The Nerazzurri’s year of silverware and Serie A setbacks

Inter were an incredibly confusing football team in the 2022/23 season, experiencing extreme highs and extreme lows throughout the campaign.

The Nerazzurri lost a frankly silly number of games in Serie A and definitely underwhelmed in the league, but they continued to show that they are a very good cup team and secured two more trophies under Simone Inzaghi, while they were only being narrowly beaten in the Champions League final by Manchester City.

There are a number of superb players in the Inter squad who underperformed for a large part of the campaign but came into their own when things really mattered in the final two months, leading to a trophy, a top-four finish and that Champions League final.

Here’s 90min’s comprehensive review of Inter’s 2022/23 campaign.

Coming into the 2022/23 season, there was a feeling that Inter should be right in the thick of the Serie A title race, perhaps even the outright favourites.

That was also the case the season before, but they missed out on the Scudetto to a Milan team that were not expected to challenge for let alone win the league that year. That was viewed as an underachievement by Inter and the same can be said for this season.

With Romelu Lukaku coming back and Andre Onana as their new starting new goalkeeper, Inter were hoping to assert a bit of dominance over the league, especially with Milan having a bad summer.

Lautaro Martinez

In terms of direct impact on the trophies that Inter have won this season and the late-season form that has taken them into the Serie A top four, the winner of this award has to be Lautaro Martinez. The Argentine is a streaky striker and there have been times during the season where it seemed impossible that he could be Inter’s player of the year.

He has ended on 28 goals across all competitions and almost reeled Victor Osimhen in for the Capocannoniere award in Serie A. He has chipped in with 11 assists.

Martinez has popped up with the important goals, too. He scored once in the Supercoppa Italiana final, twice in the Coppa Italia final and he also scored the goal that secured Inter’s place in the Champions League final.

Honourable mentions: Federico Dimarco, Hakan Calhanoglu, Andre Onana

Hakan Calhanoglu vs Hellas Verona

Some stunning goals were scored by Inter players during the campaign. The likes of Edin Dzeko, Martinez and Nicolo Barella have got a handful of goals each that could be considered the best this season.

In terms of how easy he made it look and the power that he generated from so far out, Hakan Calhanoglu’s long-range strike at Hellas Verona is our pick. It is no secret that the Turkish midfielder can hit a ball, but there was a nonchalance about how he scored this goal that is hard to look beyond.

Honourable mentions: Romelu Lukaku vs Sassuolo, Nicolo Barella vs Benfica, Edin Dzeko vs Bologna, Hakan Calhanoglu vs Barcelona, Nicolo Barella vs Cremonese.

Milan 0-2 Inter, Champions League

Inter put in a few superb performances in the latter stage of the campaign and there are a few fair shouts for this award. As far as the scale of the game and the pressure goes, nothing beats what they did to Milan in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final.

The build-up to the game had been intense and every Inter player knew that they could plunge their fans into a world of pain if they did not pull out a performance. They certainly did perform, though, with Dzeko and Henrikh Mkhitaryan ensuring that the Nerazzurri were 2-0 after just 10 minutes at San Siro.

That is where the damage was done, but they also limited Milan to very few chances for the rest of the game and really, Inter should have grabbed at least a couple more goals during the game to make the second leg even more comfortable than it was. Calhanoglu and Barella very nearly scored, whilst Martinez and Dzeko had other chances.

Andre Onana

This is a piece of business that Inter are going to look back on very favourably, be that in a few months’ time or a few years’ time. They acted quickly to secure the services of Andre Onana on a free transfer while he was waiting for his doping ban to expire.

They trusted that he could still get back to his best, and after a transitional start to the season in which he rotated with Samir Handanovic, he is the undisputed number one and is one of the best modern goalkeepers in the world.

He is now being chased by the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham which means Inter have either got their first-choice goalkeeper for the next few years, or they are going to turn a huge profit on the Cameroonian this summer.

Honourable mentions: Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Francesco Acerbi

Federico Dimarco

One of the success stories from Inter’s academy and also an individual’s professional patience. Federico Dimarco became an important part of Inter’s team last season but this year, he has only grown in importance and he has kept Robin Gosens out of the team.

Dimarco’s technical ability for a defender is really impressive and it is why he has been able to rack up six goals and 10 assists across all competitions. While Gosens has offered fairly minimal competition at left wing-back, Dimarco is one of the first names on the team sheet.

Honourable mention: Lautaro Martinez, Hakan Calhanoglu

Serie A losses

Inter did manage to make it into the top four of Serie A, but they came very close to not even managing that and were only saved by a sudden good patch of form down the stretch. The thing that has really held them back in Serie A is their number of losses against smaller teams.

They have always been able to show up for the big matches, but they have lost an incredible 12 Serie A games this season. That is simply far too many to get even close to winning the league title, which was the aim at the start of the season.

Inter should have been so much closer to Napoli this season but they ended up a massive 18 points behind the Partenopei.

Honourable mentions: Romelu Lukaku’s injury and lack of impact, Milan Skriniar’s lack of a new contract and injury

Most appearances

Top scorers

Most assists

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