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11 months ago
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“This is the strongest Inter team I have ever played in.” These words from Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan after the big victory on the lawn of neighbor Monza (1-5) confirm the rise in power of Inter Milan after a little over five months of competition. Guaranteed to keep their throne as leader after 20 days, the Nerazzurri are already confirming their busy 2022-2023 financial year: in addition to a third place in the league, Simone Inzaghi’s flock won the Coppa Italia at the expense of Fiorentina as well as the Transalpine Super Cup by slapping rival Rossonero (3-0), before reaching the final of the Champions League, lost to Manchester City (1-0).
The “Lau-Thuram” doublet
If the Lombard team is having a high-ranking first part of the season, the complicity established between two of its attackers is not unrelated: the Argentinian Lautaro Martinez, present in Milan since 2018 from the Racing Club (€25 million) , and the Frenchman Marcus Thuram, who arrived last summer for free after a German adventure at Borussia Mönchengladbach. For his sixth season in the black-and-blue jersey, the Albiceleste international (54 caps, 21 goals) had the difficult task of establishing a connection with his French counterpart, after having known Edin Dzeko, Romelu Lukaku or again Alexis Sanchez, returned to the club this summer. The least we can say is that Lautaro Martinez is a real host in Lombardy.
Regardless of his partner in the 3-5-2 installed by Inzaghi, the native of Bahía Blanca was able to create an offensive tandem that is always dangerous for Inter’s opponents. With Marcus Thuram, he not only found common ground with the 2022 world vice-champion but, moreover, managed to reverse the role he may have had with Lukaku. If the latter was the serial scorer during his last two XXL seasons at Giuseppe Meazza (64 goals and 16 assists) by having Lautaro at his service as a second striker, it is the former Guingamp player who came to occupy this role, and in a good way (9 goals and 11 TCC offerings), to assist the former Racing Club man.
Lautaro future Capocanonieri?
Already at 16 goals during the first phase, Lautaro Martinez achieved the second best accounting record at Inter over half a season, just behind his compatriot Mauro Icardi (17 goals in 17-18). If we add his double scored on the lawn of the Milanese suburbs, the number 10 and captain Nerazzurro quietly occupies first place in the Marcatori ranking (double of his runners-up, Giroud, Berardi and his teammate Calhanoglu), but also exceeds the ex-Parisian, becoming the eighth top scorer in the club’s history. A change of status in the offensive sector which should therefore allow him to afford the honorary title of Capocanoniere, which has not been won by an Interist for a certain time… Mauro Icardi, tied six years ago with Ciro Immobile (29 each).
Present at a press conference after Monza, the transalpine coach Simone Inzaghi was full of praise for the two men, but also did not omit his supersubs, who will have to have the same offensive contribution in order to shake up the hierarchy. “Lautaro and Thuram maintain a very high pace, but I am also very satisfied with the contribution of Arnautovic and Sanchez: how they work, how they are in the group, for the important goals they scored. Tonight I had a little problem with penalties, so I preferred to use the substitutions in this way: they deserved to go in, but there were other needs and I was short of substitutions.. Against Lazio in the semi-final of the Supercoppa, “Lau-Thuram” will have to be clinical to defend the Inter title…
