Chapter 360: Inter's Dilemma (2)
As is customary for big teams, whenever a new player joins, a fan meeting is held.
The few players that Inter Milan have brought in before, although they are not big stars, are just practical role players, but after they came to report to the team, the club also held a fan meeting for them as usual.
Shen Feng's transfer value of 35 million euros, as well as his status as a player in the Dragon Kingdom, show that he is the focus of Inter Milan's winter transfer period, and according to common sense, it is even more necessary to hold a fan meeting.
However, because after the news of Shen Feng's joining was announced, the outside reaction was not very good, and it was even boycotted by some extreme fans of the Inter Milan team, so the club decided not to hold a fan meeting for him after consulting Shen Feng's opinion.
Shen Feng didn't think that a fan meeting that went through the motions could make the fans of the Inter Milan team accept him sincerely.
He wants to gain a firm foothold in the Inter Milan team and win the sincere love and support of the Inter Milan fans, relying by not the people-friendly performance at the fan meeting, but the outstanding performance on the pitch and in the game.
Shen Feng came to report on Inter Milan on February 11, 2019, and the second half of the Serie A league had been rekindled as early as January 20, and four more rounds of matches had been played before Shen Feng's report.
After the reinforcement of the winter transfer period, the strength and form of the Inter Milan team have recovered after the off-season, however, because the opponents in these four games are not weak, so the Inter Milan team has not been very good, with only one win in four games, two draws and one defeat.
Therefore, after 23 rounds of Serie A, Inter Milan only achieved a record of 10 wins, 7 draws and 6 losses, accumulating 37 points, and still temporarily ranked 7th in the standings, but the gap with the leading team was further widened.
Juventus, who are now at the top of the standings, have a record of 16 wins, five draws and two losses in the first 23 rounds, with a whopping 53 points, a full 16 points ahead of Inter Milan.
Napoli, who are temporarily ranked second in the Serie A standings, have a record of 13 wins, 7 draws and 3 losses in the first 23 rounds, accumulating 46 points, ahead of Inter Milan, and also 9 points, but this gap is not too big when there are still 15 rounds in Serie A.
Therefore, for the current Inter Milan team, there is little hope of competing for the Serie A title this season, but it can still work hard to compete for a place in the Champions League next season.
At present, Roma, who are temporarily ranked sixth in the Serie A standings, are only 2 points ahead of Inter Milan, and the first thing Inter Milan has to do is to knock Roma off.
However, the next schedule is not very favorable to the Inter Milan team, in the 24th round of Serie A, the opponent of the Inter Milan team is Sampdoria.
Sampdoria has performed well this season, with 11 wins, 7 draws and 5 losses in the first 23 rounds, accumulating 40 points, temporarily ranking fifth in the Serie A standings, 3 points ahead of Inter Milan.
In other words, they are direct competitors to Inter Milan for a European place and will not be relentless when facing Inter Milan.
Shen Feng was delayed a lot of time due to his participation in the Asian Cup and a series of celebrations after the game, and he did not report to the team until now.
When he joined the team, there were only five days left before the 24th round of Serie A this season, and the time was very tight.
This is also one of the reasons why Shen Feng doesn't want to have a fan meeting, at this time, it is better to communicate with the team more and run in, in order to integrate into the team as soon as possible.
Because he was in good physical condition, Shen Feng participated in the training of the Inter Milan team on the second day after arriving in Milan, and he didn't even have time to fall from jet lag.
The current lineup of the Inter Milan team, after the vigorous introduction of Suning Group, has been adjusted quite reasonably, and the average age of the team's main squad is about twenty-seven years old.
Among them, on the front line, there is Perisic, the core of the Croatian team who shined in last year's World Cup, Perisic contributed 3 goals to the Croatian team in last year's World Cup, and made great contributions to the Croatian team all the way through and into the final!
He also scored a goal in the final against France to help Croatia equalise at one point, but unfortunately it fell short.
In addition, Inter Milan now have Italy internationals Candreva and Politano in the front line, but they have not had good luck this season, both of them are on the injury list and are still recovering from injuries.
In addition, Inter Milan's forward list includes Argentine striker Mauro Icardi. Icardi, who was born in '93, performed well after joining Inter Milan in 2013, and was once the top scorer in Serie A in the 2014-2015 season with 22 goals!
And last season, that is, in the 2017-2018 season, with 29 goals, he once again won the top scorer in Serie A!
Mauro Icardi is at the heart of the current Inter Milan squad and has already worn the armband.
However, this season, Icardi has also been plagued by injuries, missing nearly two months in between, and although he has returned from injury, his competitive form has been greatly affected.
He has scored just seven goals in 13 Serie A appearances for Inter Milan this season, a far cry from last season's 29 goals in 34 appearances.
In addition, in the summer transfer period last year, Inter Milan also introduced Argentine star Lautaro Martinez, who was born in 97 like Shen Feng; and Keita Balde, who was born in '95 and was trained in the La Masia academy of FC Barcelona on loan from Monaco in Ligue 1.
These two young men, in the case of injury and unorganized personnel in the Inter Milan team, were ordered to be in danger and pushed to the main position, but the performance was not satisfactory.
So far, Lautaro Martinez has played 15 games for Inter Milan this season, scoring only four goals; Keita Balde has made eleven appearances for Inter Milan this season and has scored just three goals.
Among all the strikers of the Inter Milan team, only Perisic, who has reached the age of 30, is in stable form, and has made 22 appearances for Inter Milan in Serie A this season, scoring 10 goals.