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Will Inter live to regret their Gabigol stance, just like they did with Coutinho?

Will Inter live to regret their Gabigol stance, just like they did with Coutinho?

  • Jordan Russell (@JordRuss96)
Inter fans have watched this movie before. A talented young Brazilian with the world at his feet who can play in several different positions, yet he cannot find space to show what he can do in a Nerazzurri shirt. There are several striking similarities between Philippe Coutinho’s situation under Claudio Ranieri and Andrea Stramaccioni, and the one in which Gabigol finds himself now.
 
Since joining Inter in the summer of 2016, Frank De Boer, Stefano Pioli and Luciano Spalletti have all found it difficult to understand what his best position is, and whether to trust him defensively. At his previous club Santos, he was asked to do little to no defensive work, so he arrived in Italy ill-prepared from a tactical point of view. Alongside Lucas Lima, he was the Brazilian side’s most skillful player, which is why he was allowed to be a passenger at times.
 
However, Serie A is a much more competitive and demanding league. It requires 100% concentration at all times. Attacking players are expected to do their bit defensively, or else they will be frozen out as Gabigol has found out. Similarly, he has been unable to secure a place in Benfica’s starting XI this season since moving to Lisbon on a season-long loan. His attitude has once again been called into question by some who believe he simply doesn’t work hard enough.
 
Rui Vitória has often lacked creativity and are still over-reliant on the ageing striker Jonas to provide goals and assists, yet there is something about Gabigol that the 47-year-old clearly doesn’t fancy. That said, Inter would be loathed to give up on him just yet. What happened with Coutinho can be filed as an accident, but were history to repeat itself then that would be unforgivable on the club’s part.
 
Perhaps a loan spell at a lesser club would have been a better option, but such was his agent’s insistence that he was too good to play for Genoa or Las Palmas that this was never a realistic option. Walter Sabatini, Piero Ausilio and Luciano Spalletti must now do everything in their power to bring the best out of the Olympic gold medal winner. He has incredible individual talent; he just has to better understand what it takes to bring that into the structure of an elite European side.