Massimo Moratti puts his faith in Rafael Benitez
Inter Milan’s president, Massimo Moratti, has rejected the speculations surrounding the sacking of their coach, Rafael Benitez. Moratti disclaimed these reports and called them as inventions of press.
Rafael Benitez has come under pressure after a poor start to the season. Under Jose Mourinho, the coach for the last two seasons, Inter Milan won the famous treble and another league title in 2009. After winning the treble, the team was expected to do much
better and show an improved performance. However, Rafael Benitez has failed to emulate his predecessor up to this point in the season.
Currently, Inter Milan is sitting in fifth place in Serie A table. On the other hand, their archrivals and neighbours, AC Milan, are sitting on top with a difference of six points from the Nerazzurri. Benitez had his chance on this weekend when he faced
the rivals in local derby. AC Milan had the status of a visiting side in San Siro, but they won the match by 1-0. Apart from the defeat, Inter failed to shine during the match. Even when AC Milan was reduced to ten men, Inter failed to capitalize on the situation.
In the end, it was nothing more than an average performance from the Italian and European champions.
Despite of having a great squad at his disposal, Benitez has failed to make the most of his resources. It is almost the same team as last season, but the main difference is the change in the manager. From the start, the former Liverpool coach was never a
strong candidate to replace Mourinho. He was the one responsible for Liverpool’s poor run in the last few years. Apart from some tactical errors, Benitez made a lot of bad decisions in transfer market. Therefore, after being sacked by Liverpool he was lucky
enough to get a hold on Inter Milan’s job, despite of having weak credentials as a Liverpool coach.
With no real success in recent years, the performance with Inter Milan was nothing but expected for Benitez. Therefore, Italian press thought that the failure to win the local derby might prove to be the last nail in his coffin. Italian press is also very
notorious for their character assassination of coaches and players. One of the recent examples is of Marcello Lippi, the Italian coach in this year’s World Cup in South Africa. Lippi was severely criticised for his wrong decisions and tactics, and for some
time his victory in 2006 version of the tournament was totally neglected. Even it became hard for Lippi to return home because of the journalists’ onslaught on the airport.
Therefore, the news regarding Rafael Benitez future at Inter Milan is also termed as bogus by Moratti. The Inter Milan president said that the planning has been done for the club and it would go on as finalized. The club has already put its faith in the
manager and he would continue to serve. However, Moratti said that he was angry after the result against AC Milan.
In order to consolidate their claims, the Italian press moved ahead and named some people who were under consideration for the replacement of Benitez. However, Moratti rejected any such claims made in the press and declared them as fabricated reports. One
of those people under consideration is the coach of Russian champions Zenit St. Petersburg, Luciano Spalletti. The former coach of AS Roma also rejected such claims and reiterated his strong relationship with the champions of Russia.
Nevertheless, Benitez has not done well with Inter Milan and he falls in the danger zone. Although, Moratti would keep on backing the manager for some period, but eventually he would get fed up from his failures. Inter Milan is club moving in the right direction,
but Benitez is taking them in the opposite direction at this moment.
Tags: