In the first leg of this season's Italian Cup semi-final, Inter Milan succeeded at the Olympic Stadium thanks to a long-range shot by Stanis. However, the forward line of the blue-black army was collectively sluggish and performed averagely, especially Argentine Milito who started the game - he was almost ineffective and did nothing. Milito has been troubled by poor form throughout this season. After 33 rounds of league games, he only scored 6 goals. Since Inter Milan introduced Pazini after the winter break, except for each scoring in the matches against Bologna and Cesena, he was then left on the bench for a long time waiting as a substitute. In this game, Leonardo arranged for Pazini to rest while Milito started the game, hoping that the Argentine could take the opportunity of the Italian Cup match to regain his form. Unfortunately, it was a big disappointment. Except for appearing in front of the camera a few times when cooperating with teammates, most of the time Milito seemed distracted and detached from the whole team system, unable to tear open the opponent's defense or create chances for his teammates. Almost all of Inter Milan's goal-scoring opportunities came from midfielders like Sneijder and Stanis. At the 72nd minute, Leonardo replaced the ineffective Milito with Pazini, expressing his great disappointment with the former king of last season's Inter Milan.
The fierce debate over the coaching skills of Inter Milan and conflicts in the dressing room has attracted the full attention of the club's upper management and fans, neglecting the problem of the lack of offensive tactics in the forward line. When Leonardo is under fire, shouldn't these forwards who can't capture cities and fortresses also bear their responsibilities? Remember that Pazini's last goal still dates back to the game where Inter Milan narrowly won 1-0 against Lecce on March 20th. Is the forward weakness gradually spreading and becoming an embarrassing issue for the Nerazzurri, who had the most goals in the first half of the season? If the entire forward line cannot solve the reason for its slump, the team's offensive firepower will have to rely on playmakers, midfielders, or even sword-wielding defenders. How can such an Inter Milan talk about bravely winning the Italian Cup championship and advancing to the Bird's Nest, or giving Milan the final blow?
Actually, Inter Milan's weak forward line problem is not only reflected in Milito alone. The top scorer in the squad, Eto'o, did not play in this game, and his recent form has also been terrible. Just looking at the data, the Cameroonian has already scored 19 goals and provided 6 assists in the league this season. However, in the past 6 games, he has fallen into a month-long goal drought, despite starting every game. The completely fatigued former main attacking line of the Nerazzurri has poured all its offensive firepower onto Pazini, who joined in the winter. The record of three consecutive losses in the last three league games with a total of eight goals conceded has magnified their forward weakness to the maximum extent. In the recent 6 games (including 3 Serie A, 2 Champions League, and 1 Italian Cup), Inter Milan's forward line only managed one goal (Milan 2-5 Schalke in the Champions League, Milito scored one goal). Such forward efficiency indeed doesn't count as high.
Although Milito is Inter Milan's official striker, in this game, his role was more about cooperating with Sneijder and Stanis in passing, with very few opportunities for him to break through or shoot himself. In the 16th minute of the first half, Pandev took the ball on the left side and forced a breakthrough down the line. However, Milito failed to reach the ball's landing point and missed a good chance. In the 24th minute, Sneijder and Milito completed a two-man cooperation. After sending a pass to the Dutchman, Milito finished his mission. In the 51st minute of the second half, Stanis passed the ball into the penalty area, and Milito's header was blocked out of the penalty area by the opponent. This was one of the few threats he posed during the entire game. In the 64th minute, Milito received a through pass from Stanis inside the penalty area and formed a one-on-one situation but was offside. A large number of Inter Milan's offensive opportunities reached the penalty area but stopped abruptly without success, the direct reason being the silence of this firepower point inside the penalty area.