Christian Chivu has opened up on the playing his Inter team’s playing style and backed the squad to recover from their Champions League final defeat.

WHAT HAPPENED?
The new Nerazzurri boss spoke about adopting a vertical yet balanced playing style, while expressing confidence in his squad’s ability to bounce back from last season’s crushing 5-0 Champions League final loss to Paris Saint-Germain and a disappointing Club World Cup exit. He also spoke about being in consultation with the club regarding decisions about the transfer market.

THE BIGGER PICTURE
Inter had been in contention to win a treble of trophies last season, losing out on the Serie A title to Napoli on the final day and then being demolished by PSG in the European decider. That disappointing end to the campaign sparked a period of transition for Inter. Former head coach Simone Inzaghi departed to take charge of Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal, while there has been plenty of transfer talk, with Hakan Calhanoglu being publicly criticised by Lautaro Martinez in the wake of their Club World Cup exit – an early dressing room issue for the new boss to deal with. Nevertheless, Chivu, who won the treble with Inter as a player in 2010, is confident he can keep the team playing at a high level.

WHAT CHIVU SAID
Chivu discussed his tactical approach, stating: “Our intention is to be vertical and maintain balance… I never said I’d play with three strikers. I only talked about midfield. Numbers are just numbers. The foundation has always been 3-5-2, but in many matches the build-up was four-man, that’s the reality. Sometimes the 3-5-2 can become a 4-2-4 or 4-4-2. We need to be aggressive and know how to disrupt. And know how to beat a man. These are important things. We need to win duels; whoever wins duels wins matches. We’ll be training multiple formations this time around, and we’ll try to be ready for change.”

Addressing the mentality of his players, he added: “They have shown that they can overcome even the atrocities; only in this way can we move forward. We want to return to being competitive as we have been in recent years. As a coach and former player, I think the players make the difference… We have the obligation to keep this club at the top regardless of the titles won at the end of the season. We will do our best and give our all.”

WHAT NEXT FOR CHIVU?
Chivu will hope to get off to a good start next season as standards have been set high by his predecessors. With the core squad retained and no major departures, he has a stable platform on which to build and implement his vision.

Goal.com

Too many defenders – but who could leave?

Barcelona have reportedly re-opened the debate about which center-back to sell ahead of the start of the new 2025-26 season.

Deco admitted back in June that “one of them has to go” as five is too many, but so far there’s been absolutely no movement.

According to La Vanguardia, the club are now discussing potential exits again and it looks to be between Ronald Araujo or Andreas Christensen.

Barcelona have already decided to renew Jules Kounde and want to offer Eric Garcia a new deal, while Inigo Martinez and Pau Cubarsi have already signed new contracts.

The sheer finality of Didier Drogba’s penalty kick after extra time of the 2012 Champions League Final is … a lot. To really appreciate that final, climactic moment and the astounding pressure involved, we’ve got to learn about several overlapping histories.

All of which brings us back to Christensen vs Araujo when it comes to offloading one before the start of the new campaign.

Christensen has received no offers yet, and remains determined to see out his final year, meaning Barca are once again thinking about saying goodbye to Araujo.

Barca feel that Christensen will stay put no matter what his role is next season, while it’s a different story entirely with Araujo.

The report claims “sources from both the club and the player’s entourage” aren’t ruling out Araujo asking to leave if he feels like he’s no longer a guaranteed starter at Barca.

Barcablaugranes.com

Napoli are not tearing their hair out over their failure to close a deal with Bologna for Dan Ndoye, who has agreed a deal to become a new Nottingham Forest player on Monday, as they still have alternative options in England, Germany and in Serie A.

Ndoye is set to join Nottingham Forest in a deal worth up to €49m according to various reports on Tuesday.

The Partenopei had also been interested in signing the Switzerland international from Bologna, but had previously made it clear that their offers would not exceed the €40m mark with bonuses included, despite the fact that they had been offered the chance to sign Ndoye for €45m.

Now, Napoli are left evaluating their situation, but there is currently no rush to spring into action after missing out on Ndoye.

Where Napoli stand after missing out on Ndoye
As things stand, there has been no evidence of an increased offer of €35m plus bonuses for RB Leipzig’s Antonio Nusa, despite some of the rumours seen online.

As Football Italia reported last week, there has been direct contact with Chelsea for former England international Raheem Sterling.

There is also one option in Serie A that Napoli particularly like, which is Lazio’s Mattia Zaccagni. With Lazio’s transfer window in a bit of a deadlock, though, it is not expected to be an easy deal to make for the Partenopei.

Football-italia.net