Bring back Lukaku & Conte! Inter Milan risk Scudetto collapse

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:55 CDT
• 4 min read

At the end of January, the Nerazzurri were absolutely flying. They lost just one of their opening 21 games of the Serie A season, winning 16 and drawing the other four.

They appeared to be romping to another Scudetto and they could not stop scoring. Inter had scored 49 goals by the halfway stage of the Serie A season and were in with a very real chance of hitting triple figures by the end of the campaign.

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Through to the Champions League knockout stages also for the first time in almost a decade, everyone agreed that Inter appeared to be no weaker than last season when they won their first Scudetto since 2010.

There had been great panic last summer when the much-publicised Coronavirus-related financial problems of Inter’s Chinese owners Suning had forced the club to cash in on its two best players Romelu Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi. Even more devastatingly, influential coach Antonio Conte had also walked out.

Bosnian veteran Edin Dzeko and Dutch wing-back Denzel Dumfries replaced Lukaku and Hakimi, while Simone Inzaghi replaced Conte as coach.

But up until two months ago, none of the trio were missed at all.

Dzeko was rolling back the years in front of goal, Dumfries was earning comparisons to Brazil legend Douglas Maicon, while Inzaghi was matching Conte.

But in the last six weeks, everything has fallen apart for Inter.

They have won just two of their last nine games in Serie A, and only one of their last seven – against rock-bottom Salernitana. In these last seven matches, Inter have also only once scored more than one goal.

Dzeko’s goals have dried up. He has 17 in all competitions this season but has drawn blanks in six of his last seven games and 16 of his last 20. The Bosnian’s strike-partner Lautaro Martinez is also enduring a nightmare 2022, scoring in only three of his last 16 matches.

Together, Dzeko and Lautaro are struggling to hit it off as a pair in the same way that Lukaku and Lautaro did.

Teams are beginning to find Inter out. As Liverpool showed in the Champions League – despite the Italians largely matching them in both legs in possession – if you push up with a high line in defence, Inter simply have no pace in behind.

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This is what Lukaku brought to Inter. In addition to his telepathic combination play with Lautaro, the Belgian provided the pace and direct running that Inter are sorely missing.

Lukaku may be enduring a miserable season himself since his return to Chelsea, but he was the perfect fit at Inter. His 64 goals in 95 games prove that. When games were in the balance, Lukaku often made the difference, as did Hakimi. This duo injected the pace into an Inter team that is lacking intensity and appears tired mentally and physically.

And Inter’s coach Inzaghi doesn’t appear to be able to find a way to arrest the slump. He has been accused of lacking a Plan B, consistently sticking to the same 3-5-2 that is no longer yielding results.

The pressure appears to be getting to him and he has also made a number of peculiar team selection choices, particularly in the home loss to Sassuolo when he rested a number of players.

Conte was a whirlwind who ended Juventus’ nine-year Scudetto streak – a streak he himself had started.

Now Inter find themselves down in third position, six points behind leaders Milan. It is not over yet, though. If they win their game in hand, they go three points behind with eight matches left.

They also have an easier run-in than their city rivals, although Inter do travel to Juventus in their next match and risk falling further behind.

If Inter fail to win the Scudetto this season, there’s no doubt that it will be seen by many as one of the biggest title collapses in recent years.

It’s no surprise that many Inter fans – seeing the difficulties Lukaku and Conte are having in London – are calling for their former heroes to return to the club.