Inter Milan: Chivu’s cautious revolution

The match against a newly promoted team like Sassuolo in Serie A’s fourth round was seen as the perfect chance for coach Cristian Chivu to boldly rotate the squad, give opportunities to new players, and rest key members after two intense away games in a row. Chivu made some changes, but it was a very cautious revolution, and the hard-fought 2-1 victory ultimately raised more questions than satisfaction.

Chivu’s caution was understandable since Sassuolo has historically been a tough opponent for Inter (even beating them twice in the 2023-24 season when Inter won the title and Sassuolo was relegated). However, his continued reliance on the old core disappointed many Inter fans. They had hoped to see the expensive summer signings like Andy Diouf, Luis Henrique, and Ange-Yoan Bonny in action, but all of them were almost invisible. Diouf remained on the bench the entire match, while Luis Henrique and Bonny only came on during the last 30 minutes.

So far, Inter’s new signings costing tens of millions of euros have been given very limited chances. Ange-Yoan Bonny, despite scoring on his debut and possessing strong physique and stamina, is still behind young striker Pio Esposito in the pecking order. Luis Henrique, brought in for 23 million euros, has only played a total of 31 minutes this season. The most puzzling case is Andy Diouf, the defensive midfielder from Lens. He was expected to be a key figure, a crucial piece for Chivu to build Inter’s new style, different from Simone Inzaghi’s era. But after a somewhat clumsy 12 minutes in the opening match against Torino (which Inter won 5-0), he has been ignored for the last four games. Among the new players, only Petar Sucic has been used fairly regularly and made a good impression. In both matches he started, the Croatian player provided assists and Inter won.