Simone Inzaghi: A Journey from Controversy to Triumph with Inter

"Where I coach, revenues increase and trophies are won". Simone Inzaghi had said this in September 2022, to shake off some pebbles from his shoes and to distance himself from some unpleasant labels about him. After all, following the Scudetto blown in the 2021/22 season in the head-to-head with Milan, in the Inter world there were many who wanted to say goodbye to the coach from Piacenza. And even during the difficult 2022/23 season, the 12 defeats in the league had put Inzaghi's future on the Inter bench back in the balance. Then, however, the story for the coach changed thanks mainly to the feat achieved in the Champions League in the final against Manchester City. The Comeback A defeat that relaunched the ambitions of both the former Lazio and the team, a knockout that was the fuel to reach the triumph that was worth the twentieth Scudetto and the consequent second star. A tricolor that therefore smells of revenge, for Inzaghi. Revenge towards detractors, of course, but also personal revenge. After all, he had already been in the fight for the Scudetto before Inter, with Lazio in the 2019/20 season, which was stopped by Covid and the lockdown. At the moment of the stop in March, after 26 rounds, the Biancocelesti were -1 from the leading Juve, only to collapse at the restart in June, then finishing only fourth albeit 5 points behind the Scudetto-winning Bianconeri. Even on that occasion, the spotlight ended up on Inzaghi, for many a coach more for a single match than for a championship; the reproach was not being able to keep the group's attention high for an entire season. The Farewell to Lazio Then came the farewell to Lazio, as stormy as his debut on the bench among the big leagues (he was chosen at the last to replace Bielsa after the Argentine's refusal), and the landing at Inter, with the ungrateful task of replacing Conte, fresh from the Scudetto and fleeing Milan. The only thing in common with his predecessor is the formation, the 3-5-2 that neither of them do without except in emergency situations. But the interpretation is totally different: physical and aggressive that of Conte, technical and freer that of Inzaghi. The big difference, however, is in the squad available. Inzaghi in his first season does not even see Hakimi, sold at the end of June to PSG, and then in addition to losing Eriksen after heart problems also says goodbye to Lukaku, who escapes to Chelsea. Sure, then he finds Dumfries, Calhanoglu, and Dzeko, but it's not the same: yet he comes close to the Scudetto and makes a great impression in the Champions, exiting after a balanced double challenge with Liverpool. The Squad In the summer of '22 he finds Lukaku again, fishes Onana and goes for sure with Acerbi-Mkhitaryan: in the league he immediately struggles, moving away from Napoli then champion, loses 12 times but in the end manages to enter the top four, but the masterpiece is in the Champions, where he is defeated only in the final by Guardiola's City after eliminating Milan in the derby in the semifinal. Thus arrives the summer of 2023, characterized by the back and forth with Lukaku, who in the end does not return to Milan but moves to Roma. Inzaghi in addition to the Belgian also loses Onana, Skriniar, Brozovic, and Dzeko but does not flinch, replacing them with the likes of Sommer, Pavard, Frattesi, Arnautovic, and Thuram. The protagonists change, but not the interpretation, which indeed becomes even more solid and convincing: Inter plays and wins, showing its best side in Inzaghi's tiki-taka, alternating ball possession from the goalkeeper to vertical plays that enhance not only the performance of the players but especially the San Siro crowd, who clap their hands to applaud the Nerazzurri. The march towards the twentieth Scudetto is thus triumphant, also passing through the historic derby that ensures mathematical certainty. Inzaghi enters into the history of Inter, sewing the second star on the chest of Inter, his sixth trophy in Milan that makes him surpass a certain José Mourinho among the most winning Inter coaches, bringing him to -1 from Mancini and Herrera. And also returning a "wrong" done to the Inter world as a player, since he was on the field on May 5, 2002, with the Lazio shirt, when the Nerazzurri collapsed (also due to a goal by the same man from Piacenza in the final 4-2) one step away from the Scudetto goal. More than 20 years later, Inzaghi now definitively enters the history of Inter. This time from the right side.