Inter Milan stuck between old habits and Chivu’s new ideas

After the Derby d’Italia defeat, Chivu admits a lack of clarity in the final minutes. Inter Milan shows effort but remains trapped in transition

The coach after the defeat: “Lucidity was missing in the final 10 minutes, some things need to be erased.” The Nerazzurri remain prisoners between old habits and new ideas.

Inter Milan played a good match in the Derby d’Italia, only to “fall asleep” in the final ten decisive minutes. 

This is how Libero via Fcinter1908 analyzed the situation: “The limbo becomes a purgatory, a sort of prison of Chivu’s ideas clashing with the players at his disposal. This loss drags along the past, poisoning the present, because the future does not arrive — in fact, it seems to move further away. 

It’s not the ghost of Monaco haunting them, almost four months have passed and a thousand things have happened since. The truth is that the old team has run its course, and the new one has yet to be born.”

According to Libero, the problem is not psychological but technical: the team is present on the pitch, connected, and reacting, but the new principles of play collide with ingrained habits. “It’s more of a technical issue than a psychological one because Inter Milan is on the pitch, it is connected, it wants to win and almost manages to come back. 

A dead group does not recover from setbacks, it gives up. What doesn’t work are the combinations: some principles of play are new and opposite to the old habits.”

A project delayed: fans await change, Inter Milan repeats itself

For Chivu, this is the worst possible start: two matches lost after seemingly being in control, and a fan base expecting a new project but still seeing the same Inter Milan. “He needed to build confidence, instead he has only generated a burnt atmosphere among supporters who don’t blame him personally and probably never will, but were asking loudly for a new project. And that project doesn’t yet have the premises to begin. 

Inter Milan still presents itself the same as always, even the partial rebirth of Calhanoglu paradoxically confirms it.”

That match in Turin remains a “great game of chaos”:

“Not one of control, like those for which this team was designed. It’s the clearest sign of a complex, difficult transition that Chivu is trying to slow down because he lacks the resources to accelerate it — and sweeping away so many certainties acquired over the last four long years is not easy.”

As Libero points out, players speak of a new season without ghosts, while Chivu still seems anchored to the weight of the past. 

A contradiction that two defeats in three games have now made evident. “Listening to the players, the past is over and not a problem. But Chivu seems to see side effects re-emerging. 

Perhaps this is the contradiction to resolve: as if the players were asking the coach to start a new story, but he doesn’t dare for fear it’s too soon. It isn’t. And these two defeats in three matches say so clearly.”