Milan and Inter dragged by the hardships: May 1st from first place

A dry final can also be the Talent Festival, but a championship is always Labor Day, because a 38-game tournament is an assembly line. Whoever is absent more, loses. Whoever wins it has an ethical merit even more than a technical one, because it means that he has had more consistency, more application, more willingness to sacrifice, more strength to react to difficulties. Milan, in the collective imagination, is the city of work. Milan and Inter lead the standings because they have worked hard and well. They are the two teams that, before matchday 35, have kicked the most towards the goal: 584 shots for the Nerazzurri, 539 for the Rossoneri. At the pinnacle of productivity. The two best, for average marks, Tonali (6.56) and Brozovic (6.66), are two hard workers: Sandro is on the Rossoneri podium for both minutes (2,318) and average kilometers (10,250 km); Marcelo is by far the player who has raced the most in Serie A (average of 11.633 km). On this first May, Milan and Inter are not celebrating, but they are playing the championship dream that was built above all with work. In a different way, let’s see how.

THE WORK OF PEGS

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Of the four coaches in the Champions League, Stefano Pioli is the only one who was already there the year before. Pioli’s three years of work are Milan’s real treasure. When, at the age of 27, Arrigo Sacchi began to train in the Second Category, in Fusignano, he asked his first president, a former partisan and Latinist: “I need a free one”. The president put a number 6 shirt in his hand and explained: “Build it, with ideas and work. There is no money.” Ideas and work: it is the obligatory path of our football that the Maradona and Platinis can no longer afford. Ideas and work: these are the medals of the Pioli who started from a staff inferior to Inter, Juve and Naples and further diminished by the emergency. He has lost pillars like Kjaer and Ibrahimovic. A spy: Inter counts 8 players with over 2,000 minutes of play; Milan half: Hernandez, Tomori, Tonali, Leao. We said AC Milan second for shots “towards” the goal. If we narrow the search to shots “on” goal, Milan slips to 6th place. In the ranking of assists, led by Inter (49), the Devil is only 10th (21). It means that, due to absences (Ibra) and modesty of interpreters (Diaz, Messias …), Milan has serious gaps in the goal area and finishing. If the hornet flies despite its small wings; if Pioli is in front of everyone despite the emergency and gaps, it is precisely because, in three years of teaching, he has put “ideas and work” into it. Nobody has the solid knowledge of Milan who, on the basis of the 4-2-3-1, often varied, displacing the opponents (see Naples, Rome). Nobody has such an empathy, which has also grown thanks to the charisma of Ibra who has imposed a new culture of work and a new mysticism of the group that has increased the performance of individuals. Symbol of this Leonine spirit, which flared up against Lazio, is the workaholic Tonali, a revelation of the season. Fight, race and at the Olimpico he also put in the goal-match. Rapper Dani Faiv dedicated a song to him: “Sweat, blood and fatigue: I’m Sandro Tonali”. Like Ligabue in Oriali. Another life as a midfielder. Tonali, but also Theo, the most present, after Tomori, the one who served the most assists (5) and scored 4 goals: he did what his teammates can’t. He squeezed. Like Leao, irreplaceable. A hard-working AC Milan.

THE WORK OF INZAGHI

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Simone Inzaghi also put “work and ideas” into it. But in a different way. Not so much to compensate for the shortcomings, but to make use of the generous resources of the house. Having lost the race of Hakimi and Lukaku, Inzaghi has created a team less devoted to the restart, more beautiful and unpredictable than that of Conte. He did it thanks to the successful inclusion of Calhanoglu (7 goals, 10 assists). Only Napoli and Atalanta have more possession in the opposing half of the pitch. With Conte’s tracks removed, Inter now remains high and commands the game, without waiting to restart. The 17 passes that led to Lautaro’s goal in the Coppa Italia derby reaffirmed the change of skin. Simone did not have years of teaching, like Pioli, but months. The production data, however, certify the quality of his work. Inter, best attack and best defense, are also first for shots on goal, assists, crosses, corners. The shorter coexistence time between the team and the coach did not allow the empathy that binds Milan to Pioli or that Conte had gained after two seasons in Appiano. Inter has not always managed to impose the ferocity that the Devil, charged by Pioli, showed with Lazio. Too often he has mistaken approaches and attitudes. Having the victory in Bologna, after taking the lead, in the key moment of the championship, was a crime. But the story isn’t over. Inter also has hard workers and does not want to leave the work and half. A symbol like Tonali? The centrality of Brozovic is well known; the inexhaustibility of “Duracell” Barella as well.

SCUDETTO TRAPS

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But as a symbol of application we choose Perisic, a full-fledged worker, an overtime one, whom Conte let go (Bayern Munich) and then resumed alternating him with protective full-backs. Inzaghi made it an irreplaceable offensive thorn that he defends on the bottom line: the Eto’o of the possible Tripletino. Today Inter must restart from Friuli, a land of hard workers. Udinese, who come from the arrogant 4-0 of Florence, are physical teams, tough, last year stopped Conte. Inzaghi’s workers will also have to work hard to fill the quality hole left by Calha. Those from Pioli will have to convince themselves that Fiorentina is the quality team that spoiled Napoli’s dream and not the one that faded afterwards. First of May. “Who does not work, does not win the Scudetto”, sings Adriano Celentano, from Milan.