Internazionale Main Thread III

[Totally FRANK]

I have been saying this for some time, for me Motta just doesn't protect the back four enough. He was all over the place in the first half and left the back four exposed way too often. IF we continue playing like this we'll more likely be punished in the Champions League. A team having ambitions to win on all fronts simply cannot concede so many goals.

Good to see Nagatomo on today, he provides a whole new dimension to our play on the left side though he had no real opponent today as Roma were down to ten. He/Chivu needs to play at LB as we cannot afford to play Zanetti at LB. With Motta as our defensive midfielder Zanetti needs to play on the right side of the diamond providing support for Motta and covering the whole right flank with Maicon bombarding forward.

[Messinterista]

Blog: Far eastern promise

Yuto Nagatomo became Inter’s first Japanese player when he joined in January. Rob Paton looks at where his real value for the Nerazzurri is

In signing Yuto Nagatomo, Inter simultaneously captured a solid left-back – notoriously a difficult position for the Nerazzurri – and opened up to a new fanbase. Drawing attention for his astute play for Japan at the 2010 World Cup Nagatomo attracted a lot of interest. Whilst Bologna and Roma considered bids, it was Cesena who picked him up on a loan deal from FC Tokyo, and within six months he has gone from a relative unknown at a relegation candidate to a member of the Italian treble winners’ squad and cited as one of the League’s best in his position.

Although measuring 5ft7, Nagatomo isn’t easily knocked off the ball, offering composure, neat footwork and excellent work-rate down the wing. His pace and ease at changing direction sees him capably counter tricky wingers when deployed at left-back, as well as offer last-minute cover for his centre-backs. These skills combined with a strong crossing ability also saw Cesena utilise him on occasion as part of a front three on the left wing.

Nagatomo’s move to Serie A in July was the latest Italian-Japanese football link. Whilst former Milan and Inter tactician Alberto Zaccheroni replaced Takeshi Okada that same summer as the national team’s Coach, several Serie A stars have appeared in the J. League, most interestingly current Inter boss Leonardo. Nagatomo joins compatriot Takayuki Morimoto of Catania in the peninsula, and follows recent stars Hidetoshi Nakata, Hiroshi Nanami, Shunsuke Nakamura and Kazu Miura – the first Japanese player to appear in Italy when he played 21 times in 1994-95 for Genoa.

Cynics would suggest Inter’s main motives in signing the 24-year-old Japanese international are commercial, where high interest in him from Japan presents another revenue stream to boost competitiveness when Financial Fair Play kicks in. There is the English Premiershit’s business model that has shown the potential of the Far East, where audience figures for televised games stretch into the tens of millions.

Indeed the day Nagatomo signed there were a dozen Japanese journalists at San Siro reporting, and they all bought Nerazzurri shirts with ‘Nagatomo’ on the back. His move to Inter featured heavily on news channels in Japan, whilst the club have also received numerous requests for interviews and filming with the full-back, with talk of also providing Inter Channel and inter.it in Japanese such is the expected interest.

However, Nagatomo is also one of the more reliable left-backs to have signed for the club in recent years, comparing well against the likes of Fabio Grosso, Vratislav Gresko, Francesco Coco and Grigoris Georgatos who all failed to live up to the standards set by the brief tenures of Brazilians Roberto Carlos and Maxwell and the legacies of Andreas Brehme and Giacinto Facchetti.

Nagatomo is expected to a play a significant part as injuries continue to take their toll on the Beneamata’s squad. His signing immediately releases Cristian Chivu to move to his preferred centre-back position, whilst also offering more balance to the side as an attacking threat to mirror right-back Douglas Maicon – who incidentally he cites as his idol. His performances earned the move to Inter and however Inter profit from his signature, it is his performances that will see the best return.

Source: http://www.football-italia.net/blogs/rp56.html

[zafferano]

for me was a great win ,because Roma is playng much better then BBilan
this looks the inter of last couple season .
great competition for the best -SERIA A - diver ,the race is beatwin
KRASIC versus MENEZ ,
who will be the winner ???????????

[aba_bab]

motta i should think.

[Messinterista]

Leo has reverted back to what is proven and works with this side and with players brought in to actually improve our starters and bench (pazzo, kharja and nags) it is inevitable that we are going to be playing some good football.
Also diving championship, lol. We can't talk though. There is Motta and Matrix who like to fall like un sacco di patate!
Briz any confirmation re the bergamot on a current affair here in aus?

[zafferano]

messina i can tell you that the programm been done and someone try to stop it
i dont know who yet
this the latest email from the manager from channel 9



There isn't I'm afraid. We've had some legal issues with the case studies and the TGA so I can't give you a run date as yet.

cheers,

tender Alex

[zafferano]

i do know is all bullshit have to find out if he want money on the side
on some farmaceutical company try to stop it

[Lombardiamia]

I agree with you Frank. Sure Motta infront of the defence is certainly a nice move going forward as he dictates the tempo of our attack but he's not a man who will run behind everyone to cover. In fact I've seen him more than once trying to block Roma's counter in their own half. Sometimes he did brilliantly, others he was anticipated and our defence just got spanked. Zanetti has to play on the right hand side of the midfield, especially to have Maicon push like he does. I was especially glad yesterday to have seen the Sneijder of last year. His movements, especially off the ball make him so damn important to our forward line. Also anyone still wishing we sell JC at the end of the season? I have changed my mind completely and offer my apology to the man for doubting him. He's a monster.
The next 2 matches will probably give us the dimension we'll have till the end of the season IMO. If must net 6 points against Rube & Fiore. I'm sure that if that happens, Milan will shit in their pants.

[maro]

Anyone want to talk us through Motta's Busquets-like effort last night? Or is it only unforgivable play acting if it goes against Sphincter? Where's the moral outrage this time?

[vtec]

[RomaShield27]

lol tec, the headline of that article made me laugh last night: "Inter crush Roma in thriller". It was far from a crushing. (in fairness to those post-game reviews, though, they do go up a few minutes after the game so whoever 'writes' them does so as more of a live-match commentary than article).

[Lombardiamia]

[maro]

It was exactly the same as what Taddei did, which was shameful. I notice the ref didn't stop the play that time, though, which was interesting. To be fair to Taddei, that elbow might have bruised his nipple so it's little wonder he went down clutching his face. A lesser man would have been killed by a blow like that.

It was, indeed, fortunate that the Motta incident wasn't a game-turning one; I think it's funny how quick you Interisti were to leap all over Busquets last season and how lightly Motta has gotten off. I seem to remember one or two of us pointing out, in the height of your collective moral indignation, that any of Mourinho's Sphincter players would have done exactly the same thing as Busquets in the same situation. It didn't take long for that to be illustrated. Football favours 'cheating' of that kind and any team which is good at football is good at that kind of cheating. Not a nice proposition, but, to me, at least, one that is self-evidently true.

[RomaShield27]

I thought Taddei was genuinely caught in the face upon my first viewing of it. I haven't seen any replays of it other than live at the time, but it looked to me like Eto did make contact with Taddei's face, not enough to make him go down, perhaps, but genuine contact nevertheless. Taddei is a diver, no one can deny that, but that looked an accident. Motta is just a gigantic prick of gigantic proportions.

[vtec]

i didn't see the incident, but don't you think that your indignation at motta is pretty misplaced as well? that is, given that roma players are not the first to come to mind when thinking of players who don't play act or dive? briz compares menez to krasic, and i have little doubt that he is far off, and totti also has trouble staying up. furthermore, it seems that taddei did the exact same thing in the game. that's not even mentioning de rossi's theatrics at the world cup.

[RomaShield27]

Did you just say De Rossi's "theatrics" at the WC? Jesusfuckingchristalmighty, what are you shiten on about, don't go there again.

[vtec]

?

i was referring to the dives in consecutive games against paraguay (?) and the kiwis

[RomaShield27]

I know what you were referring too. That was not a dive in anyway shape of form against Paraguay. We've had this discussion before. The fact that you use a player like DDR as an example to talk about diving doesn't really do much to strengthen your point.

[vtec]

well, the entire world outside of italy thought it was a dive, including all major media outlets. call me crazy for thinking it was a clear dive, but at least i'm crazy with the rest of the world.

[RomaShield27]

Fair enough. I wish I lived in this crazy world of yours. But maybe I'm too crazy.