With the international break still upon us I thought that I would like to look at and have some discussion on the back 4 of our team – not counting JC, of course. We already started talking about it on Monday, so I thought we could expand the discussion a little more and really go at it in depth.

Besides, what else are we going to do until the games start back up again.

The current starting back 4 look like, from right to left: Maicon, Lucio, Samuel, Chivu.

The current centerback subs are: Chivu, Cordoba and Materazzi.

The current fullback subs are: Zanetti and Santon.

We may see some changes in both of these departments next summer. Several rumors point to Inter scouting younger centerback talent. Considering the average age of the centerbacks on roster, this is a must. Persoanlly, I see Mourinho or Moratti telling Materazzi that he is no longer in the plans of the club in the same way that Cruz was gently told that other pastures may have better grazing. I don’t see Materazzi going on a transfer – although, stranger things have happened – I do see him, sad to say, retiring.

Unfortunately, the same thing might happen to Cordoba. As much an asset, and as much a servant of the club as he has been, I think that he has several things going against him.

The first is his age. He’ll be 34 at the beginning of next season, which isn’t ancient for a player at his position, but it’s pretty damn close. Inversely, this factor might also be in his favor as Moratti’s well known sentiment may stay the chop.

The second is that his playing style doesn’t suit the current strategy of the manager. Cordoba is still an excellent man-marker. But Mourinho, as I stated in the first tactics talk, likes to pressure high up in the midfield when on defence, which is one of the reasons he okayed the Lucio transfer. Lucio intercepts passes from the opposing midfield or defence up to the forwards, many times cutting out the danger before it starts. Cordoba’s strength is chasing down the forwards once that pass has been made, usually deep in our own third.

The third thing Cordoba has going against him is his build. Mourinho has a history of preferring big defenders. Cordoba is a tough little nut, but his slight build isn’t what Mourinho prefers.

With all this going against him, does Cordoba have a chance of staying on the team? Yes, in fact he does. The truth is, any newcomer that the team brings in might take time to settle in, or may never settle in. If this is the case, then having an emergency player with a proven track record like Cordoba does is a treasure. And that fact alone might save him for another year.

Okay, Materazzi leaves, Cordoba stays, and who comes in to fill the bench? I don’t know. I don’t have a name that I heard is on the scout list. We used to have a player that we sent out on loans named Fatic that there was some buzz about but we sold him to Genoa as part of the purchases we made this summer. Last season we had a primavera player named Andrea Mei on the team that we sent out on loan this season to Crotone I think. Current primavera players that I have heard – very little, as is the SOP with Primavera players for this team – about are Esposito, Giocomelli and Riggione. I couldn’t tell you if all of those players were centerbacks, just that there was some praise for them from someone at the club.

If I were in charge, who would I go after? Some names come immediately to mind:

Radu, the 22ish year old Romanian centerback who currently is on Lazio’s roster, is someone I have a good feeling about. He’s a little green and he doesn’t really play much for them, but I think that he fits into what Mourinho wants to do with the back line. The thought of Mourinho molding him into a Chivu/Lucio/Carvalho hybrid is pretty damn exciting. Unfortunately for me, I just don’t see it happening anytime soon.

I also like the way Canini plays for Cagliari. He’s 24 and he looked like he has half a brain with which Mourinho can start to change him into the kind of player he needs. Canini looked amazing 2 years ago, but he dropped off a little last season. At his position, his prime will probably be around 28 or 29 so he has some time to grow into a good player.

Ranocchia, a Genoa player on loan to Bari looks like he has some talent also. But he doesn’t have as much playing time as Canini and Radu have.

I would love to hear some names from the rest of you guys, though. I think that we all know that the usual suspects of FM wannabe’s like us are Bocchetti, Gamberini, Santacroce, Kjaer and Zapata. Are there any other players that we are more likely to get as a transfer?

Of course, as I write this there is a renewal of rumors that we are interested in Kjaer. I still don’t see it, but I wouldn’t be adverse to the situation if it happened to work out in our favor.

Our fullback situation is a little different. I have gone on record as saying that Macion is gone at the end of this season. This would leave us with Chivu, Santon and Zanetti, whose midfield days would probably be over, as our possible fullbacks. Obviously we would need reinforcements, but I would be damned if I can think of another fullback that would play regularly in this company.

The type of player that Mourinho is looking for would be very technical and like to push up the field to overlap the midfielders who would pull back, pinch in and hold 10 meters in front of the midfield line. In other words, whatever he’s looking for in a defender, take the opposite of that to look for a fullback.

Zambrotta, Grosso, Oddo, Santon, Criscito, Molinaro and Motta are really the Italian templates for this type of player, but there just isn’t enough talent to go around. But none of these guys are Maicon, either. Criscito and Santon are better defenders than the rest and are pretty decent going forward, but I wouldn’t call them attacking threats. Besides, however good they will be defending or attacking, it’ll happen years from now. Zambrotta and Oddo are fading fast as age catches up to them. Molinaro doesn’t really impress me too much either technically, attacking or defending, but he does run the whole game, I will give him that. Grosso, in my opinion, still has the magic going forward, but he’s only barely decent as a defender. I just don’t know what to think of Motta yet. Part of me wants to say that there is a lot of talent there, but the other part of me can’t find it when I watch him play.

So who’s available to buy, if anyone? Again, I would have to rely on someone giving me a few names. I can think of one or two players who have impressed me a little, but no one that I feel is ready to compete with Zanetti, Santon and Chivu. If we were to try to sign a guy like Zapata, this is where we could convince him that there is room to play – assuming he is interested in playing fullback. But truth be told, not only am I not really enamored with Udinese’s defence, he’s not really a defender to my liking.

Although, I would be lying if I said that Zuniga from Napoli doesn’t interest me a little. I don’t think that he’s playing in the right system for him in Napoli and he’s young enough to grow into the role, but at the same time, he has some experience. As I said, I think he’s a little intriguing.

I don’t know a whole lot about Philipp Lahm, who plays on Lucio’s old team Bayern Munchen except that he is very short. Ditto Marcell Jansen, who is very tall and plays for Hamburger SV. Both of these players are young and supposedly good attackers. But no one comments on how they defend – which to me is something that is important to know. As far as transfer fee goes, I think that Lahm is more expensive than Janson, although I don’t know by how much. Janson was transferred from Munchen to Hamburger for less than 10 million Euros. I would love for anyone who has seen these two play to comment about their game.

Okay, so I hope that this keeps the juices flowing while we await actual games after this international break.

FORZA INTER

Overview

The last time Parma came to the San Siro to play Inter was way back in January of 2008. That game was a real nail-biter, with Parma leading us until the last few minutes of the game. The winning goal only came in injury time (from you know who). It shows that now, just as then, Parma are not an easy team. They have a team populated with youth players on loan, hungry to show they are ready to “come home.” Parma will be scrappy and attacking, and fast. They will bring the game to us and I hope we are ready for them because these three points are necessary.

Here are the highlights from that January game. Hopefully it wont be quite so foggy this Sunday:

Us

We had as many as 15 players go away for the international break. The squad should return pretty confident – minus Javier who had to suffer defeat this past week – if a little worn out. Mario, Lucio, Cesar, Maicon, Muntari and Eto’o in particular had a pretty good break.

Mourinho earlier today talked about our injury situation. Cambiasso starts working with the squad on Monday, Arnautovic is close to top condition and there is nothing seriously wrong with Materazzi.

Very good.

Mourinho had nothing but good things to say about Parma. He talked about their experience from the coach to the players and how they will play their game. This match, says Mourinho, is the most important one and the game against Barcelona coming up will not influence his choices. In fact, he says that he’s not of a mind to rest anyone.

20 players will be called up:
Goalkeepers: 1 Francesco Toldo, 12 Julio Cesar, 21 Paolo Orlandoni.
Defenders: 2 Ivan Ramiro Cordoba, 4 Javier Zanetti, 6 Lucio, 13 Maicon, 25 Walter Samuel, 26 Cristian Chivu, 39 Davide Santon.
Midfielders: 7 Ricardo Quaresma, 8 Thiago Motta, 10 Wesley Sneijder, 11 Sulley Muntari, 14 Patrick Vieira, 15 René Krhin.
Strikers: 9 Samuel Eto’o, 18 David Suazo, 22 Diego Milito, 45 Mario Balotelli.

La Gazzetta dello Sport sees the formation:

4-3-1-2

12 Julio Cesar
13 Maicon 6 Lucio 25 Samuel 4 J. Zanetti
14 Vieira 5 Stankovic 8 Thiago Motta
11 Muntari
45 Balotelli 9 Eto’o

I think it’ll be:

12 Julio Cesar
13 Maicon 6 Lucio 25 Samuel 4 Santon
4 J. Zanetti 5 Stankovic 8 Thiago Motta
10 Schmujcko
45 Balotelli 9 Eto’o

Mourinho already said that he wasn’t going to rest anyone. Deki appears to have an 11th hour flu and who really knows how injured Schmujcko was last weekend. He did play midweek, if I remember correctly – he scored, didn’t he? But this would be the guy who gets rested if anyone does.

Them

I had thought that the Parma Offsides was up and running but a second look shows that it stopped posting in July. Fair enough then…

Although Parma is a team with prestigious past (2 UEFA Cups, 1 Supper Cup, 3 Coppa Italias), it has also been checkered and Parma has spent many years yo-yo-ing between the divisions. As such, Inter and Parma have only met 18 times at the San Siro. Of those, Inter have won 11, drawn 6 and only lost 1. So far, Parma have had a pretty good start, drawing Udinese on opening day, then beating Catania on matchday 2. In both cases, Parma opened the scoring, and with young talents like Daniele Galloppa and Alberto Paloschi on their roster, they will be dangerous.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport this is the Parma probable formation:

4-4-2

83 Mirante
5 Zaccardo 2 Panucci 24 Paci 6 Lucarelli
15 Dellafiore 17 Morrone4 Mariga 14 Galloppa
20 Biabiany 43 Paloschi

Some names here might seem familiar. We had a quick meet-n-greet with Biabiany earlier this week and found that he is a youth product of ours. Dellafiore was an Inter youth player as well, before we sent him out to Palermo with cash for Fabio Grosso in 2006. We sold Grosso to Lyon the very next year and Palermo has sent Dellafiore out on loan every year they had him except the first season. It’s hard to find a winner in that deal. Panucci was a player here for a year and was relatively anonymous.

As a newly promoted team, Parma has nothing to play for other than 17th place. I expect that they will try to beat us on the run, like Bari tried to do.

Where to watch:

FSC 9:00am EST (6:00am PST)
Myp2p.eu
ATDHE.net click live sports. Scroll down to find the game.

This will be a good test of the team and just the thing we need to get us ready for Barcelona on Wednesday. Hopefully, the boys will be able to concentrate on the game at hand and not the one coming up.

In case some of you don’t remember, Johonna is out of town this week. This is the first of her mini-posts. Let’s make sure that we keep her and her family in our thoughts or prayers.

FORZA INTER

Roster rotation.

No matter what anyone says or how down Milan look, The Derby is a big game. Barcelona, even in a group stage game, is a big game. Sandwiched in between is Parma… not really a big game – all due respect to Parma. They aren’t a rival and a newly promoted team just might provide us the opportunity we need to rest and recuperate.

Let’s face it; one could almost understand the big stars to take a break on this one. And with a big game right after and in some cases long flights just before, the “B” team could get a run out.

So first I want to talk about the advantages and the disadvantages to rotating the roster and then I want to talk about whom goes where in the rotated squad.

There are some advantages to rotating the roster. We get to rest some guys from long flights and 2 games in a week international break. Granted we are only talking about resting those that might actually see action against Barcelona, so some guys who played 2 games this week are going to add a 3rd.

There is also a quantity of focus. A weeks worth of concentrating and studying up on Barca against 3 or 4 days may matter in the final equation. Plus there is a question of motivation. Milito may be focused for any game, any time, but can we say the same thing about others? How about guys like Santon, Quaresma or Mancini, who are desperate to prove that they deserve first team spots. Think that they might be motivated more than someone who sees Parma as an annoyance before the real game midweek?

The downside to roster rotation is that the “B” team is the “B” team for a reason. They aren’t as good as the “A” team – but then who is, especially when you have a leader named Hannibal, the goofball from Star Trek and Mr. T around. A team like Parma isn’t a pushover, even though they are just promoted. It may also be extra motivation for them since we were the ones that sent them down 2 seasons ago. Like Bari two weeks ago, this is their Champions League final. This is about as big as it gets for them for the whole season and they are going to be up for it. Even if they don’t think that they are going to win, they are definitely going to make sure that they aren’t embarrassed.

This isn’t England or Spain. Teams ranked 10-20 aren’t pushovers. Unlike teams in those leagues, Parma will have a good solid strategy and tactics to try and exploit mistakes – the best teams make them – or to help stay alive for as long as possible.

Like Bari did.

Personally, I see squad rotation as a relatively good thing, if one can say something good about fielding a lower talent squad on purpose. If we can pull it off, we need to get some playing time to the young guys sometime and I personally would like us to compete for the Coppa Italia, no matter how insignificant a trophy it is. Plus, look at what some self serving scum is already trying to put in our young players’ heads – and it’s only the second game of the season that has just gone. Players have to play, even Vieira. Well, sometimes, for very small amounts of time, anyway.

If we decide that squad rotation is a good idea, the next thing we have to do is figure out who the “A” team is (Okay, no more ‘80s jokes, this one is too easy to put forth much effort).

In my mind this is the best team we can field (right to left):

Goalkeepr: Julio Cesar

Center Backs: Lucio, Samuel

Fullbacks: Maicon, Chivu

Center Midfielders: Zanetti, Cambiasso, Motta

Attacking Midfielder: Schmujcko

Forwards: Eto’o, Milito

That leaves Toldo, Cordoba, Materazzi, Santon, Deki, Quaresma, Mancini, Muntari, Vieira, Krhin, Obi, Suazo and Balotelli on the second team. Orlandoni, as the 3rd team goal keeper, is an emergency player.

Before we continue let’s discuss the “B” squad for a moment. Many of these players are not exactly “B”. Muntari, Santon, (god help me) Vieira, Deki and Balotelli are really more “B+” or “A-“squad. They play significant minutes with the “A” squad and in many cases they will start.

On a personal note, I pray that we can get rid of Vieira next summer because the thought of another season after this one with him playing significant minutes will just make my hair turn grey, fall out and grow funky eyebrows. Jeez, he bothers me.

Now just to be clear, I don’t expect there to be 100% turnover from the Parma game to the Barcelona game if we rotate the squad. Let’s be realistic, here. Some players are just going to have to play more than others. Having said that, I think that there might be significant changes between the two games.

Here’s how I think the “B” squad might look if we keep the same formation (right to left):

Goalkeeper: Julio Cesar

Center Back: Cordoba, Chivu

Fullback: Maicon, Santon

Center Midfield: Zanetti, Vieira, Muntari

Attacking Midfield: Deki

Forwards: Balotelli, Milito

According to my complete speculation and assumption regarding the rotation of the squad, six different players may come in and play significant roles. Cambiasso and Motta, assuming they’re healthy, will need rest for the same reasons: they are both proven to be injury prone. We know from last season that Mourinho likes to rotate his Center Backs from game to game depending on importance – if he didn’t we wouldn’t have had those wonderful games against Sampdoria or Werder Bremen.

If we were to change the formation, into something more in accordance to what we saw (or didn’t see, but read about) with our friendly this past weekend, like the 433, I think that we might see a personnel shift this way (right to left):

Goalkeeper: Julio Cesar

Center Backs: Cordoba, Chivu

Fullbacks: Maicon, Santon

Center Midfielders: Zanetti, Vieira, Muntari

Forwards: Quaresma, Milito, Balotelli

We still see a shift of 6 players but the formation change is significant. I don’t see any way that Julio Cesar isn’t the goalkeeper, nor do I see any chance that Zanetti or Maicon don’t see the field. Everyone else is negotiable, as I see it.

I would love to see a discussion regarding whether rotation is a good idea here, or who would be rotated in/out or what formation we might use. Would this be the same against all the teams that we would consider in the bottom half of the table?

Inter Forever has very kindly uploaded highlights from the game and an interview with Marko Arnautovic (here). Thank you very much! You can also read a match report on Football Italia.

May this be the first of many this season, Ricky!

Mourinho played a 4-3-3 for this game:

Toldo
Donati*, Samuel, Materazzi (27′ Kyisela*), Esposito*;
Tremolada* (23 s.t Carlsen*), Vieira, Obi* (34′ s.t Romanò*);
Quaresma, Arnautovic ( 43 s.t Dell’Agnello*), Mancini

*Youth player

So, as you can see, first team attack with a largely youth-team defense = lots of goals for everyone! A little worryingly, Marco had to leave the game in the 27th minute because of a problem with his right thigh. No news yet on the extent of his possible injury.

In the end, a friendly is just a friendly, but I think this one was well-timed and very useful. Clearly, we will be seeing more of this Mancini, Arna, Quaresma attacking trident in the future. It was nice to give them a chance to work together without the pressure of a “real” game (I wonder if this counts as one of the 10 appearances for Marko). Also, the fact that our Primavera boys held their own against some big boys show clear promise for the future. With a friendly like this, Mou can get a good look at them and see who may integrate into the first team. Toldo is clearly rusty and this is just the sort of thing he needs to get back into form. With the strenuous season ahead, it would be nice if he could take up some of the Coppa Italia slack. If he does, though, conceding 3 goals will never do. I hope he has it out of his system now!

Oh, Wesley. Please be ok. We need you, desperately!

In other international news, Sneijder got a goal in Holland’s friendly against Japan. Unfortunately, he also picked up what may be a serious ankle injury. He had to be stretchered off in the 77th minute and was immediately taken to the hospital. Apparently, Sneijder said that he heard something crack in his ankle, which does not sound good. According to FC Inter News, x-rays have have ruled out any type of fracture. He will stay in Holland and undergo additional tests to check his tendons. We should know more by Monday. Fingers crossed everyone and light an extra candle to the Calcio Gods – we need Sneijder for the Barcelona game.

Hmmm, looks like Santon gets to play despite Canna’s warning.

On a happier note, Santon got 20 minutes or so playing time with Azzurri against Georgia today. He got at least one good cross in and didn’t concede a free kick or a goal, so I guess I count that as a success. Krhin played about 12 minutes against England today. It was just a friendly, but playing time is playing time, and you never know, he may meet a couple of those players in the Champions League this year. Oh, Slovenia lost 1-2, but England was awarded a phantom penalty and their keeper got away with handling outside of the box, so the results may not accurately represent the play.

Eto’o scored a goal for Cameroon, ultimately beating Gabon 0-2, while Cordoba played a full 90 for Columbia against Ecuador. Columbia also won 2-0. As I write this, Brazil and Argentina are slogging it out. Julio Cesar, Maicon, and Lucio are starting for Brazil, while Zanetti is our lone representative on the pitch for Argentina, although Milito is on the bench. Oh, and Lucio has picked up a yellow card (along with Kaka) and Brazil is up 0-2.

FORZA INTER

Oh Davide, cant you wait until you get back to the dressing room? Yikes.