Inter Embrace Chaos as Chivu Backs Martinez Ahead of Roma Clash
Inter are turning Serie A title defences into theatre. For the second straight home league game, the champions went 2-0 down, for the second straight time they clawed their way back, and once again Cristian Chivu walked off the pitch talking more about identity than control.
The latest comeback, against Udinese, echoed the wild turnaround against Napoli. Same script, same jeopardy, same refusal to panic.
“These are our qualities and what we know how to do,” Chivu told Sky Sport Italia, leaning into the madness rather than recoiling from it. “We can score a lot of goals and keep a high level, so apart from the first 25 minutes where we did try to do certain things without the right energy, and Udinese did well to make the most of our attitude, we did well to react. We stayed in the game, didn’t want to lose, and I am pleased with that.”
Inter are not pretending to be something they’re not. They are a side that can blow you away and leave the back door open at the same time.
Goals everywhere, gaps everywhere
Four games. Fourteen goals scored. Eight conceded. Inter’s numbers scream entertainment and expose the tightrope Chivu has chosen to walk.
The Nerazzurri have the most prolific attack in Italy right now, but their defensive record belongs to a team that lives on the edge. Chivu doesn’t dress it up. He calls it what it is: a consequence of the football he wants to play.
“There is no perfect team, never seen in my career,” he said. “We will try to maintain our identity, for the human values and the principles of this group, obviously in some matches you pay more or less and we are aware of the fact that we could run into difficulties in the future too.”
The pressure finally told against Udinese once Inter shook off that lethargic opening spell. They pushed higher, flooded the final third, and accepted the risk that every lost ball might become a counter-attack racing towards their own box. Chivu is not blind to that tension. He chooses it.
“If I don't say I'm worried, I'm not a coach,” he admitted. “But this is today's football, with the intensity we put in, we take some risks because we want to play this style of play, we bring a lot of men into possession and when we lose the ball we expose ourselves to risks.”
Then came the example he wanted to underline. “But the counter-pressing on Barella's goal was done well, we're not perfect, we don't even want to be and we have to keep working, because the season is long and there are things we need to work on.”
The message is clear: the chaos is not an accident. It’s a calculated gamble.
Martinez under fire, Chivu on the front foot
If the football is noisy, the debate around the goalkeepers is deafening. This time the storm has gathered around Josep “Pepo” Martinez, who has stepped into a spotlight once occupied by Yann Sommer.
The narrative is familiar: questions, doubts, a search for weakness in a team that has set the pace early. Chivu has had enough of it.
“Last year Sommer was the problem and you pointed it out immediately, now it's Pepo Martinez,” he snapped. “I will defend him to the death, just like [Ivan] Provedel or others. I kindly ask you not to always make headlines about our goalkeepers. We don't have problems with goalkeepers.”
The coach then laid out the internal hierarchy and his belief in meritocracy without blinking. “Last year you kept hammering on about Sommer and Pepo was wanted. Today it's Pepo because Ivan is wanted. Who is a great goalkeeper and will have his chance. But not out of pity, but because they deserve it. Everyone makes mistakes and so do I.”
No hint of a crisis, no door opened to speculation. Chivu drew a line in the sand around his No.1s and the way the club manages them.
Roma, Gasperini and a capital test
There is no time to catch breath. Inter now walk straight into a top-of-the-table clash that already feels like a statement game.
Next up is Gian Piero Gasperini’s Roma at the Stadio Olimpico, a meeting of two sides with perfect records after four rounds and all the tension of an early Scudetto marker. Inter’s football may be freewheeling, but their injury list is anything but.
Hakan Calhanoglu is a major doubt with an adductor strain. John Stones is also a concern after limping off around the hour mark. Chivu knows he may travel to the capital stripped of some of his most important pieces.
“Against Roma it is an important match before the break also because then I will be left with three players,” he said, half-joking, half-resigned to the international exodus. “But we will continue like this, because this is the status of this group and we will try to improve along the way.”
So Inter roll on: flawed, fearless, and impossible to ignore. The question now is simple. In a season that already feels like a sprint, can anyone live with a champion that seems to thrive most when the game is slipping away?
