Team Focus: Mazzarri in the Firing Line Due to Inter's Inconsistency

The stadium announcer at San Siro read out Inter’s starting XI to face Sampdoria last Wednesday night. And when he reached the end, he did something unusual. He neglected to add the name of coach Walter Mazzarri. It had been whistled before the last home game against Napoli and even though Mazzarri claimed not to be bothered by them - “whistles don’t have names,” he said - the club wished to protect him from the crowd, which, at 28,057, was Inter’s lowest of the season. They couldn’t for long though.

At half-time, the referee’s whistle wasn’t the only shrill sound heard around the ground. It was 0-0 at the interval. But only just. Alfred Duncan, a player on loan from Inter and a member of their Next Gen-winning team in 2012, had struck the post for Sampdoria in injury time. As Mazzarri walked down the steps to the dressing room, he appeared to react to the cat-calls by throwing up a hand. The facade he put up, insisting they didn’t get to him, apparently slipped. How couldn’t they? He is only human after all.

As it turned out, Inter ended the night victorious against a Samp team who, as Mazzarri was at pains to point out, had travelled to the Giuseppe Meazza undefeated. Alessio Romagnoli brought down Zdravko Kuzmanovic in the 90th minute and the referee pointed to the spot. For the second time in three days Mauro Icardi put away a penalty to clinch all of the points for the Nerazzurri. It mattered little to Mazzarri that neither result had been achieved with a goal from open play.

Next up were Parma. The context to this game was telling. Since Mazzarri has been in charge of Inter he has never managed to put together three wins on the spin in Serie A. This was the ninth such occasion he’d had the chance to do so. As with the previous one against Cagliari in late September the opportunity came against a team that found itself bottom of the table and in dire straits. It was as good as any they were going to get. Parma had lost their last six games. They were experiencing their worst start to a season ever and Roberto Donadoni’s job was on the line.

Once again, though, Inter inexplicably blew it. Just as they’d put the keys in the ignition and looked to be on their way, the motor spluttered, turned twice and then cut out. Parma’s first cross of the night reached Paolo de Ceglie and the player on loan from rivals Juventus gave his beleaguered team an improbable lead. As was the case against Palermo and Fiorentina, the Biscione were behind early. When presented with a deficit to turn around this season, Inter have never come back and won. On the five occasions it has happened, only once have they rescued a point and surprisingly that was against Mazzarri’s former club, Napoli.

A quarter of an hour from the end, de Ceglie, a stranger to goals like Cagliari’s San Siro hat-trick hero Albin Ekdal, got his second and put the game beyond Inter. This inability to overcome adverse circumstances has raised questions about their character. Inter have been accused of being too soft. Leadership and setting the right tone seems to be an issue, a consequence perhaps of Javier Zanetti’s retirement and the new owner’s decision not to offer any of the remaining treble winners Walter Samuel, Esteban Cambiasso and Diego Milito new contracts.

Inter’s director of sport Piero Ausilio said on Monday: “If we had 11 Mazzarris on the pitch we would win every game 3-0.” Aside from churlishly asking whether he ever saw him play - Mazzarri mostly plied his trade in the lower divisions - there is a concern that Inter fold too easily and make silly mistakes. But unlike against Cagliari when things really went against Inter and they blacked out or against Fiorentina when their heads went down after a couple of wonder strikes from Khouma Babacar and Juan Cuadrado had left them with that feeling of helplessness, their performance away to Parma was just woeful.

“Bravo, Mazzarri,” taunted Antonio Cassano, “beautiful football. Tell your coach his team plays well,” he asked Juan Jesus. Mazzarri had tried to change things. Inter went from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 and then 4-3-3 but rather than score an equaliser the only outcome was confusion. Andrea Ranocchia found himself at right-back. Kuzmanovic was given a free role behind the strikers while second half substitute Federico Bonazzoli, a promising young centre forward, was stationed out-wide.

Too often, no one was in the penalty area and when they were Rodrigo Palacio still sees Manuel Neuer bearing down on him like he did in the World Cup final. Yet to score this season, the burden has fallen on Icardi who, because Palacio missed the start of the campaign and Osvaldo then got hurt, has had to play almost every game and now looks fatigued and lacking in lucidity.

For many though it’s a mystery how a team boasting so much talent in midfield can create so few clear cut chances for Inter’s goal-getters. One of the issues seems to be that Gary Medel’s passing range is often sideways. And like Mateo Kovacic, like Hernanes, he tends to take too many touches. That slows Inter, allows opponents to get organised and make it so they are difficult to break down. Injuries to wide players, so crucial to Mazzarri’s play, have also hampered the dynamic. A threat themselves - think of how well Yuto Nagatomo and Jonathan started last season - they not only cross and get among the goals but stretch out defences, opening up spaces for Kovacic to pass into and Icardi and Palacio to score in or for their fellow wing-man to arrive at the far post.

Mazzarri continues to argue Inter are lacking results, not performances. Statistics would indicate they are playing better than a year ago. They have more of the ball: 56.7% as opposed to 52.9%. They’re making more passes in the final third [1456 to 1320] and more crosses [251 to 249]. They’re shooting more too [170 to 159]. But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. This is a case of quantity not quality, poor rather than good service, bad decisions not great ones and key players yet to unlock their best form.

Inter are only four points off third place and there are still 28 games to play. But they could and should be doing so much better. Inter recruited well in the summer. Mazzarri got the players he wanted. Existing members of the squad were expected to be more familiar with his methods and more comfortable in his system. Their fixture list has been among the most straightforward, though complicated by their involvement in the Europa League and compromised by injury.

And yet they’re four points worse off than at this stage last season [19 compared with 15], have scored nine fewer goals [24 as opposed to 15], have had fewer shots on target [57 to 48] and as a result have seen their conversion rate dwindle from 13.8% to a miserly 8.8%. Then there’s the wider question as to whether Mazzarri’s style of play is suited to a club like Inter. Counter-attacking is all well and good if teams come on to you and leave space in behind. However, opponents don’t do that when they come to a ground like San Siro. They stand off and sit back. If you can’t vary your play, move the opposition around and break them down then you’re in trouble.

The frustration in the stands is understandable. Mazzarri has won back-to-back games at home only once in the league. His win percentage in Serie A stands at only 39%. Even in an age of austerity when Inter’s resources have changed and their reality has been altered, it’s legitimate to ask whether that’s good enough, particularly when smaller budget teams like Genoa [coached by former Inter manager Gian Piero Gasperini] and Samp [led by the Nerazzurri’s former assistant Sinisa Mihajlovic] are out-performing them.

Those tightened purse strings are precisely why Inter will think twice about dismissing Mazzarri. Off to Nyon on Friday to explain to UEFA how a club that recently posted a loss of over €100m can become Financial Fair-Play compliant, the new contract Inter gave Mazzarri in the summer means it would cost them close to €6m net to sack him, a sizeable chunk of the January transfer kitty and an expense the cost cutters won’t wish to incur.

For Thohir and co the ideal situation would be for Mazzarri to turn it around and realise the objective of qualifying for the Champions League. With each game, however, the margins are getting finer. And what if things are put in further jeopardy? The stakes are high.

How much more time does Mazzarri have to save his job or will it be too little too late for the manager either way? Let us know in the comments below