Inter held at Lazio last night after a fiery clash between the title contenders. While the scoreline was a boring one all, the game was far from boring. Lazio dominated the Nerazzurri initially but Inter took hold of the game soon. And almost the entire first half was played in Lazio’s part of the ground with a few counters from Lazio. The Nerazzurri finally started a complete defensive trio with Bastoni, de Vrij and Skriniar in a left to right order. The three are very solid defensively and that’s what they displayed throughout the half.
In the 30th minute, Ivan Perisic cut through the Lazio defence to bring the ball into their box. After which a lucky deflection put the ball at Lautaro’s feet who scored from there beating the Lazio keeper. This marks the fact that Lautaro Martinez has scored in all three of Inter’s Serie A games this season. A few good chances where Lukaku and Hakimi came close to scoring followed the Lautaro goal.
The Nerazzurri were effectively dominating Lazio because the opposition defence suffered a flurry of injuries. By half time, Simone Inzaghi had to make three forced substitutions due to injury. In the second half Lazio came in to dominate Inter. As their counter-attacks didn’t produce much in the first half, Inzaghi’s men started playing quick passes ahead. In the 55th minute Milinkovic Savic head one home to level the score. Ivan Perisic who was marking the player very well showed that he’s not a defensive option.
Inter held at Lazio, Conte’s team selection at question
There were two very bad red card decisions that followed the goal. Immobile got one for slapping Vidal which seemed pretty right. Then in the tail end of the game, Sensi picked one for pushing a Lazio player. This means that Sensi will miss the derby against Milan after the international break.
The Nerazzurri conceded from a part of the pitch from where it’s very difficult to score. There are numerous possibilities of Young clearing the ball if he was playing in place of Perisic. But it’s really not fair to blame Perisic for something he was never meant to do. Conte needs to know that Ivan Perisic is not a defender.
It’s time for Conte to try Kolarov on the left wing-back slot now. With Lazio counters stretching the defence so often, Bastoni played very well. And there’s no reason to change the back three after this. Conte also needs to start Sanchez in a position behind the strikers. The Chilean is in amazing form as he creates a flurry of chances whenever he’s playing. With Arturo Vidal looking like a solid defensive contributor at the moment, it won’t be foolish to start Sanchez behind Lautaro and Lukaku. Also, if Sanchez starts more games, Perisic can play as a backup striker. The Croatian is seemingly struggling as a wing-back putting too much pressure on a young Bastoni behind him.
Inter held at Lazio means that the club missed out on deserving three points. Conte believes in his players and is looking like a more settled manager this season. But this is the time to make tough calls before all is not lost.
