

It has been a disappointing end of the 2024-25 Serie A campaign for Inter and the Nerazzurri manager Simone Inzaghi as the Italian giants failed to win back-to-back titles after winning the past season their 20th Serie A title and the so-called “second star.” Inter started off the campaign as the favorites to win the title, especially in the year both AC Milan and Juventus started, and then failed, their new course under new managers. It ended up Napoli and former Inter manager Antonio Conte that became their best contenders, but the feeling is that Inter could have done much more in the league, despite a successful Champions League campaign.
In fact, after the Coppa Italia elimination against AC Milan in the semifinals and also losing the Supercoppa Italiana against the same city rivals, winning the Champions League final against PSG would be the only chance for Inzaghi’s side to win a trophy this season. It would be the most important one, of course, but the risk of ending up with no trophies is very high. Despite the great European campaign, there is the feeling Inter could have won this Serie A title with a bit more of concreteness especially in the last part of the season, as happened over the past two weeks when Napoli drew twice against Genoa and Parma, but the Nerazzurri were not able to gain the lead back after drawing 2-2 at San Siro against Lazio. Let’s take a closer look at how Inter lost the Serie A title this season.
A critical lack of depth
First of all, Inter had a big issue with their backups when they were involved, especially when it comes to the attacking positions. While the defensive rotations worked out pretty well, Inter strikers struggled much more. Despite the great campaign of Marcus Thuram, especially in the first part of the season, and the performances of captain Lautaro Martinez who probably played at his best this year, Inter’s second line strikers were not at their level. Former FC Porto attacker Mehdi Taremi, who joined as a free agent in the summer 2024, only scored one Serie A goal against Lecce in the 4-0 win over the 25 matches played, while Marko Arnautovic didn’t do much better as he scored four goals in 17 matches. On top of these poor performances, also other key players of the roster didn’t have their best season, starting from midfielders Nicolo Barella and Hakan Calhanoglu, who were the real secret behind the success of the past season.
Struggling against the top teams
Another big factor of the failure of Inzaghi’s side in the league were the performances against the top teams. If we only look at the games played against the top nine teams of the standings, Inter have won five games, drew six and lost five, scoring a total of 21 points out of 48. In particular, Inter haven’t won against Napoli (two draws), AC Milan (one defeat, one draw) and Juventus (one draw and one defeat), only won twice against Atalanta this season, showing a big issue when it comes to the big matches in the Italian Serie A, which is completely the opposite on what happened in Europe, when Inter performed even better against the top sides such as Arsenal, Manchester City, Bayern Munich or Barcelona.
A different attitude
It’s a strange season to judge for Inzaghi’s side, especially because Inter did so well in their European campaign, ending up in the top eight of the league phase before knocking out Feyenoord, Bayern Munich and especially FC Barcelona in the semifinals before meeting PSG in the final that is scheduled on May 31 at the Allianz Arena in Munich. It looks like the Nerazzurri were much more focused on playing Champions League soccer, knowing this is probably the last chance for this roster to have an opportunity to win it, after losing 1-0 in the 2023 edition against Manchester City. If Inzaghi will win the final next week, he will go down as one of the best managers in the history of the club, but if he doesn’t there will be big doubts about his future at the club. As the owners, the American fund Oaktree, are demanding a revolution this summer, regardless what the outcome of the final against PSG, both the club’s hierarchy and the manager should reflect on the next moves because only by winning the most important final of the season Inter can save the season.
This news was originally published on this post .
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