Inter 4 – Palermo 4; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

By: InterMAD | February 1st, 2012

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It was a game that probably shouldn’t have been played considering how bad the conditions on the field were, but I give a lot of credit to the boys for going out there and not giving up. I have talked a lot about the desire of this team and if it still has it – well, we had desire today, at least.

Most of this game took place in a slog and I was watching an extremely good feed and I lost track of the ball constantly, just like I lost track of the end lines. That last bit doesn’t bother me too much; I certainly had lots of company as the linesmen didn’t seem to know where they were either half the time.

There’s just not a lot to say about this game, it was so far a departure of a regular, normal game. If you think that watching this game will give you some insight into the result of Inter’s mercato or the future effectiveness of any player on the field, then, in my opinion, you are fooling yourself.

This was just a fight over a ball that you weren’t allowed to use your hands in that time just ran out on or there could have been goals in the double digits.

Moving on regarding the Motta transfer… However you look at it, and by the echoes of screams and wails I can hear outside my window many Inter supporters don’t appreciate it too much, a job opening has been created. We better figure out quick if Poli, Palombo or someone else is up to it.

THE GOOD

Andrea Poli

The good section has to start with Andrea Poli. In terrible conditions, under constant kicking, slide tackling and pushing he stands out as maybe the best performing midfielder in the game today. The boy was battered and received very little protection from the officials. At one point near the sideline he was literally thrown off the ball as play was allowed to continue. He got up and continued to play.

He was all action, all the time and he was making good passes in the snow that others – especially our Brazilians – found very hard to do. Does this mean I think he’s the answer to the midfield because he played well today? Not to me. He’s an option that I think we should explore further, however because the kid’s a freaking demon on wheels with his pass and move schtick.

Wesley Sneijder

I don’t if it was by design or if it was organic but Wes seemed to be playing in that strip of clear grass almost the whole time he was on the field. That helped him with his precision dribbling and passing sure. But what I want to talk about here is the fact that he came back to help out on defense. There has been a bit of a bru-ha-ha regarding Ranieri and Sneijder. Wes could have played the SupahStah card but he didn’t. He responded by playing hard and looking like he wants to win. Nice.

Nagatomo

Look there were really no such things as position out there today, but on the left Naga was a monster. He got the crap beat out of him but he made a hell of a run to get on the end of a Poli thread the needle type pass than made Munoz foul him. He made an earlier promising run that was also a penalty shout, I thought. On top of all that, he was pretty good on the ice for a little guy.

Milito

How could I have possibly left Milito to this far down to mention in the good section? It was this, and maybe it’s a little churlish, but he could have had like six goals all the looks and chances he was getting. He missed one shot inches wide. He had a header taken out of the goal for some reason – I think it was because Maicon’s pass was out of bounds. He was inches offside on his goal, and that’s unfortunate, even though the ball came off the defenders foot – I think there’s a stipulation for that but I am far too tired to look it up. The goal that I thought was the best was the one where Pazzini tried a volley and it just didn’t come off right and the reaction time it took for him to nail that thing in there was amazing. Nice.

THE BAD

Defense

The defense was bad, but that should be expected in a game like this. No doubt there will be lots of people blaming Ranocchia for this draw and I think that’s crazy. Was he very good today? No, I don’t think so. Was he very bad, today? Not really. He was responsible for one goal, by my count and frankly after seeing the replay, there just wasn’t anything he could do as he was in perfect position on Miccoli and the little shit just put the ball in a perfect spot.

Just for masochistic pleasure here are the goals against today: Corner – no one watching back post = everyone’s fault, Miccoli against Ranocchia = perfect play, Miccoli header (!?!?!) against Nagatomo = if Miccoli’s scoring headers it’s just not your day, Miccoli against Lucio = Lucio beaten. Looking at all the goals I would cast a share of blame on Cesar too. At some point you are just going to have to sit tight and watch your back post instead of over committing to the near post, especially if you’ve already been beaten there once and you realize that conditions won’t let you so anything quickly.

Pazzini

The Crazy One has the Yips. There is no other way to call it. He just needs to put his underwear on backwards, wear a tie on his forehead and hang tassels off his boots. In other words, he’s got to do something to take his mind off the fact that he’s not scoring a lot and play relaxed instead of tight.

Zarate

It’s time to pull the plug on this one. I get that he’s basically the only offensive sub we have with Forlan out – is it weird that I forget that he’s even on the team at times? – but it might be time to start bringing in Castaignos on these occasions even if we know there’s nothing he can really contribute at this point. It’s more productive to get him game time experience than it is for Zarate to be in uniform. I said that this game was meaningless in making any sort of judgment on a player going forward, but that’s not what I am doing here. I am just giving voice to my frustration over this joker that has been building up for a while. This game just gives me a chance to rant about him.

THE UGLY

Inter Supporters

I don’t even really know what I want to say here but there has been such negativity regarding this team lately it’s a little disheartening. I am not really talking about our readership here in particular, but just in general.

I mean, I understand and sympathize that people aren’t really happy with the markets lately, and frankly neither have I really, but there is a new reality that is occurring around the team and people need to understand what that is. Motta wasn’t sold because the management wanted to make the team worse. Motta was sold for lots of reasons; not the least of which was his salary, his diminishing ability to get over what Inter paid for him in a future sale, his general health or lack thereof and his very narrow skill set.

All that is great but the supporters are taking this as some kind of negative future sign over what’s going to happen to us in the future. That whatever we are transitioning into Motta would have allowed us to win while we do it. And maybe all that is correct. Maybe the transition into whatever Inter will turn into next could have been made easier to swallow for the fans with Motta on the squad and Inter probably doing better in the short term.

But that wasn’t the way the management saw things. They saw a way to gain funds and salary space and they took, even if it means that they ripped the band-aid off the team instead of slowly letting it detach over time. I am sad to see Motta go, as Drewsf said in so many words, he had a place and an important role here. I was sad to see Eto’o go, but like Motta, he wanted to get one last big paycheck. Inter wasn’t going to give it to him either so they got as much for him as they could, some €25-30 million. It’s a shame and in the end it sure looks like this season is the sacrifice for some accounting reorganizing and roster shuffling. And that leaves a terrible taste in my mouth. I don’t want to sacrifice seasons, I want to win.

I don’t know what the new reality is or will be for the team. But it’s getting ugly out there fast. At the end of this game supporters were yelling and abusing Ranieri. The team, including Zanetti came out to defend the coach – and all reports say that Zanetti was IRATE at the fans about the whole thing. I don’t blame him. I like to think that Inter supporters should know better about this stuff. We have had a long time to look at other teams and how their supporters act, at how unconstructive all the criticism is all the time. I don’t agree with some of the stuff that Branca and Moratti have been doing lately, and I have been critical of them, constructively, I hope. And I hope they continue to follow the plan that they have come up with to bring the team in line with the general European/Italian recession and FFP. I don’t really care if the plan works or not, as long as there is a plan, I’m pretty happy. As long as there is a team there in black and blue, I will be following them.

FORZA INTER

Some Related Inter Posts:

Category: Andrea Ranocchia, Claudio Ranieri, Diego Forlan, Diego Milito, Giampaolo Pazzini, Javier Zanetti, Julio Cesar, Luc Castaignos, Lucio, Massimo Moratti, Serie A, Thiago Motta, Yuto Natatomo

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Toeexpress

Your presentation was nice except that you referred to miccoli as "the little shit". This is one of the best and most exciting players in the game of football today and to be insulting him this way speaks volume about who and what you really are.
InterMAD

La Gazzetta is running with the story that the game has been postponed for Sunday at 1500 local Roman time. If you live in the western hemisphere zones that means the game is early to really really early
sarcasmo24

9 am on the East Coast, 6 am in the West. Looks like Saturday night will have to be pretty tame!
InterMAD

Call ups - no Sneijder, No Alvarez
Goalkeepers: Julio Cesar, Luca Castellazzi, Paul Orlandoni
Defense: Ivan Cordoba, Javier Zanetti, Lucio, Maicon, Andrea Ranocchia, Walter Samuel, Cristian Chivu, Davide Faraoni, Yuto Nagatomo.
Midfielders: Angelo Palombo, Andrea Poli, Esteban Cambiasso, Joel Obi.
Forwards: Giampaolo Pazzini, Diego Milito, Mauro Zarate, Luc Castaignos.
Quattro stelle

So crosses all day hoping one finds a head or foot? Great =/ It'll be like watching bad EPL.
kev9inter

So much creativity in that squad!
Kazaan

my prediction

                  JC
Maicon - Lucio Samuel - Chivu
     JZ Cuchu Poli Nagatomo
            Pazzo Milito

or 433 with Zarate insted of Chivu, but it's unlikely
InterMAD

Hang on, there is a rumor that the game has been postponed by some official in Rome...
kev9inter

Game postponed but it could be played on sunday
Styles

thanks for the heads up MAD. I already had to change my pvr once to re-record the game. please update again when you can confirm.
InterMAD

I think it's becoming official that the game will be played on sunday not saturday.
InterMAD

Looks like all the times for this weekend are going to be all messed up because of the weather - make sure you double check the time for the game on Saturday... for your appropriate time zone. I know that I now will have to wake up extra special early.
Thau

Yeah, the weather is crazy here in Europe, I live in Finland, so we are used to this but Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Poland etc. are in big trouble. Reports say that people have frozen to death in the streets of Ukraine and Poland...

I think that our match against Roma will be played on saturday, 15.00 CET.
Kazaan

http://www.football-italia.net...

Motta's agent is on the verge of sounding ridiculous. He's not there yet, but he's close

He had troubles to find motivation to play for Inter? But he has
abundance of motives to play for....PSG? No European football at PSG -
at Inter at least 2 more CL games, EURO 2012 ahead in a country with
high hopes for it...I know, boring, right

This is so unconvincing it must be something else

I'm not a kid but I would LOVE to score a goal for Inter, for free
(during the first season, of course), so if he was so troubled to even
find a motive to play I am even more disappointed

I hope this is just an agent protecting his client who overestimated himself and was willingly sold by a club
Chalon

I was going to comment about this that I read earlier. His agent saying that Motta was an unmotivated player, at a top club like Inter, how is that defending his client? To me that's making it worse, so it could be true.

And if it is, it'll hurt more at first since I like Motta, but I can get over him leaving faster. I bet Guarin and Palombo are relishing this oportunity. And at a moment where we see the team getting complacent sometimes this can only be a good thing.

At the end, I just think Motta saw the uncertainties this club is going through, and saw a club that has money to win short term, and decided to grab the opportunity.
Kazaan

It all started before
His agent said in December that they want a new contract and that if they don't get it they will find another solution for him, as far as I remember.

imo, consequently Inter rejected the proposal and his agent now claims he was actually bored, needed a new challenge, bla bla, to cover up that fact
InterMAD

Long time ex-Inter player Crespo is hanging them up, it looks like - or at the very least quitting Italian football. I think he was one of Johonna's favorites.
Paolo

CRESPO GOL CRESPO GOL!
QUANDO SEGNA C'E MACELLO IN CURVA NORD
CRESPO GOL CRESPO GOL!
QUANDO SEGNA C'E MACELLO IN CURVA NORD

The 1st time I ever went to the Meazza Crespo scored a brace in a 4-3 Inter win over Chievo. If I ever said anything bad, ever, about Crespo it was during that short period when he wore that Mee-Lan rag....

Awesome player, classy finisher!!
mysterix

Probably the most under-rated striker in the world. Thank you CRESPO for all the goals for inter. One of my all time favourite inter players.
Here is an amazing finish from him(although he was playing for the wrong milan side then): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
ajay2

He was my absolute favourite. He is going to play in my country of origin India. Good on him supporting Indian football.
Drewsef

Hey man, Crespo was pretty goddamn awesome in his day. Absolutely zero sense of club loyalty (two nonconsecutive Inter spells, ffs), but pretty awesome. Plus, he might be the only footballer with a youtube compilation that's actually set to a great song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v..."We at the weed gate waiting for jakes / We want eight ravioli bags and two thirsty villains yelling bellyaches." Great opening line, or greatest opening line? You be the judge.
Drewsef

This last comment was so important I felt I should post it twice. Entirely intentional, I assure you.
Drewsef

Hey man, Crespo was pretty goddamn awesome in his day. Absolutely zero sense of club loyalty (two nonconsecutive Inter spells, ffs), but pretty awesome. Plus, he might be the only footballer with a youtube compilation that's actually set to a great song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v..."We at the weed gate waiting for jakes / We want eight ravioli bags and two thirsty villains yelling bellyaches." Great opening line, or greatest opening line? You be the judge.
mysterix

crespo will be playing in india's premier league soccer. he is the most expensive player in the league. it also includes other players like pires, cannavaro, fowler and jay-jay okocha.
Nikko10

they have organized football leagues in India? ok then. Surprised he didn't want to play closer to home, like in the MLS
Mhd

Italy is closer to India than it is to US
oh wait, Italy is not his home ? *trollface*
ajay2

It actually is, he is settled in Italy, his wife is Italian.
InterMAD

Huh, I didn't know that. So he's just leaving Italian football then.

Plus, it'll be interesting to see if football can take of in India.
ajay2

Football has always been popular in the East, near Bengal etc. It just remains to be seen if players like Crespo, Robert Pires, Fabio Cannavaro etc can entice the rest of the country to really start getting interested. Also in the last few years players like Maradona, Forlan and Messi have gone there and attracted crowds of epic proportions, especially Maradona.

I think it will be a big hit. Inter recently started an initiative in India didn't they? Barcelona have had an academy there for a few years and over the last few years clubs like Man U, Liverpool and Chelsea have started to venture there too.
InterMAD

Palombo interviews from his presentation are up all over the place. I have always been a fan of his and I think his interview basically confirms that he's a simple, nice guy.
Kazaan

http://www.football-italia.net...

Giuseppe Rossi

This looks like a good opportunity for Inter. He can play wide, he can assist, he is fast and he can score. Much better player than Palacio or Lavezzi for example, and younger than both

He could be tempted by Inter offer because here he would be a starter probably and a very important player immediately

cons: probably expensive and wants a big contract - but that's the benefit of selling Motta and Eto'o, right?
PDubz18

I like to think that all this selling business is being done to make way for a world-class player this summer. However, if we don't make the Champs League next year there won't be any such players coming in.
Kazaan

We definitely need to win against Roma

a draw would be nice, but after the Lecce game we are craving for 3pts
kev9inter

A few adjustments have been made to our Champions League squad - Diego Forlan, Andrea Poli and Angelo Palombo are in. They replace Motta, Jonathan and Coutinho.
ajay2

Couldn't agree more with what you wrote in the "ugly" section MAD. You basically said what I couldn't. I think lately, whether it be the loss of ball possession or the loss of 3 pts, the typical reaction I am getting accustomed to reading from my fellow Interisti is negative to say the absolute least. I think everyone should just stop worrying so much and starting enjoying the Football more. I am 100% into my team, I love it to bits and I will suffer with them and celebrate with them, but I think we are crossing that fine line between being Football fanatics and just plain fanatics.
Penna_515

how did palombo play?
PDubz18

He looked alright; he was clearly not used to his teammates and really just kinda running around pressuring. He put in an amazing ball out to Zanetti for the 4th goal though, I mean that thing was absolutely incredible. For 4 million, he might be a solid player.
joe

No Moviola section with Milito's goal in bold there? Oh wait, I just remembered the ref yesterday was human, unlike before.
Kazaan

There is no point discussing it endlessly when we all saw Milito was in irregular position and you can see it in the text above, as well

I cannot speak for the others but I hope he will score more goals like that, because refs will make mistakes and as long as they are not deliberate mistakes I want them to be in favor of my team tbh

I think denying the fact that you are glad when ref's mistake favors your team is completely dishonest. But, it is much more immoral to even deny there was a mistake and I would remind you that was happening in Italy a lot not so long ago
joe

The problem lies in the fact that once mistakes are done in your favor, then they become mere 'mistakes'. When they are not, then everyone starts crying conspiracy.

The point is mistakes happen, and at the end of the season they balance out. So you (not you personally, but the majority here) should stop crying when calls don't go your way and remember that mistakes did occur in your favor throughout the season. This isn't the first and won't be the last.

Enjoy it when it happens and stop (again not you specifically) making conspiracy theories when it doesn't.
Abyssight

The claim that things "balance out" at the end of the season is simply untrue statistically.

Let's assume a simplified model, giving a +1 point for calls going your way and -1 point for calls against you. And we assume ref mistakes are completely random (without bias). At the end of season, we place all the teams in the league on a histogram with their points.

What we will get is a histogram that roughly resembles a bell curve (normal distribution) centered at zero. That is, the ref calls are most likely to balance out. But there are few teams at either end of the spectrum. These are teams that are benefited or victimized by wrong calls. They are there because of good/bad luck.

The point is that calls don't balance out for everyone. For Inter this season, it definitely feels like we are more often on the receiving side of bad calls. I don't suspect a conspiracy against Inter. But I find it perfectly okay to whine about bad calls that you feel took deserved points from your team. It is part of the game and we are supposed to talk about it.
Kazaan

It's not paranoia when someone was really out to get you

Thanks to Inter and Moratti we can now talk freely and with certain arguments that today mistakes are really that - mistakes

let's move on
InterMAD

Yeah, I was saying the same thing when I first came to the Inter Offsides. You can look it up. I think I even used the phrase - "everything evens out in the end". I tried to be one of those that calmed the very tense atmosphere around here.

But the Juve and Roma supporters wouldn't let it go - odd how they always managed to shut up or cheer when the obvious calls went against us - check out the former long time writer of the Juventus Offside cheering Camoranesi's offside goal here against us days after complaining that we got an offside goal in our favor in the archives.

So now if something is egregious or fishy I point it out. The fact that there was a wide spread referee conspiracy against us just a few years ago doesn't hurt either. I just have a bigger soap box to point it out on, now. So thanks for your behavior directives person who isn't a part of this community and not my parent!
joe

WOW! You are so delusional LOL

You are even basing your entire pathetic behavior on an incident that happened years ago where someone from the internet teased you about a goal that wasn't legit lol Get a life man!
sqpek

And now you are gonna capslock MAD to death?
InterMAD

Don't disturb the man, it's been the best move he has today.

Besides he's already at the point where he's calling me names. So he's run out of ideas, or what I said bothered him so much he felt that he had to hit back irrationally like a little kid or that mom's coming home and he has to get off the interwebs before she makes him put the groceries away.

Either way it'll be interesting to see what happens next.
InterMAD

"Hi! I am Joe!

I can't tell the difference between an example of behavior that proves the point that the multiple posts I made on a website to tell others how they should live their lives or conduct themselves is hypocritical as well as arrogant on the one hand and in the other; a life changing incident!

Nice to meet ya'!"
Gary

"Hi I am InterMAD!

I can't tell whether someone is just trolling or calling out on my laughable posts depicting behavior worthy of study by psycholinguists specializing in delusional behavior. I love to be hypocritical, biased, and despised and at the same time but when someone points it out to me, I respond in essays mainly by twisting others' words and circling around them. When the number of people pointing out my delusion grows too much, I don't like it very much and I tend to delete their posts.

Nice to meet ya'!"
Mhd

nice try "Joe"
i mean "Gary"
joe

This is the not the first time I read your write-ups and rants. To give an example incident which is a few years old, it must have been a life/behavioral changing incident might have also left a scar. I feel bad for you. It says a lot that you chose to base your not-so-smart justification on something that happened years ago with some unknown on the internet. You need to chill.

Go for another attempt at sacrasm, you might do better.
InterMAD

Yawn

I have won this argument before... Look up in the archives how it ends, but you are going to proceed along these line with subtext removed:

You are [insert derogatory name here] to be so broken up over [insert famous recent event that has been discussed several times and is easily referenced that a Juventus supporter is "shocked" that I remember here].

See how rational I am about your comments/blog posts that I am even calling you [multiple] children's names and using the caps lock to show my rationality.

I don't approve of the way you write always in favor of Inter her on the Inter blog and you should be nicer to Juventus and you are not smart. I am going to tell you again what I think your behavior should be, because I am teh greatest.

All my buddies are now going to be very appreciative of what I say because I now have tussled with MAD/any Interista and they will love me to bits and bits. See I made him "butt hurtt" because I made him post a comment on the board that he visits and posts comments on every day of [insert #] words and typing and thinking of words to say is sooo hard for my that it must really be eating him up.

He is not laughing at me at all. HE IS ANGREY ATE ME! YERS I DID IT!! I MADE HIM ANG

EDIT Sorry I was laughing too hard at the end there. It should read: ANGRY111!!!111!!!!
joe

Seriously, how old are you? 7?
Where do you see any name-calling in my posts? You are just too insecure.

It was fun dropping by.
Mhd

yup, we sure did get a few laughs thanks to your debut rookie. now as MAD said go play somewhere else so we could focus on our work here.
InterMAD

Sorry son, we actually got work to do today and Inter stuff to follow so we don't really have time for you today...

But just to end on a high note: calling someone a child and mentally ill is actually name-calling... and we totally predicted that in our previous post... sigh... far too easy...
Gary

So.. is that what happened? Did your butt hurt?
SunRiver

MAD, much like how you told me once; don't tire yourself...

This one is new around here, let him impress his pals...
Osama Zaidiah

Man that sliding game was full of action!
I am happy Milito is getting back what he deserves. He deserves to be up there with the top scorers in the league.

I am very happy with Sneijder's game. He was much better than Lecce's game. He took responsibility, didn't scream or curse at the ref, he assisted plays and he defended. A team player for me! Love Wes here then ;)

Rannochia was ice skating the whole game. Miccoli is little and light. Rannochia is big and slow. Trying to match Miccoli was a tough task for our giant. I think Cordoba could have done better in this game.

Gotta love Poli man he is great as well. I want him in every game! I love his style and his attitude! Palombo also seemed to fit there. I didn't feel he was new to our team.

Zarate is a selfish dribbler. I can't believe the first thing he does EVERYTIME he gets the ball is dribble right away. What if there is a player in a better position dude? Common!

Finally, Maicon and Cesar seem to be... not interested? I don't know but you feel they are like... achhhhh... another ball! common! just go away!!

Always forza Internazionale! ;)
eyo

What's up with Maicon? He 's been really off the pace lately. It's another reason Pazzini can't get the goals.

Ranieri should also play Castaignos rather than Zarate. Even on the touchline before coming in he already had that defeated look on his face. If you're not a fighter, you're not Inter material.
Osama Zaidiah

Maicon is being really weird lately. He seems out of life! You'd feel he gets angry with the ball at his feet!

Zarate is... helpless!