Serie A Preview: Reggina - Inter

After a mostly convincing start to the season, the first few chinks in Inter’s armour have started to show recently. A problem Jose Mourinho’s outfit have been dealing since the start has been a difficulty scoring goals, with a few rare exceptions like the 4-0 win against Roma a fortnight ago, and this has culminated in two consecutive goalless draws against Genoa and Fiorentina.

Of course, the positive thing Inter can draw from is that they haven’t conceded a goal in their last four games in all competitions (in fact, they have the best defence in Serie A at the moment). Also, Genoa and Fiorentina are nowhere near to being bad teams, so perhaps Inter have to accept that in their current state of form a draw against those teams is actually a good result.

Overall, though, there is the feeling that Mourinho still has to get accustomed to Italian football. It is still a question mark whether the 4-3-3 system, which worked wonders for the coach at Chelsea, is the most ideally suited not only to Inter, but to the Italian way of playing as a whole.

Considering that Inter had gotten used to playing with a 4-4-2 under predecessor Roberto Mancini in previous seasons, one has to wonder why Mourinho decided to change things around. Still, it cannot be said he hasn’t managed to stamp his authority on the team, as he has already taken measures against the likes of Adriano and Julio Cruz for stepping out of line, without hesitating to keep them out of the match against Fiorentina even though they certainly could have been useful.

The Nerazzurri’s last couple of results have seen them drop to 4th place, which is an unusual place to see them at. At this point last season, they had three points more, and were leading the table with a three-point margin. But the mere fact that Napoli and Udinese are leading the Serie A table at the moment goes to show how evenly balanced this season is.

Against Reggina, however, there should be no surprises. Inter know that anything but a victory will start talks of a crisis, and could see them drop further behind the leaders. Considering that the Amaranto have had a terrible start to the season, this match probably comes at a good time for Inter, who really should have nothing to fear from Nevio Orlandi’s team.

Over the past 5-6 years, Reggina have earned a reputation as a relegation-battling Serie A side who somehow always manage to stay up by their skin of their teeth. However, the early signs are definitely not good this season, as they have managed to win just once in their first nine games, and are currently bottom of the table with just 5 points.

Their latest defeat was particularly humiliating, as they went down 3-0 away to Napoli in a match that was never really a contest. In past seasons, the reason Reggina managed to survive in Serie A was often because they always had at least one or two prolific strikers up front, but this season, after seeing the likes of Nicola Amoruso and Rolando Bianchi leave, they are completely reliant on Bernardo Corradi.

The former Italian international has scored 4 goals so far, two of which were penalties in the home victory against Lecce, but none of Reggina’s other strikers have found the net so far. Corradi is not a bad player, but to rely entirely on him for the attack is obviously not a good idea.

Last season coach Nevio Orlandi did an impressive job, coming in with just a few matches to go, and even recorded Reggina’s biggest ever victory in Serie A on his first match, a 4-0 win against Siena. He managed to keep the Amaranto in the top flight against the odds yet again, and was given faith for this season as well, but perhaps that was a mistake.

The 54-year-old had, in fact, never coached a Serie A side before, having only led Reggina’s youth teams and Serie C2 side Vittoria. A heavy defeat against Inter could see him lose his job, with former Sampdoria and Torino coach Walter Novellino reportedly ready to take over.

FORM GUIDE

Reggina

29/10 (Serie A): Napoli-Reggina 3-0

26/10 (Serie A): Reggina-Lecce 2-0

22/10 (Champions League): Inter-Anorthosis Famagusta 1-0

18/10 (Serie A): Fiorentina-Reggina 3-0

04/10 (Serie A): Inter-Bologna 2-1

Inter

29/10 (Serie A): Fiorentina-Inter 0-0

26/10 (Serie A): Inter-Genoa 0-0

19/10 (Serie A): Roma-Inter 0-4

05/10 (Serie A): Reggina-Catania 1-1

28/09 (Serie A): Palermo-Reggina 1-0

TEAM NEWS

Reggina

Antonio Giosa, Santos, and Emmanuel Cascione are out injured.

Possible formation (3-4-2-1): Campagnolo; Lanzaro, Valdez, Cirillo; Vigiani, Barreto, Carmona, Costa; Brienza, Cozza; Corradi.

Inter

Luis Jimenez, Luis Figo, Nelson Rivas, and Sulley Muntari are out injured. It remains to be seen whether Adriano has already been forgiven by Mourinho for coming late to training on Tuesday, but it’s unlikely we will see him on the pitch for this match. The same goes for Julio Cruz.

Possible formation (4-3-3): Julio Cesar; Maicon, Cordoba, Burdisso, Chivu; Vieira, Stankovic, Zanetti; Balotelli, Ibrahimovic, Mancini.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Reggina - Bernardo Corradi

The former Inter-owned striker will be the main threat to Inter in this match, in fact so far Reggina’s rare goals have always come from him, except on one occasion. The 32-year-old probably reached the highest point of his career when he was picked by Giovanni Trapattoni to take part in Euro 2004 with Italy. At the time, he had come off scoring an impressive 40 goals in 4 seasons with Chievo and later Lazio, but since then, particularly since his move to Valencia in 2004, his career has gone downhill.

Inter - Mario Balotelli

It’s hard to understand why Mourinho hasn’t given this young prodigy more playing time, as he surely could have given a more substantial contribution than the likes of Ricardo Quaresma or Mancini. The 18-year-old has shown great personality time and time again, scoring crucial goals for Inter in last season’s Scudetto race, and also helping Italy’s Under 21 side qualify to the European tournament in only his third match for the team. It’s probable he will get some playing time in this match, although Mourinho might still be mad at him for allegedly disobeying his instructions in last week’s match against Genoa.

PREDICTION

Inter to win comfortably.