Inter editorial: Pirlo’s and Recoba’s
- Richard Hall
Andrea Pirlo’s retirement was met with eulogies, fondness and overall a cross club appreciation for his skill and his attitude. A player who won everything but whose ability was more celebrated than his trinkets. He was a poet of the modern game whose grace and strength consistently showed how football should be played, with beauty and precision. Despite signs of this ability in his early career, Inter managed to miss it or should it be said chose to ignore it and loaned him to Brescia. Here coach Carlo Mazzone immediately played him in a defensive midfield role, soon he was sold to Milan and the rest is history.
Alvaro Recoba is another talent that would have been a blessing for any team of that era but again was not used to his full potential. Spotted by the legendary Sandro Mazzola, the Uruguayan was brought over to Italy and impressed immediately. The Giuseppe Meazza Stadium watched in awe as this short and slightly stocky South American, destroyed Brescia single handily on his debut. His two goals were mesmeric, one a 40-yard free kick that showcased all that was magical about his exquisite left foot. Despite brilliance in spats, he had a career in Milan that saw him score ludicrous goals, become the apple of Massimo Moratti’s eye, become the world’s highest paid player, suffer injures a loan spell with Venezia and ultimately be unable to gel with more than one coach, no more so than Hector Cuper.
As the examples of both Pirlo and Recoba show, the Nerazzurri are festooned with too many ‘What if’s’. Even in recent history Phillipe Coutinho and Mateo Kovacic represent this inability for the ultra-creative to succeed in an environment that ironically sees its neighbours Milan engross themselves in the Kaka’s, Rui Costa’s and Pirlo’s of this world. Many have blamed ex-President Massimo Moratti for this, accusing him of throwing diamonded encrusted square pegs in a team that to have its round holes plugged. This is not the case now however, yet history again seems to be repeating itself.
Enter stage left Joao Mario. The enormously talented Portuguese international is again struggling to settle under another coach. Stefano Pioli and Luciano Spalletti are but two who are struggling to find a place for him despite the latter making it clear that he had intended to play him as a Trequartista. The experiment to find this creative hub to Spalletti’s disciplined machine was not an easy one and the midfield has been now filled with Borja Valero, Roberto Gagliardini and Matias Vecino. Whilst these players are certainly performing they lack that ‘Recobian-magic’ that the crowd wish they could find. The question arises again how players like Joao Mario and Marcelo Brozovic cannot consistently perform in this Inter team?
Gian Piero Ventura has recently been accused (and rightly so) of trying to fit players into a pre-conceived stratagem with the Azzurri but is this really the case for Inter, especially after so many coaches have arrived, tried and left? Perhaps it is the board and the Sporting directors failing to identify a consistent culture in the club, or perhaps Inter simply have it in their system to act like footballing magpies, looking for talent over necessity, but this seems unlikely.
Inter are let’s not forget unbeaten and enjoying one of their best seasons for some time. They are defensively solid, they have Mauro Icardi and they look mentally tough and resilient. They have fight and a mentality for big games, already dispatching of some big scalps. Do they need this trequartista? Do they need a creative genius? The fact is that they could happily and successfully carry on in this manner and there is nothing wrong with industrial performances, winning is winning. Perhaps it is simply acknowledgement of the Inter dream, to hope that even in the successful times the ability to unleash the creativity in the team could take them to the next level.
@RichHall80