The Swiss is the third Serie A goalkeeper in the three-points-for-a-win era to record six clean sheets in his first nine appearances: so Onana has already become a memory
Early August, Inter has been in a tug-of-war with Bayern Munich for days to bring Yann Sommer to Milan, who has been the club’s starting goalkeeper since January following Manuel Neuer’s injury: in 2022- 2023 he was first a teammate of Marcus Thuram and then of Benjamin Pavard, he will meet them both again at the Nerazzurri. These are days in which Simone Inzaghi pushes to have the 34-year-old in the group as soon as possible, because he knows that time is needed to get to know his teammates and to introduce the team to a different way – compared to André Onana – of interpreting the most delicate role of the team. rose. Being between the posts doesn’t just mean blocking. Last days of October: Sommer scored six clean sheets in his first nine appearances in Serie A, as only Cristiano Lupatelli (in 2000) and Alisson (2017-2018) had managed to do before – both with Roma – in the history of Italian championship of three points for victory.
house specialty
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Perhaps someone might be surprised by this record, because Sommer’s first two months at Inter were not dotted with dozens of sensational saves. However, the data don’t lie and in the championship he only collected the ball from the net against Milan, Sassuolo and Bologna, always at home: the truth is that the Swiss is a solid, attentive and expert goalkeeper and what’s more he benefits to the maximum from a team that collectively they are proving to be continuous and attentive even when they don’t have possession of the ball, unlike last season. There were few inattentions per match, which had an almost direct correspondence with Sommer’s decisive interventions. After all, being ready and reactive when you get very few shots in an hour and a half of match is not that easy, even if Yann gives the impression that it is.
The episodes
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The only blemish so far has been uncertainty on Nedim Bajrami’s shot in Inter-Sassuolo, in the goal that started the black-green turnaround, but otherwise the plot of Sommer’s championship matches has always been similar. The former Bayern Munich player alternated matches as a non-paying spectator with others in which he slammed the door in the face of one or two sudden threats. Like today, both on Demba Seck’s left-footed turn and on Pietro Pellegri’s header: double deflection into a corner. The same had already happened against Empoli, for example, on a dangerous free kick by Filippo Ranocchia, but also in Cagliari on the second day on a close range touch by Paulo Azzi and in the added time of Inter-Bologna with the serious risk of losing after being were up by two goals. Added to these are the performances in the Champions League, which will not be included in the statistics in the aforementioned record but which have “scored” points in a contracted group: at Real Sociedad he safeguarded the chances of a draw thanks to Brais Mendez’s free kick and with an intervention reflexively on Mikel Oyarzabal, while against Benfica he stood out on the only defensive sleep resulting in an attempt by Fredrik Aursnes. Only two months and that rush in August has become the calm with which Sommer saves and with which the fans now think about the legacy left by André Onana. If they still think about it…
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