The two faces of excess: Conte quickly throws the Inter, Pioli too 'corporate' | First page

There was a time when Inter and Milan did not only have in common the stadium but also, or rather, the joy for their success in Italy and in Europe. Without going back to the other century, in the 2007 the Rossoneri coached by Ancelotti raised the Champions won against Liverpool, in the days when the Nerazzurri led by Mancini celebrated the first Scudetto won on the field after Calciopoli. Twelve years later, only the stadium, today and tomorrow, unites the two companies even before the two teams, never so far away in the standings and in Europe. Inter has relied on Conte to make it big again, Milan urged Pioli to go back up and just the two coaches have shown these days how different their characters and their visions are, the result of two equally wrong excesses. On the eve of his first defeat at San Siro against Lazio, Pioli said that Milan can still reach a place in the Champions League, where it has been missing since 2014. A demonstration of optimism, or perhaps of corporateism, equally exaggerated because this Milan not reinforced in the summer and overvalued by everyone, including insiders, cannot pretend to do better than last year when it finished fifth, one point from the Champions area.After the defeat in Dortmund, however, despite the second place in the league close to the Juventus and a qualification to the knockout stages of the Champions still possible, Conte took it with the company, with tones that surprised even the Nerazzurri fans. In the worst case scenario, Inter, who had not started to win the Champions League, will slip into the Europa League. Yet Conte, which had to be the added value and for this overpaid ten million a year, is the first to question the work of the company, without the slightest self-criticism on the tactical form and on the choice of the players, from the beginning or the match in course. Conte would have liked Vidal and Dzeko, who are not young like Barella and Sensi and for this they have more international experience. On the other hand, Godin has the experience, but so far he has been the least convincing defender and among other things the one who rested the most, because he was often spared in the championship races that preceded the Champions League. And then Conte can't complain about the tiredness of the few players at his disposal, first of all because it is not the fault of the company if Sanchez, D’Ambrosio and above all Sensi got injured and then because he never gave Borja Valero even a minute, which in some final at least would have been useful. If he agreed to lead Inter, it means he was satisfied with the staff, because otherwise he would have had to refuse Marotta's proposal, as he had done a few weeks before when he said no to Rome.

The truth, beyond its outburst, is another: in Europe a football is played with another speed and intensity compared to the Italian championship, where the game is always broken up and the side passages or worse backward abound. After all Inter had already suffered the second half of the newly promoted Brescia, which does not have the quality of Borussia and therefore lost. In the Champions League, on the other hand, the second of our league was overwhelmed by the second Bundesliga run. With a figure worth considering: Lukaku, strongly backed by Conte and overpaid by the company, scored nine goals in eleven league games, while in the Champions League he is at zero after four games. At the bottom of Conte this observation would have been enough on the different level between the Italian championship and the Champions League to absolve or at least postpone Inter, without blaming the company with the serious risk of compromising not only the qualification for the second round, but above all the relations with the leadership. This is why Conte was wrong in excess of pessimism, while Pioli sinned with excessive optimism.