Chivu: ‘Frustration can leave a mark’ with painful Inter defeat to AC Milan

Cristian Chivu will not acknowledge that Inter have a problem with counter-attacks this season, but admits ‘the frustration can leave a mark’ from this defeat to AC Milan.

The Nerazzurri dominated the first half at San Siro and were unlucky not to open the scoring, as Francesco Acerbi’s header hit the upright, then Mike Maignan palmed a Lautaro Martinez volley onto the woodwork.

Christian Pulisic struck instead to finish off an Alexis Saelemaekers counter-attack, then Maignan performed another decisive save to deny the Hakan Calhanoglu penalty.

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Inter are now without a victory in their last six meetings with Milan between Serie A, the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana, managing only two draws.

“The frustration is not just what we created, it’s the performance, the focus, as we hardly allowed any counter-attacks, despite knowing the two strikers could cause us problems,” Chivu told DAZN Italia.

“The one time we lost the second ball in midfield, they scored. This is football. I take home the good performance, as the lads kept going to the end, despite the disappointment of conceding the goal, and the frustration after hitting the woodwork twice.

“They tried to score in every possible way, and that is the spirit I want to see.”

Inter’s record in the head-to-head battles this season has been terrible, losing against Juventus, Napoli and AC Milan, with the sole victory against Roma.

In comparison, Milan defeated Bologna, Napoli, Roma and Inter, drawing with Juve.

“When you suffer the fourth defeat in 12 rounds, that is too many,” acknowledged Chivu.

“However, the table is still pretty tight, so we are up there and need to deal with this frustration, because losing a game like this can leave a mark.”

The statistics show that the counter-attack is a real weakness for Chivu’s team, as they have conceded four goals from counter-attacks despite only 11 shots on target from those scenarios. Is this because Yann Sommer has been struggling, as today he again only pushed the Saelemaekers effort into the path of Pulisic?

“I know what we create and what we concede, these are the risks we take. I don’t analyse individuals in public, because I would never do that. When I see my players give their all in training, I could never point the finger of blame here, nor do I want to seek alibis. We are all in this and all responsible, for good and bad.

“We all could’ve done better, we could’ve scored earlier, or dealt with the moments of the match better. Our duty now is to get back on our feet, as on Tuesday we have an equally important match,” continued Chivu.

That will be in the Champions League against Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid, another side quite happy to allow possession only to strike on the counter-attack.

“The characteristics of our players mean we are forced to attack with many men, which inevitably leaves us a little open. However, I want to point out we only allowed one counter-attack today, and it was fatal. Considering the risks we take with this attacking approach, we don’t really allow many shots on goal,” explained the Inter coach.

“I think we need to sniff out danger earlier, perhaps give a few more yellow cards to stop these situations before they develop.”

Lautaro Martinez was substituted early into the second half, so was there a fitness reason behind that change? Chivu did not react well to that line of questioning.

“He is fine. Can I not change players? It was a technical decision, it was my choice. The lads on the bench deserve to give their contribution too, Bonny and Pio have done well this season.”