Waking up quite late this morning, I was welcomed to Twitter by utter and complete chaos.
Being among the first to find out (as always), my friends at SempreInter.com had announced that Inter have sacked Walter Mazzarri and will be signing Roberto Mancini to be his replacement at the Meazza. Mancini has agreed on a contract binding the sides to each other until the end of 2017. Everywhere, fans going wild, acting like we've re-signed Mourinho and the treble winners (all 5 years younger), glorifying the triumphs that Mancini had at the head of Inter during his first tenure and expecting them to reoccur as soon as next season.
I will attempt to present a summary of my feelings about this development in the remainder of this post. I hope that it will provoke my fellow Inter fans to think deeper and more long term about the situation at our club.
First of all, the feelings I got upon reading the article were a chaotic mixture of everything - relief, anger, disappointment... you name it.
Walter Mazzarri clearly saw no exit from the chaos that he's overseen this season, and coaches always being the first ones to take blame - this was a logical outcome, bound to happen sooner or later.
It's worth noting that Mazzarri has been ridiculously disappointing in his rhetoric and his excuses, so he kind of had it coming.
After seeing so many rash decisions being taken as far as coaches were concerned during the Moratti era and evaluating how much it has cost us, I have been of the opinion that we must not make the next changes impulsively, but rather with careful calculation. I thought that if we wanted a serious project to take off for our club, we had to find a very good coach, one that's known to work with enthusiasm, has good man management skills, is tactically knowledgeable and perhaps most important of all, is good under pressure. I believe that Thohir held the same opinion, but Mazzarri has not been making things easy for him. Game after game this season, we've looked like anything but a side that is developing and building potential to become a league winner in the foreseeable future. We constantly hear talk about the team "growing" and "playing with character", but everyone who's seen our games this season knows it has been anything but the case in reality. Mazzarri should have done much, much better this season - it's his second season, he's had time to get to know the club, and was brought new players that fit his criteria (Osvaldo, Medel were both his choices according to the public). Even he himself noted on several occasions that our team is complete and that they are "brimming with motivation".
Roberto Mancini, as dear as he might be to all Inter fans for the beautiful memories we have of his first tenure on our bench, doesn't quite convince me. To start with the good things, though, I'm quite sure that he will make improvements to the faulty machine that Mazzarri is leaving behind.
It is widely expected that Mancini will employ a different tactical approach to Mazzarri. We will finally say goodbye to 3-5-2, which wasn't working too well for us and it is logical that Mancini will use a 4-1-2-1-2 (tight diamond/rombo) formation. Considering the fact that our lack of wingers doesn't allow us to go for 4-2-3-1 and lack of squad depth in attack forbids 4-3-3, the rombo is a decent option as long as it is played well, provides good chances for direct football with fast vertical penetration. Another one of the positive things about Mancini arriving compared to Mazzarri is the fact that he's been known to accommodate players in positions that suit them very well. As it has been pointed out to me by Mr. Cristiano Acconci of WhoScored earlier today, it was Mancini's decision to employ Maicon as a right back and move Zanetti elsewhere (which was no problem at all for our Captain), Julio Cesar instead of Toldo, Cambiasso for Davids, Yaya as AMC at City etc. In that context, I am particularly happy about knowing that Mancini is very fond of Kovacic, by far our brightest player, and I expect him to grow even faster now, for I believe his potential is much greater than even the great performances that he's been putting up in our shirt since he arrived. We've also got a couple more great players, who have blended in the sterile style of Mazzarri and have underperformed, in Hernanes, Medel, perhaps M'Vila etc; then we've got Icardi who is clearly Capocannoniere material and has been left with zero service (now with one of Hernanes/Kovacic right behind him in the team sheet and Palacio/Osvaldo beside him, I expect him to take his place as one of the best goalscorers in Italy) etc. They've produced some results, but they can do much more (as opposed to players like Kuzmanovic, Jonathan, Obi, Krhin etc. who clearly need to go, ASAP).
The problem I have with Mancini perhaps comes down in great part to the expectations that people will have of him, and I think that it is exactly these expectations opposed to the reality of our predicament that will eventually bring about his demise. The scenario that I expect to come to pass is perhaps a good performance against Milan, one to come from a reinvigorated team, eager and motivated from the new potential of change. It is a common phenomenon with new coaches, but the difference between a good choice and a bad one when it comes to new coaches comes down to whether one can keep up the good performances long term and gain complete control over his team, really make it grow with his own influence. Then it will be Dnipro, probably a happy qualification for us into the next round of the EL, and Roma, where I don't suppose anyone will expect us to have a particularly pleasing result anyway, so no one will be left disappointed if we don't play well, and it's all happiness and ecstasy if we do well. My worries come mainly after the starting "fix" fades away. Obviously, Mancini has too little time at his disposal to get his tactical ideas through to the team well enough to create balance and coordination before this starting euphoria wears out. After this, as opponents slowly realize what Mancini's ideas are, they will learn how we play and will expose the fact that this team was not bred according to Mancio's ideas (nor by his standards, financially speaking)...
Which leads me to my long term concerns. Roberto Mancini to me is one of the most overrated coaches in world football. Yes, he's won the Scudetto for Inter after a terribly long drought. Please don't speak to me of his previous success with Inter, it's distant history. There should be no comparison at all between the team that Mancini left in 2008 and the one he will find tomorrow. The same goes for the level of competition that he left in 2008 (0) and the one he will have to cross horns with this season. Actually, come to think of it, Mancini has had the very best squad in the league on each occasion since his first tenure at Inter (City afforded him a dream squad and Galatasaray were by far the best team in Turkey). Yes, he's won things, and good for him! But his failures outweigh his success considering the circumstances he was working in (he failed to get past the group stages in the CL with City twice, and had Inter lose out to Valencia and Liverpool in the CL in the last 16), and most people who've watched his games anywhere will know exactly why. Mancini is no tactical genius, he's got no particularly good man management skills, doesn't have ANY authority and isn't a top motivator either. He's had problems with keeping his squad in control on countless occasions while at Inter (Figo refusing to enter the pitch; Crespo, Ibrahimovic, Materazzi...) City (Balotelli...), and he was exiled quite swiftly from the Galatasaray fans. I would have had no problem at all if he were taken up as an interim coach until the end of this season, even with the chance of re-evaluating in May and extending his stay - but a 2.5 year contract from the off?! In situations like Inter's current predicament, when the shine wears off he will not have a world class squad to depend on to fill his lack of tactical knowledge or time to calibrate the team, and Thohir sure as hell won't get him any notable reinforcements in January (we would have had another forward this summer if we could afford it). The world class squads he had at his disposal often kept him afloat when he faltered. I can't say he is BAD, he's just not good enough to launch us into success (and, this IS what we want, isn't it?). I would only have followed this scenario (a long term contract in the middle of the season) if there was a game-changer in question (one like Simeone, Bielsa, Martinez...)
We are now at risk of finding ourselves in a very similar situation to the current one in a year's time or so. Now the squad will have to undergo further changes to accommodate to Mancini, and it will be another "transition" (I've gotten used to those), setting back the club's plans of financial growth among other things as well. It's funny how we almost constantly have the highest-paid coaches in the league, and only end up paying them for sitting at home for half the length of their contracts. Unfortunately, I believe the same will happen with Mancini.
On a brighter note, last time Mancini was removed, we got Mourinho (could use a joke right about here).
Finally, I will quote a wise man in white robes, wearing a long, white beard from some movie I've seen a million times.
"There never was much hope... only a fool's hope."
Good luck, Mancio! (you're gonna need it)
No comments:
Post a Comment