‘Old format much simpler’

Inter boss Simone Inzaghi unhappy with team’s hectic schedule in new eight-match league table this year; hints at shuffling players for tonight’s Arsenal tie due to forthcoming big game v Napoli

Simone Inzaghi hinted on Tuesday that he might be dropping some of his star names for Inter Milan’s Champions League clash with Arsenal with a key fixture with Serie A leaders Napoli coming up at the weekend. 

Inter have a near full squad available for Wednesday’s match at the San Siro but a packed schedule and the possibility of snatching top spot in Italy on Sunday means the likes of Marcus Thuram, Alessandro Bastoni and Henrikh Mkhitaryan might not start against the Gunners. “Unfortunately we had three big matches with Milan, Juventus and Napoli after each of our three Champions League matches [Inter played Torino at home after beating Red Star Belgrade]. If you look at the teams who are playing in Europe this week, only Inter have a difficult match afterwards,” said Inzaghi. 

Simone Inzaghi

“This morning the boys looked like they’d recovered well even though we’re only 40 hours after the Venezia match [won 1-0]. Tomorrow morning I’ll try to pick the team best equipped to play and dominate the match,” he added. 

Asked what he thought of the new Champions League format, Inzaghi admitted that both he and the team were finding it harder to manage the extra games and eight different opponents. Inter sit seventh in the new single standings, in the top eight positions which give direct access to the last 16 but level on seven points with ninth-placed Arsenal and five other teams. 

“In the old group stage, you only needed to prepare for three different teams, so it was much simpler,” added Inzaghi. 

“Now you have to prepare eight different matches, whereas before after three games you already had an idea of what the group might look like. Instead, now you know the positions and in theory how many points you might need, but you could end up moving up or dropping down one or two places with one goal scored or conceded. Maybe it’s more fun, more intriguing, but for us it’s much more difficult,” he remarked.

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