Rodrigo Palacio has been by far Inter’s most prolific player with 10 strikes, but the goals have dried up in recent weeks for Walter Mazzarri’s side
Inter have plenty of attacking threats – Mauro Icardi scored more
goals against Juve in 2013 than any other player and no one has gone
past his man more times than Ricky Alvarez this season – but they have
struggled to make it count of late with just one goal in their last four
league games.
Rodrigo Palacio is the team’s top marksman (and the joint-fourth in
Serie A) with 10 league strikes so far, but he is still without a goal
in 2014.
Juve will by now be well aware of fellow Nerazzurri striker
Icardi’s talents: the young Argentine rifled a first-time shot past Gigi
Buffon at the San Siro when the teams last met in September and also
scored a double against the Bianconeri at Juventus Stadium whilst
playing for Sampdoria.
It’s defender Yuto Nagatomo, however, who is second to Palacio in the Nerazzurri goalscoring leaderboard with five.
Inter have been particularly dangerous in the air, with six headers
scored between league and Coppa Italia. They have also netted five from
corners, though curiously none of them were headers.
Another source of goals to highlight is an unusually large slice of
luck: three own goals have been scored in their favour, more than any
other team has been fortunate enough to benefit from. However, Inter are
also one of only two sides not to have been awarded a penalty.
In terms of formation, Walter Mazzarri lined his men up in a
3-4-2-1 with Palacio and Alvarez supporting Diego Milito in Sunday’s 0-0
draw at home to Catania, tweaked slightly from the setup deployed the
previous week in the 1-0 loss away at Genoa, when Alvarez operated in a
free role in support of a Milito-Palacio strike partnership.
