Last night was yet another example of Rafa Benitez’s struggle to maintain Inter Milan’s domination of the Italian league. A 1-0 loss at the San Siro (in their home fixture) will do little to raise confidence and unfortunately for Benitez the result seemed inevitable after Ibrahimovic’s penalty.
The squad is still blessed with talent, although the loss of Walter Samuel for the season will have been a big blow to Benitez. The body language is different to last season though; yesterday’s game reminded me of watching Inter before the Calciopoli scandal that saw them become the top side in Italy – good players but lacking direction and motivation. That maybe incredibly harsh on one performance but they looked lethargic against Spurs a couple of weeks ago.
It was always going to be an impossible task for Benitez and it looks like he will need to rebuild sooner rather than later. Too many of those players responded brilliantly to Mourinho and unfortunately do not look quite the same under the Spaniard. He does need time and support if he is to achieve anything close to last season but it seems unlikely.
On a positive note he has revitalised Samuel Eto’o by playing him through the middle rather than on the wing as Mourinho did. Although he had a quite game last night he has been fantastic when I have seen him earlier in the season. He is surely the most in form striker in Europe at the moment?
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