Internazionale Main Thread II

[Lombardiamia]

I bet my head that Messi & Ibra will be regularly there tomorrow...

As for Maicon, I believe he might risk 2 days. It's a straight red and that usually means 2 match suspension. Moratti went public yesterday, saying that Maicon replied to the linesman in a different manner and that the linesman misunderstood something maicon said in english. Whatever the case, it's only Maicon to blame in here. It's a pity Santon got injured, cause he could get some minutes on the right. How much do we bet that Chivu will get injured some time before the Fiore match so that we get screwed on both flanks?

[Dejan-Stankovic]

I've got no problem with Maicon getting banned for one game for the straight red since it was stupid. But they'll make yet another example of an Inter player like they did Vieira with a 3 game suspension and Adriano banned for diving yet it seems barely any other club gets these sorts of suspensions against them. Are we supposed to assume that Adriano has been the only player that's dived in 3 years considering that's the only suspension that's been given for a dive? Also, isn't the dissent rule supposed to be just a yellow? I don't remember anyone getting a straight red for that.

About Barca, I think both will play too but not fully fit. Even if they don't, I'm still not expecting much from the game tbh, even if we're top of the group and have our full team available.

Bright side is since we've closed the CL thread, we're 1/1.

[Lombardiamia]

[Lombardiamia]

[Totally FRANK]

Channel4 says according to Gazzette the chants may not be racist. Take a look at this

Chants against Balo at Juve-Udinese
Monday 23 November, 2009
A section of Juventus fans in both the curva nord and curva sud sang distasteful chants against Inter striker Mario Balotelli, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

The incident happened during Juventus' match with Udinese on Sunday night and perhaps serves as a warning to Balotelli ahead of Inter's trip to Turin on December 5.

The 19-year-old striker was abused at the Olimpico last season, sparking a debate about whether the chants were racist or not.

Yesterday's chants of “if you jump, Balotelli diesâ€

[Lombardiamia]

[Dejan-Stankovic]

[Carlo Romano]

Grazie, Lomba!

"Legends" threads tend to be read rather than responded to, so I wouldn't expect to see many posts. I fully intend as I say, when time permits, to give credit to the two great Inter sides of the past that I've seen, those of Herrera and Trapattoni. Both contained some genuine World Class stars along with several other very good players.

On that point...the only drug HH's boys were high on was their own adrenaline and appreciation of each others' good play. Yes, I heard the "goofies" or amphetamines stories back then. Like I say, those guys didn't need to do any more than just be themselves. They had what it took, and in abundance.

The old videos and film clips that can still be got prove that!

[Lombardiamia]

No nothing lost in there Dejan, it is a literal translation. It shows a sort of 'superiority complex' on someone whom you consider inferior, hence you are in a position where it is like you're deciding what you do with his life. It s a slavery referral in Italian, but I understand its hard to understand when something is literally translated that way. In Italian they use the word jump in this case as a referral to chimps...

[Lombardiamia]

Carlo, incredibly enough it had to be another foreigner to find the appropriate words for this talk, when Mou described all this as 'prostituzione intelletuale'. Do you think he can really be HH's heir?

[Carlo Romano]

Lomba, you're asking me two questions here and if I wanted to I could make it into three which would lead us into another discussion altogether from the purpose of this thread...and it's one I'd like to talk/debate at a later date because it deals with Mou, of whom I always said could do good things with Inter but his destiny lies elsewhere as I'm certain we will one day see.

In his prime, Enzo Bearzot had much the same strength of character, skills, and planning expertise as HH, but if we are looking for a modern day version, probably only Fabio Capello could, and even then only to a point, meet the requirement. We must remember that both football and indeed society in general worked differently in the 1960's, and though Capello is, just as Herrera was, very much il mister, maintaining a certain aloofness from his players with which to excercise his authority, that's where the similarity ends. Capello is showing the world nothing new while Herrera took an old idea (catenaccio) and very successfully updated it to make history with, as did Bearzot with zona mista with which he won the 1982 World Cup!

Capello, as it happens, has achieved more in terms of success and is an unarguably fine allenatore but we have seen his flaws too. Herrera was a strict disciplinarian, yes, but unlike for example his British counterparts of the time like Stein and Shankly who ruled only by fear, HH was a true thinking man who believed in educating his players through both a thorough research of his opposition and the psychology with which to defeat them! If at times he seemed to be a bit like a 1960's factory foreman dealing with the shop floor workers in ruling his players with a rod of iron, (something which wouldn't work nowadays) publicly he defended them like a lion would its young and wouldn't allow a critical word to be said against them! When HH spoke, you listened because you knew what he said counted for something...

He was beaten in the end by a depletion in quality of his squad which I'll show in the 1960's Inter player profile I'm preparing, and not as it's often said, that Rinus Michaels' Total Football buried both the once great HH and his brand of catenaccio by proving attack was a better weapon than defence. I base my argument on the fact Herrera had already shown he could coach successfully the sparkling attacking play his Barcelona used...he could certainly adapt. But quite apart from his weaker squad of the later 1960's, HH had to contend with Rivera's resurgent Milan, Riva's Cagliari, and Anastasi's Juventus. It was "a big ask!"

If you haven't read it, I think you'll find the link below on catenaccio interesting reading, particularly the part on zona mista shown on the image below which I prefer...



The link on Nereo Rocco, the first Italian coach to use catenaccio is also a worthwhile look.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catenaccio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nereo_Rocco


As we see in his list of teams managed, the best Herrera could do for my Roma was get us one Coppa Italia...but the end of the 1960's were as we've seen, full of tough competition!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helenio_Herrera

[Dejan-Stankovic]

[Lombardiamia]

[Dejan-Stankovic]

He said in the interview "The only doubt I have for tomorrow is Sneijder. He still hasn't trained. Two or three days ago I thought there would have been encouraging developments, but there haven't been. He's still doubtful, but it's a doubt I want to dispel tonight after the training session. It's not something I want to carry over to tomorrow." Then Sneijder did the full training session with the rest of the team so I think he should be ok to start. Remember, in the Dynamo game he said Sneijder wouldn't be playing and then all of a sudden, he was starting the game and was MoM. I suppose we'll have to wait till game time to see..

I think we have to go into this game knowing Barca will have most of the possession. They do this regardless of who they play so I'm still expecting them to have about 60%. They're also at home which is another advantage. All I'm looking for tonight is a clincal display; us not getting in too much danger while taking our chances that we will most likely get. They're the best team in the world so they'll have a few close shots and will probably score as well as that's how great they are but Rubin proved it wasn't impossible to beat them but they did it with about 3 shots on goal and were also dominated in possession.

My approach to this game is if we lose, we lose. We still go through if we beat Rubin at home so we can lay everything on the line here and if we manage to get the win, it will be massive.

[Totally FRANK]

[Totally FRANK]

[Totally FRANK]

Inter to appeal against Maicon ban
Tuesday, 24 November 2009 17:58:49
[FOTO Tuesday, 24 November 2009 17:58:49]

MILAN - FC Internazionale will lodge an appeal against the two-match ban inflicted by the Lega Calcio's disciplinary committee on Maicon. The player was suspended today for his dismissal at the end of the second half against Bologna last Saturday.

[Dejan-Stankovic]

40 mins into the game, we're 2 - 0 down, being taught a football lesson and all we can do is hack at the Barca players. Don't even mention that Messi, Ibra and Toure aren't playing. Even with Sneijder we'd still be getting massacred out there as there's too much of a difference in class for us to even trouble this level of team. The best thing about this game is it exposes just how bad Cambiasso and Zanetti are at this level. Can't keep the ball, can't defend, can't pass, offer nothing going forward. Just then, in the 42nd min, we had our first shot on goal. We should get a fuckin trophy for that. And I have to sit through another half of this...

Hats off to Barca though. All class out there.

[RomaShield27]

Yeah, your boys are being completely outclassed and so your players are going around just looking for a fight. Motta is a headless chicken out there. You have nothing going forward.

At least Fiorentina know how to perform in Europe.

[Totally FRANK]

Cambiasso especially has been really really poor. All he has done is watch Xavi pick a pass and control the tempo rather than sticking with him like glue.

We could have easily avoided the first goal, I still can't understand what Motta was trying to do. The second goal was just a work of art.

I am just hoping they don't massacre us with a 5-0 or 6-0.