5 things we learned from Inter 0-1 Milan

Milan struck first blood in the 2015-16 Derby della Madonnina, thanks to a screamer from Philippe Mexes at the Shenzhen City Stadium.

It was a good run-out for the team, with the game played at a fast tempo throughout, but just what can we take from the game?

1. Philippe Mexes – still a game changer?

It is obvious to start with the one moment of decisive quality in the game, which came courtesy of a thumping volley from Philippe Mexes on the edge of the Inter area.

With perfect technique, the Frenchman allowed the ball to come across his body from the corner kick, before hooking it back over and into the top left corner of Juan-Pablo Carrizo’s goal.

There were eyebrows raised when Mexes signed an extension to keep him with the Rossoneri while Adil Rami simultaneously exited, however there is no denying that Philippe can be a useful impact player who will ever so occasionally produce a moment of sheer brilliance.

On the defensive end of his performance, not much can be determined, although ignoring the fact that collectively Milan secured a clean sheet would be wrong to do.

Allow Philippe to enjoy this moment. It may only be preseason, yet it is still a winning derby goal, something which doesn’t happen every day, making it all the sweeter.

2. Bad blood still fresh

It is fair to say that towards the end of the game tempers flared and the referee certainly had to stay on top of the game before it boiled over.

Obviously, this culminated in Nocerino receiving a red card for a poor challenge towards the end of the game, and several poor challenges followed after that.

Notably, Inter set out for revenge following the red card incident, with Marcelo Brozovic tearing into Carlos Bacca before Fredy Guarin scythed down Luiz Adriano.

It is a derby game, regardless of the fact it is preseason, and the passion of the fans their in Shenzhen must have really helped in replicating the derby experience. That may or may not be part of the reason the game turned so nasty, but still, it wouldn’t be the Madonnina without a couple of scraps, would it?

3. Still plenty of dead wood to clear

The first half performance in terms of quality was quite simply awful. Although the game was played at a fair speed and there was attempts to force the game, there was no finishing touch from either side that resulted in a dead-lock at half time.

In large part, this was down to some terrible finishing by Milan. M’Baye Niang should have scored early on when through on goal, and Matri should have laid it on a plate for Niang when there was a 2-on-1 break towards the end of the first half; the result was quite laughable.

Alessandro Matri is good at very little when he puts on the Milan jersey. As a hold-up forward he may serve a purpose for some teams, although his distribution and decision making today was poor.

The aforementioned Niang still looks very raw, despite being lively, energetic and dynamic throughout the first half, lacking the decisive end product that would have given his confidence a real boost.

The less said about Antonio Nocerino the better as he once again struggled to keep up to the pace of the game. He has had several chances now and Mihajlovic must be close to making a decision on his future one would feel.

Alex, who looks set to depart, didn’t have an awful game but didn’t stand out either. As long as the number of CBs is acceptable, I would have no problem seeing him depart.

Questions must be asked of Mattia De Sciglio also, who struggled to keep up with the pace today, and maybe he could be heading for the exit door if he doesn’t string some decent performances together soon.

Players like Zaccardo, Montolivo and maybe even Zapata who won’t play a vital role this season must be examined, and part of the purpose of preseason is to achieve this. Still plenty of work to do if you ask me.

4. Defensive cloud for Sinisa

The stories about Alessio Romagnoli continue, but in the mean time there was a solid performance put in by Rodrigo Ely to give Mihajlovic a potential headache, if he does get his man from Roma, as to who his partner is.

Gabriel Paletta, Rodrigo Ely and Philippe Mexes are the most likely candidates at this stage, and each defender has a different skill set which could be of use to the team.

Against a relatively weak Inter line-up aside from the last half-hour, Milan looked solid, fielding several defensive options throughout the 90 minutes in order to get a better picture of where everything stands.

Davide Calabria, at just 18 years old, turned in yet another good performance from the right-back position. If this continues, Ignazio Abate must be very worried about his starting spot.

5. It is only preseason

Sorry to have to bring down the positivity with the last point, but it is crucial that Milanisti do not get too excited about what we saw today.

Of course, it is lovely to put one over on fierce rivals, but the lethargic way that the team went about disposing of such a youthful Inter line-up was discouraging if anything.

I am well aware the pace of the game may not be the same, and for all that Inter had kids out we didn’t have our best out either, yet it is tough to ignore the lack of quality (as mentioned earlier) that was present for large parts of the game.

Nevertheless, Carlos Bacca looked fantastic when brought on, Luiz Adriano also coming into the game well. Bertolacci had the right mentality, with the execution almost certain to follow, and there are lots of other reasons to be optimistic.

Anyway, there is still plenty of preseason to go, and under Mihajlovic I trust that the team will be well up to scratch come opening weekend.

So, those are the five points that were most prevalent in my mind after watching that game, it would be interesting to hear the thoughts of other viewers.

Article by Oliver Fisher