Cristian Chivu believes that ‘nothing would have changed’ regarding the title race even if Inter had beaten AC Milan last night.
Inter went into the game with a 10-point lead over their city rivals with 11 games to go, and had they won it would have opened up to 13 points, which surely would have been too big a margin for Milan to recover.
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Even a draw would have been good enough for the Nerazzurri to maintain their advantage, and yet they lost 1-0 at San Siro to a Pervis Estupinan goal, meaning that the gap has now been reduced to seven points and talk of a title race has reignited.
After the game, Chivu spoke to DAZN Italia to offer his thoughts on what was another frustrating night in the derby for his side after the defeat by the same scoreline back in November. His words were relayed by Football Italia.
What went wrong tonight?
“Our first half was below par with a slow tempo, we then conceded their goal and that was a blow too. We tried to step up a gear after the break and did better in fits and starts, creating a good chance with Dimarco. We tried everything to swarm around their low defensive block, but were unable to break them down.”
Considering that Esposito and Bonny are different to the usual centre-forwards, should Inter have put more crosses into the box?
“We got to the by-line, but without clear-cut situations, and then the crosses tended to be cleared by their defenders, because we never got in front of them.
“There was a lack of dynamism for us, Milan were sitting back and waiting for us to then go on the counter-attack. We need to improve and raise the tempo.
“We could and should have done better. The strikers are young, they didn’t do what we usually require, but that is not an excuse, I am pleased with what they tried to do, considering they were the only two at our disposal.
“For two such young players, this is valuable experience. We all should’ve had greater intensity and moved with more determination all over the pitch.”
Could you have switched to playing one striker?
“I don’t think this was the right game to make experiments like that.”
What do you think of the Samuele Ricci handball talk?
“I was told the VAR checked it, so I have nothing to add. I am focused on the performance, on my decisions, my mistakes. There are 10 games to go, 30 points up for grabs, so we’ve got to build on what we’ve done so far.
“We still have a seven-point advantage, there are 30 still to be earned, nothing would’ve changed even if we had won tonight.”
Chivu is like Inzaghi – no plan B, and it showed last night. No vertical threat, not really any wide threat either. No service to the strikers and no reinvention….
Which inzaghi
What do you think they should have done different to score a goal or win the match?
Won’t you rather prefer you won at any cost rather wishing he had done better?
Forza Milan
Does Allegri have a plan b?
Allegri’s plan B is to receive red card for arguing with sideline referee haha.
Allegri’s plan B is to switch to a 433 late on and trow three attackers on. What Allegri unfortunately doesn’t do is start a 433 against the likes of Cremonese and the small teams we have yet to play.
Inzaghi too a lesser Inter team squad to 2 champions league finals and beat guys like bayren and barcelona and basically played the most beautiful football in italy!
u just don’t know about this sport! another squarehead never has been
What do you think they should have done different to score a goal or win the match?
Won’t you rather prefer you won at any cost rather wishing he had done better?
Forza Milan
Chivu seems to be getting found out a little bit.
Getting thoroughly outclassed over two legs by Bodo. Doubled by Milan. Hasn’t really done well against the other big teams in Italy.
To his credit Inter don’t miss against the smaller teams. But he’s clearly benefitting from the difference in roster quality and depth they have.
Milan will be kicking themselves if / when Inter wins the scudetto thanks to all of these points dropped against the provincials.
Had we just won some of the games against oponents that Inter beat with 3+ difference we would have been at the top. But hey, they have way more depth and this Chivu is capitalizing on their strength. Tactically he was outsmarted last night…. Let’s hope they lose another one and we are able to win then it becomes difficuilt for Inter as it get’s close.
I expect them to win scudeto but hey, we dream until the last game… I see nothing wrong with that
When you think we have 6 points on them from direct matches, but we are 7 points behind… goes to show you how bad we have performed against some provincial teams
Chivu needs to learn a plan B system with a 4 at the back formation to create versatility in the squad. We (inter) are so predictable against the top sides, even against smaller sides we use the same system but the quality in the individuals still wins us games. But against the top top sides we need more in our disposal
Inter is a robust team, when they play smaller teams the midfielders get more involved, when they play bigger teams they become too positionally fixated and play way too many side to side passes. I was excited about Chivu because his inter seemed more vertical. For the marathon that is a season Inter is well equipped physically, but they lack (or need to instruct a player like Zielinski, to be more creative) they lack pace and trickery for these tough moments, they get bailed out by strikers and Di Marco’s left foot. A more creative wingback and more creative license to players like zielinski and calhanohglu in these types of moments and matches