Disappointed! That's my first reaction to Inter's performance in Saturday's 1-1 draw with 19th-place Genoa. Inter, in second place at the start of the match, were at home against one of the most underachieving sides in the league, so how was it such a struggle to even claim a single point?

Inter's most in-form player, Fredy Guarin, was unavailable after an unsuccessful appeal of his suspension for his outburst in the last league match. But the Nerazzurri boast depth most teams can only dream of, so in theory that shouldn't have been a major factor in the result, or so you would think!

Unfortunately, with Wesley Sneijder and Phillipe Coutinho already on their Christmas break, Inter were left with a severe lack of players able to link the midfield to the attack. Andrea Stramaccioni tried to combat this deficiency by playing Javier Zanetti and Ricardo Alvarez on the wings, and as we know all too well Ricky isn’t effective on the wings at the best of times, let alone when he’s severely lacking match fitness.

Throughout the first half-hour, Alvarez struggled to spot the right passes and Genoa found it all too easy to dispossess the young Argentine whenever he tried to dribble past their players. His time on the pitch didn't last long, with Stramaccioni removing him in favour of Alvaro Pereira just 30 minutes into the first half. As he left the pitch Ricky was seen rubbing his hamstring and headed straight to the changing room when he came off. But I didn’t notice any discomfort from him while he was playing which makes me wonder whether he was removed for the injury or whether it had more to do with a terrible performance.

It pains me to criticize Alvarez, as I’ve always backed him as a potential star of the future, but his last few performances have got me wondering whether he should be loaned out to gain more consistent first-team playing time or should Inter just cut their losses, sell him to the highest bidder and concentrate on the more promising talents of Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Bessa.

Things didn’t improve much for Inter by removing Alvarez. They still held a majority of the possession, but their front line of Antonio Cassano, Diego Milito and Rodrigo Palacio spent most of the game disconnected from the rest of their team.

Inter held the ball for 61 percent of the game, but as Genoa were finding it increasingly easy to catch the Nerazzurri off guard with their counterattacking play. By trying different methods to break down the Inter defence, the home team often looked the more likely side to concede a goal.

Several times the Inter midfield and defence just seemed to switch off, struggling to cope with the presented threat. Really. a team of Inter’s calibre should have been anticipating the counterattacks from the visitors, and it was the complacency shown by the Nerazzurri that was enough for Genoa to score first

As I’ve mentioned before Inter’s biggest downfall this season is their predictable build-up play and a lack of consistent goalscoring. Once again the Nerazzurri managed to take a decent amount of shots against the Genoa goal - 15 in total, but only a pitiful four strikes actually hit the target.

When you consider that Inter were playing with four strikers for the last 12 minutes, this stat becomes nothing short of embarrassing.

What’s worse is the fact that it was defensive midfielder, and man of the match Esteban Cambiasso who took a third of Inter’s shots. Even defender Andrea Ranocchia matched Milito’s tally of two strikes.

For me, the moment of the match that sums up Inter’s goalscoring capabilities the most was when Marko Livaja was delivered the ball less than 2 yards from an open net, yet he still only managed to ricochet it off the post and back into play, much to the disgust of myself and the Inter faithful everywhere.

There has been much talk of Inter needing a ‘vice-Milito’ but I think the truth of the matter is the Nerazzurri needs a star striker, and Milito should become the back-up.

With their second draw, Inter now sit in fourth place on an equal 35 points to Fiorentina in third, the Viola ahead due to a considerably better goal difference. The Nerazzurri go into the winter break in the knowledge that they now have a mountain to climb in the second half of the season if they have any hope of catching Juventus at the top The Bianconeri now are a hefty nine points ahead of the Nerazzurri, and with there only being a two-point difference between second and fifth place, finishing in the top three could also prove to be a challenge.

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Email