Inter Milan are pushing to snatch the Scudetto back from their city rivals AC Milan in the 2022/23 Serie A season with an old face, Romelu Lukaku returning to improve the team’s frontline even more. Manager Simone Inzaghi may have failed to defend the title last season but his brand of football was appreciated by the faithful with strong performances to show as well. Now that Lukaku is back in his old surroundings and other star names arriving, Inzaghi is optimistic to put his ideas in full force for the new season.
Last season Review
A neck and neck battle for the Serie A title last season ended with AC Milan crowned champions maintaining a two points gap over Inter on the last day of the 2021/22 season. The Nerazzurri finished the title race on 84 points collecting 25 wins and losing only four games, the same as their rivals but a draw more. The two Milan clubs kept jostling each other for the crown with Napoli the only club coming close to threatening their title chase while Juventus kept dropping from their standards. Even though Milan won it at the end through their undisputed team spirit, Inter looked the better team of the lot in terms of quality but couldn’t make it pay at the time of asking. Losing the Milan derby in a potential title decider back in February when they were slight favourites heading into the fixture or the nervy conclusion to the last season, even having an easier fixture list towards the end than their rivals, proves that Nerazzurri lacked the champions mentality. Still, they manage to score 15 goals more than Milan a total of 84 boasting a far superior goal difference. Just the two-point gap and the head-to-head record prevented Inter from defending the Scudetto. Fan favourite Argentinian, Lautaro Martinez bagged 21 strikes making it his most productive season in his career not just in Inter shirt partnering Edin Dzeko, the second-best scorer with 13, well up top. Hakan Calhanoglu adopted a new deeper playing role in his first season at the club under Simone Inzaghi contributing to 12 assists and seven goals alongside Nicolo Barella who grabbed an equal number of assists for the team.
Summer signings
Business for Inter in the summer transfer window is hard to categorise as a success or a failure. First talking about the deal that materialized, the most attention grabber was Romelu Lukaku’s return to the club after his departure to Chelsea last summer. It was a hugely unsuccessful spell for the Belgian in his one-season stay at the club after becoming their record signing in a deal worth $118 million managing only 15 goals in 44 appearances. The 29-year-old struggled to fit into Thomas Tuchel’s playing system at Chelsea and supposedly fell off from good books after publically wanting to return to Inter several times last season. Lukaku has been granted his wish on a season-long loan to move back to the destination where he scored goals for fun with 64 in 95 appearances. He combined in deadly fashion with Lautaro Martinez in his first spell at Inter so anything similar will be enough to win back fans’ hearts. Nerazurri have added more creativity in midfield by signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan on a free transfer from Roma. The Armenian spent two credible years at the capital club winning the Conference League last season. There has been improvement in the goalkeeping department in the form of Andre Onana on a free transfer and he is expected to take the number one spot ahead of long servant 38-year-old Samir Handanovic. Breakout season with Empoli last term, 20-year-old Kristjan Asllani also joins Inter to make more future developments. However, there has been a lot of misses than hit for Inter in this window. Two important targets, centre-back Glieson Bremer and Paulo Dybala were close to joining the club but delays in proceedings caused Inter to lose both. Highly rated Bremer joined Juventus while the star from the Turin giants, Dybala is set to wear the shirt of Roma in the new season. It has been reported the owner Shunning did not give the green light to both the transfers even if they were close. The pair also gave their preference to the Nerazzuri.
Inter’s key departure this window was Ivan Perisic whose revolutionised wing-back role brought stellar performances but neither came to a solution to renew the Croatian’s contract that ran out this summer. The club was able to terminate Alexis Sanchez’s contract and allowed him to leave for Marseille having a series of forward in the rank for the new season. His Chilean teammate Arturo Vidal returned to South America to play football in Brazil with Flamengo. Matias Vecino too swapped the blue of Inter to the blue of Lazio after five years at San Siro. So did Andrea Ranocchia who completed the move to newcomers Monza on a free transfer making over 200 appearances for the club. Talented midfielder Cesare Casadei is drawing interest from OGC Nice and Chelsea with Inter working on a deal to insert a buy-back clause should the French club shows more ambition in the race. If Chelsea meets Casadei’s valuation of $14m, the 19-year-old can be sold permanently. The Nerazzurri are also looking out for suitors for out of favour striker Andrea Pinamonti and have stood on their value of $75 million for their star defender Milan Skriniar, in the eyes of PSG.
Pre-season Results
1-4 vs Lugano (W)
2-2 vs Monaco (D)
1-0 vs Lens (L)
2-2 vs Lyon (D)
2-4 vs Villarreal (L)
Inter won’t be too pleased about their preseason although the results in this period don’t reflect the actual dynamism the team will carry in the main season. Only one win and two losses to show in five scheduled friendlies but Inter has managed to score in four of them more than one goal.
Also Read | 2022/23 Premier League Season Preview: Arsenal
Inter Fixtures for 2022/23 Serie A Season
Inter began their quest for the title in the 2022/23 Serie A season with a trip to re-promoted side Leece and played their first home game against Spezia at San Siro. Simone Inzaghi will be urging his side to get maximum points out of these two opening fixtures before Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio threatens to condone Inter to another defeat in this meeting at Stadio Olimpico for successive seasons. There is no time to relax as an early Milan derby hits the opening week of September where revenge has to be on the cards for Nerazzurri. Jose Mourinho’s Rome are in line at the start of October while the first Derby d’Italia of the season is only two weeks before the World Cup in Qatar. The end of the season could be tricky for Inter as Roma, Sassuolo, Napoli and Atalanta to face in consecutive games before the campaign draws to a close with a trip to Turin for battling Torino on 4th June 2023.
14/08/22 - Lecce (A)
21/08/22 - Spezia (H)
28/08/22 - Lazio (A)
31/08/22 - Cremonese (H)
04/09/22 - AC Milan (A)
11/09/22 - Torino (H)
18/09/22 - Udinese (A)
02/10/22 - Roma (H)
09/10/22 - Sassuolo (A)
16/10/22 - Salernitana (H)
23/10/22 - Fiorentina (A)
30/10/22 - Sampdoria (H)
06/11/22 - Juventus (A)
09/11/22 - Bologna (H)
11/11/22 - Atalanta (A)
04/01/23 - Napoli (H)
08/01/23 - Monza (A)
15/01/23 - Hellas Verona (H)
22/01/23 - Empoli (H)
29/01/23 - Cremonese (A)
05/02/23 - AC Milan (H)
12/02/23 - Sampdoria (A)
19/02/23 - Udinese (H)
26/02/23 - Bologna (A)
05/03/23 - Lecce (H)
12/03/23 - Spezia (A)
19/03/23 - Juventus (H)
02/04/23 - Fiorentina (H)
08/04/23 - Salernitana (A)
16/04/23 - Monza (H)
23/04/23 - Empoli (A)
30/04/23 - Lazio (H)
03/05/23 - Hellas Verona (A)
07/05/23 - Roma (A)
14/05/23 - Sassuolo (H)
21/05/23 - Napoli (A)
28/05/23 - Atalanta (H)
04/06/23 - Torino (A)
How will Inter Set up?
Inter have retained much of their personnel from the last two seasons despite losing some key contributors so Inzaghi won’t have a completely new set of players to make a team bond with. The effective system of 3-5-2 is staying and now with Romelu Lukaku back, he is expected to be a regular member of the starting lineup changing with Edin Dzeko alongside the possible mainstay Lautaro Martinez on the back of his best scoring season. Ivan Perisic’s departure frees more room for Robin Gosens to make the left wing-back role of his own now that his injury troubles are gone. The midfield has a bucket full of options for the manager to decide and keep the position fresh and in rhythm for a congested match calendar ahead. Calhanoglu, Barella and now Mkhitariyan will allow more creative sparks from the middle of the park while Marcelo Brozovic will take the load off himself from playing continuous games with teenage star Asllani offering the holding midfielder option. Inter will rely on their golden back three of Alessadro Bastoni, Stefan de Vrij and Milan
Skriniar again even though they lost out on Gleison Bremer’s signing. After several years, Samir Handanovic won’t be donning the gloves for every game of Inter like before with new signing Andre Onana worthy customer to replace him in between the sticks.
Prediction for 2022/23 Serie A season
The 2022/23 Serie A season has the spices to be chaotic and exciting again with the top guns adding more power to their team with the dealings in the market. Inter are aware of their rivals Milan’s recognition over the years as them and it will be a tough job to displace them from champions status. The Nerazzurri could not overlook Juventus too reshaping their squad in the summer in order to refill lost dominance and Napoli, Atalanta or even Roma wishing to derail them from further progress. Inter have the quality but need the precision in the required time to elevate them to success again. Manager Simone Inzaghi’s task will be to coach that mentality into the side and feed his reputation in Italian football. The Nerazzurri has a bit of unpredictability in their stride. This team could very well wear the crown again or can crack under pressure in a season they have to tackle a lot.
Check Here Fixture List for 2022/23 Serie A season
