Montari had the honor of scoring a goal in the match against Genoa, which was not an outstanding goal but was worth a thousand gold for Inter Milan. Inter Milan narrowly overtook AC Milan in the standings due to this one-goal victory. The Milan Sports Daily even believed that this might be the goal that could change Montari's career trajectory because the defensive midfielder line was suffering from a lack of personnel, and Montari also proved with his goal that he was not completely useless. The African Buffalo confidently said: "I don't want to leave Inter Milan; I want to stay here to prove myself." A worse scene occurred in the second half at the 53rd minute when Montari painfully fell to the ground during a scramble. The medical team immediately came onto the field to support Montari to the sideline, and Benitez promptly made a substitution decision. The only remaining defensive midfielder, young Enwako-Wo, was ordered to take the field. From the game footage, it was clear that Montari's problem was in the calf muscle, and he became the 16th person to suffer a muscle injury in the new season. Before the match against Tottenham, Inter Milan's defensive midfielder line faced a serious shortage of players. Cambiasso, Stankovic, Motta, and Mariga, the four main defensive midfielders, were all unable to play. All that remained for Coach Benitez were Zanetti, Montari, and the young player Enwako-Wo selected from the reserve team. More dishearteningly, even Montari, who was the least reliable, got injured, giving the young Enwako-Wo his Champions League debut. Such a large-scale muscle strain issue naturally led to widespread questioning of Benitez's training methods. In the current Inter Milan locker room, many players have been continuously complaining about the summer training camp in the United States. The daily high-intensity training demands by Coach Benitez left many older players in extreme physical exhaustion, making it easy for injuries to occur. The Inter Milan coach always complained about the lack of players and wanted to strengthen the defensive midfielder line in the winter transfer window. In fact, one of the behind-the-scenes culprits for the "waist injuries" was himself. In the previous round of league matches against Genoa, Inter Milan lost two key players as both Julio Cesar and Cambiasso were troubled by leg muscle injuries and were not included in the squad for Inter Milan's trip to White Hart Lane. Losing Julio Cesar was manageable since Castellazzi could step up, but losing Cambiasso left Benitez struggling because Motta, Stankovic, and Mariga were already confirmed to be unavailable for the Tottenham match. Sure enough, in the match against Tottenham, Montari partnered with captain Zanetti as the double defensive midfielders. It was thought that Montari would continue his savior performance from the weekend, but the course of the match was something no one expected. At the 18th minute, Tottenham scored an excellent goal, and this goal had some "help" from Montari. Modric cut inside from the flank after faking a shot to bypass the careless Montari's block and then sent a perfect pass to the moving Van der Vaart. Facing the advancing Castellazzi, the Dutchman easily pushed the ball into the net. The whole market joked about the process of this goal: "Modric was like a dancing sprite, while Montari was like a clumsy gorilla."