From Marotta’s arrival onwards the Nerazzurri started to buy more Italians: now Inzaghi can count on 5 home starters also in Coverciano and with the arrival of Frattesi the made in Italy continues. Allegri won in Florence thanks to a goal from Miretti and 7 Italians on the pitch
The Italian nature of a team that is International right from its name is a plant that has been watered in recent years: a drop of water a little at a time, an addition every transfer session, and now the shoots are all visible. However, there is no such thing as a winning Juve without Italians united like a block of granite: history says so, the present remembers it. It won’t be a coincidence that Allegri’s team is back up there now that Miretti and Kean are appearing in the 11. In short, this great classic that they are bringing back to the cinema, Inter against Juventus face to face to win the scudetto, is more than ever the “Italian derby”: it was a stale definition, now it risks coming back into fashion.
NERAZZURRI THE ITALIAN STYLE
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At Inter, massive Italianization is a recent phenomenon. Since there was a desk for Beppe Marotta in Viale della Liberazione in 2018, the Nerazzurri have started to change the club’s xenophile DNA. Made in Italy has served to give a precise and lasting identity: this is how today’s team and tomorrow’s team are built. And it is precisely in the ultra-nationalist challenge with the Lady that it is decisive to have a group of Azzurri in the trenches: the five Italian starters – at poker Bastoni – Acerbi-Barella-Dimarco, the evergreen Darmian is rejoined after Pavard’s kneecap cracks – they closely helped Inzaghi to reverse the negative spiral last year. In the same way, they want to avoid the old declines now that the peak has been reached. Of this large group, Nicolò Barella and Alessandro Bastoni are now the oldest, despite the former being 26 and the latter just 24: they arrived together with Antonio Conte in 2019-20, the preparatory season for the title. The following year, Matteo Darmian was also added to toast the Scudetto and the whole of Inter realized how useful a certain Italian practicality is: since then the former United player has plugged every hole that opened up in the squad, be it the right wing or defensive arm, a role that will fall to him for another two months. Since Inzaghi sat on the bench, the Italianist movement has expanded: in Inzaghi’s first season, 2021-22, Inter has once again embraced the prodigal son Federico Dimarco who, from an eternal promise, has become one of the best left-handed side players around . In the ride to Istanbul last year there was another unexpected Italian excellence: Francesco Acerbi, wanted above all else by his mentor Inzaghi, even muzzled Haaland in Istanbul, and deserved the definitive redemption of ‘summer. In the last session the club continued to sow for the future given that a few meters away Davide Frattesi is now pawing the way, likely to start tomorrow in the Champions League. If you add the former Sassuolo midfielder to Barella, here are the two turbines of Spalletti’s national team. Due to the turnover and the initial presence of Pavard, there were only three Inter Azzurri players in Bergamo, but this should be considered a case, a rarity. On the 26th, against a lady who is once again native, there will be (at least) 5 again.
ITALIAN BIANCONERI
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At Juventus, however, the cover face is now that of Fabio Miretti, a young Italian and Juventus player who proudly grew up in the Juventus youth sector, with whom he scored in all categories. The first goal with the shirt of the greats arrived in Florence, look at the same match in which Claudio Marchisio broke free, almost 15 years ago. The thread that unites Miretti and the Prince does not only lie in the role and sense of belonging to the Lady, but also in that splash of intense blue which was decisive in the glorious cycle of 9 championships in a row and which is becoming predominant again in the new course White black. In Florence Juventus used 7 Italians, the 6 who had played from the start (Gatti, Rugani, Locatelli, Miretti, Chiesa and Kean) plus the substitute Cambiaso. It is curious how in the year in which Massimiliano Allegri chose a foreign captain, Danilo (which hadn’t happened for a few years) the Italian nucleus was strengthened, with the additions of Cambiaso and Nicolussi Caviglia (who has not yet played not even a minute). So Juventus is regaining its identity and even the defence, which with the end of the BBC had veered towards Brazilian green and gold, has returned to being two-thirds Italian. It is no coincidence that in the last round of call-ups by coach Luciano Spalletti there were 4 of the 7 who played against Fiorentina: all except Rugani, Cambiaso and Miretti, with the latter however involved in the Under 21 team. «Spalletti’s visit has We were very pleased, we are available to put the players that the coach calls up in the best conditions. Juve tries to give as many players as possible to the national team, which is the heritage of Italian football”, Allegri said after hosting the former Napoli coach at Continassa. Thanks to Juventus and Max he found the blue Kean again, who started for Fiorentina together with the other blue, Chiesa. And Locatelli is back in midfield, having been sidelined in the last period with the left. In total, Juventus has 12 Italians in its squad and would like to bring others to Turin in the next transfer sessions (Berardi is first on the list). Never like this year will Inter-Juve be the Italian derby.
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