Christian Eriksen looks set to leave Inter as Coronavirus affects 9th player at the club

The move to Inter and to play in Serie A was supposed to be Christian Eriksen’s dream move as his time at Tottenham came to an end and he pushed for this transfer to happen. However just a year on and it seems that dream has turned into a nightmare for the midfielder.

At first it was just initial rumours but quite a few figure heads at the club and people associated with Inter have come out and spoke about it. Coach Antonio Conte said “Players must be functional to an idea and a project in order to be competitive at national and international level. The modern footballer must be fast, strong, resistant. I take the technique for granted if you join a club like Inter.” His comments seemed like a dig at the former Premier League player, that he simply has not been able to fit into Inter’s system.

Former Inter owner Massimo Moratti has also commented on Eriksen’s situation, “Eriksen is a nice footballer but we have to see if he is able to adapt to Italian football, this is a patient world but to a certain extent, and if he were to continue at this pace I imagine that Inter could think of selling him,” said Moratti.

With there being no sign of Antonio Conte leaving his position and with Inter doing fairly well under his leadership, Eriksen’s future at Inter looks bleak and he will probably be heading for a January exit.

Coronavirus and Inter creates a headache for club selections

Aleksandar Kolarov has become the 9th player for Inter to pick up the Coronavirus. Kolarov has been added to the likes of Milan Skriniar, Roberto Gagliardini, Ashley Young, Radja Nainggolan and Alessandro Bastoni. In an ever growing problem for the club.

The Coronavirus whilst still affecting a small portion of Europe compared to the population is really hitting sports hard and especially football. One will have to understand why this is happening so frequently. The answer could well be in all the travelling that football players need to do, and let’s face it social distancing is almost going to be impossible for a football player. Hopefully the new vaccines that could be released into the public from 2021 will be able to curb this dreadful virus.

Looking ahead to Torino

Inter’s 8th game of the season will be at home to Torino this Saturday. Inter come into the game undefeated in their last 3, although they have drawn their last two games. Home form will need to improve though where the club would actually be in 14th place based on home form alone. So far Inter has recorded just one win at home which was back in September when they beat Fiorentina in a seven goal thriller eventually winning 4-3.

Inter’s best performing player so far

The best performing Inter player in the fantasy football rankings is Romelu Lukaku who has 19 points. The striker has scored 5 goals so far this season and his value is 10.5m.

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Inter sign Vidal, plus other moves

It took them a couple of years and Barcelona deciding to clean house, but Inter finally managed to reunite Antonio Conte and Arturo Vidal, who was one of the first players the coach asked for when he joined the Nerazzurri. The signing was made official Tuesday and the 33-year-old midfielder agreed to a two-year deal with an optional third one. The Italian side will play just €1M bonus.

The Chilean international joined Juventus in 2011, a couple of months after the hiring of Conte and quickly won over the gaffer, becoming an integral part of his formation. After four years with the Bianconeri, where he totaled 178 appearances and scored 48 goals, he spent three seasons at Bayern Munich and finally the last two at Barcelona. Continue reading

How Inter could line up with new summer signings

Internazionale have been busy again this summer, with Arturo Vidal’s arrival from Barcelona on Sunday being the sixth new face to arrive at the San Siro this summer.

The Italian giants also have a number of players back from loan spells last season, including Ivan Perisic, Joao Mario, Valentino Lazaro and Radja Nainggolan, though whether they will be moved on permanent before the close of the transfer window remains to be seen.

Mauro Icardi’s sale to Paris Saint-Germain has given Antonio Conte increased transfer budget to build a side capable of challenging for the Serie A title this season.

€40 million has been spent on Achraf Hakimi from Real Madrid. The pacey right-back has impressed on loan at Borussia Dortmund over the past two seasons that it was a surprise the Spanish giants moved him on.

Alexis Sanchez spent last season on loan from Manchester United before making his move permanent in August at the start of August.

Midfielders Nicolo Barella and Stefano Sensi have joined from Cagliari and Sassuolo off the back of good campaigns in 2019-20. Inter then signed experienced left-back Aleksandar Kolarov from AS Roma.

Continue reading

Serie A Fantay Preview – Round 29

TORINO-LAZIO

Torino: the Granata had a nice reaction after falling in an early hole versus Cagliari, but an untimely penalty did them in. Andrea Belotti has found the target for two straight matches and has been excellent missed penalty aside. Simone Zaza is unlikely to be present, but Simone Verdi and especially Cristian Ansaldi, two of their most talented players, saw minutes in the past match and could be ready to start, unlocking few options up front, first of all the advancement of Alex Berenguer. Ansaldi had a positive impact after he subbed on, Verdi might need more time and had been struggling prior to the lockdown. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Preview – Round 27

Fiorentina-Brescia: the Viola will welcome back Franck Ribery, at least in limited fashion at first, and the coach is ready to tweak is system to accommodate him either in the hole or on the left wing, joining Dusan Vlahovic/Patrick Cutrone and obviously Federico Chiesa up front. In the meantime, it could be Gaetano Castrovilli taking on a bigger role. Alfred Duncan and Marco Benassi have some decent potential.  It is an extremely appealing match-up considering Brescia’s defensive woes and absences: Vlahovic and Castrovilli in the particular were in great form before the lockdown. Continue reading

Serie A Match of the Round – Cagliari vs Roma

Fewer matches but still plenty of action in Serie A and Cagliari-Roma was clearly the most balanced match-up of the slate, as the home teams kept clawing back but still came up short.

The Sardinian approached the match having failed to win in the past 11 rounds, lastly versus Napoli and Genoa. The guests instead were coming off a slump-busting win over Lecce, which allowed them to bounce back from a three-game losing streak. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Recap – Round 26

Standings implications: sadly, a late decision by the League to postpone few matches that were scheduled to be played behind closed doors took the legs from underneath the second round in a row and now the table is poised to be full of asterisks for a while.

In the limited ones that were indeed played, Lazio took full advantage of Juventus-Inter not happening, got the job done versus Bologna and jumped on top of the standings. Atalanta dismantled Lecce, thus fending off Roma in the Champions League race, which survived Cagliari’s late rally. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Preview – Round 26

Lazio-Bologna: the only game between two teams that actually played last week. The Biancocelesti extended their superb run by grinding out a W versus Genoa, thanks to the usual Ciro Immobile goal and two unlikely heroes coming through, Adam Marusic, who has started over Manuel Lazzari in two matches in a row, and Danilo Cataldi. While Sergej Milinkovic-Savic scored against Inter, the bonuses for their other two fantasy stars, Luis Alberto and Joaquin Correa, have not been there in recent rounds, leaving Felipe Caicedo as the only serviceable option besides the capocannoniere. Jony has taken over for the injured Senad Lulic and, while he is a high-volume crosser, he has come up with just one assist so far. It could be another ripe day for their offense considering that the Felsinei have a soft defence. Continue reading

Serie A Best Fantasy XI – Round 25

Pau Lopez (5 points): the Spaniard did not have a particularly busy performance in the Lecce game, but he was the only goalie to keep a clean sheet over the week and therefore the lone point-getter at his position. Roma had not blanked an opponent since the beginning of December.

Aleksandar Kolarov (9 points): the Serbian fullback, who is usually a fantasy stud, had gone through a sticky patch where he even lost the starting job for a minute, but he roared back versus the Salentini with a strong display and a pretty strike to round up the score. He still has not patched things up with the fan base though. Continue reading

Serie A Team of the Week – Roma

Just only truly commanding performance out of the reduced slate of games over the weekend and it belong to Roma, which needed to quash a lot of doubts surrounding them after a three-game losing streak and did it in the best possible way, by deep-sixing an in-form opponent such as Lecce.

Paulo Fonseca trotted out Bruno Peres at right back, with Cengiz Under, picked over Carles Perez and Justin Kluivert, in front of him on that flank, while Lorenzo Pellegrini returned at no.10 with Bryan Cristante back in the XI and Aleksandar Kolarov, after ceding some playing time to Leonardo Spinazzola, manned the left defensive flank. Continue reading