Register   ·   Log in
Subscribe via RSSrss or via email
Live Chat

Inter’s Dominance is an Unsolved Mystery

By Zain Alvi | 2nd July 2009
Bookmark and Share
jose-mourinho
Inter's Dominance is an Unsolved Mystery  | read this item

Related News

jose-mourinhoWith this article, I realize that I risk angering some staunch Inter Milan supporters. But since I have waited three long years to express my views on this issue, I feel obliged to let them out. The truth is, I simply can’t fathom why no one can stop Inter Milan in the Italian Serie A.

Perhaps it is the lackluster attitude of their guilty rivals ever since the notorious match-fixing scandals of 2006. Or maybe it is the impressive stability within the system of the Nerazzuri. It could very well be true that their rivals give them an excessive amount of respect as well. Yet, all those factors combined do not add up when it comes to explaining Inter’s dominance over the last three seasons.

After all, the squad hasn’t changed much, composed predominantly of South Americans as well as a couple of other foreign big names such as Sulley Muntari and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. And with only two major Italian players (Mario Balotelli and Marco Materazzi), it can’t even be argued that the support of neutrals in Italy propels Inter forward. So what exactly sets this Inter team apart from every other team in the Serie A?

After failing to come up with a detailed theory, I have to settle with the simple explanation that the Serie A is in free fall in terms of competition. The league has deteriorated to the point where a team as ordinary as Inter can run away with the title well before the end of the season. Yes, you read it right, I just referred to the reigning Italian champions as ordinary.

I understand that putting this label on a big club like Inter is quite judgmental. But in my opinion, the quality of their football isn’t much more than plain mediocre. The team relies on the work rate of both fullbacks (Maicon, Javier Zanetti) as well as the skill of a select few players up front. In that regard, Inter can easily fail if their opponent can find a way around the Nerazzuri’s limited strengths.

Manchester United did just that in this year’s Champions League Round of 16 when they completely outplayed Inter over two legs. In fact, Inter were lucky to make it out of the group stages after being embarassed quite a bit by their continental competition. Even with a special manager like Jose Mourinho, Inter learned that they can only pose a real threat to domestic teams who psychologically lose the game even before they take the field against the supposedly “invincible” Italian champions.

Speaking of Mourinho, it seems he would completely agree with my views, at least about the poor quality of the league itself. While the “Special One” would obviously not go as far as referring to his own team as “ordinary”, he has already expressed that attitude quite a bit towards the Serie A. The journey to his first Scudetto was so simple for Jose that he demonstrated his boredom by writing off all of Inter’s domestic competition well before the season was over. Now that’s some food for thought!

As I end this article, I urge you to think carefully about everything I have mentioned so far. I can obviously not deny Inter’s excellence on a domestic level and by no means am I blaming them for anything. At the end of the day, it’s not like they can switch leagues. Basically, I am just demanding that teams in the Serie A step it up and try exploiting Inter’s weaknesses. Rest assured, as Inter is pushed into a corner, I predict the team will surely crack under pressure. Subsequently, Italian football will enter a new era that is built around a far greater level of competition rather than one supreme leader.


  1. Twitted by ErnestNY says:
    July 2, 2009 at 11:37 am

    [...] This post was Twitted by ErnestNY [...]

    Reply to this Comment




Please note: Comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment. There is no need to resubmit your comment.

Latest Headlines