Inter Milan flies home from London with their held heads down after crashing to a 3-1 defeat against Tottenham Hotspurs in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Aside from the overall poor display from the Nerazzurri, there’s one player that is being heavily criticize after the surprising result and that person is Brazilian international, Douglas Maicon.
Maicon, who has been regarded as tone of he best right back in the world, was being made so ordinary most of the time by Spurs’ winger, Gareth Bale, not only on the Tuesday’s match but also at both teams’ previous meeting at San Siro. On those two meetings, the Brazilian who is known for his pace doesn’t seem to have anything under his legs as the young Welshman keeps on running pass him like the defender wasn’t even there.
If the 29-years-old right back was nowhere to be found on the first meeting where Bale scored a hattrick at San Siro, in the second meeting there were plenty of evidence o f how mediocre the 20-years-old made the Brazilian looked . Spurs’ second goal was pretty much the highlight of the two players duel as the Welshman provide a lovely assist to Peter Crouch after successfully eluded Maicon and Nwankwo Obiora before delivering the cross.
Meanwhile, for Spurs third goal, the conditions that emerged in the first meeting re-appear again as just when Maicon left his position to go forward, a fast counter attack by Bale simply puts the game out of Inter’s reach. The Welshman broke through on the counter attack and outpaced the Nerazzurri’s center back before delivering the perfect cross for Roman Pavluychenko, who slotted home an easy third goal for the home team.
This evident of poor performances puts the Brazilian goes under lots of attack especially from the fans who were totally disappointed with Maicon’s performance,convincing them that the right back has already lost the motivation to play for the Nerazzurri. That negative thought didn’t emerged suddenly in just a few games, but pretty much because previous statements from the defender and his agent who keep insisting that the Brazilian international is actually eying to move from San Siro.
Now the question that would be looming around Maicon is whether his current poor performances are only in temporary basis or not? as despite haven’t really put on a showing in the same level as last season, the fact the the season is still early could be a consideration. It would be interesting to see how would the Brazilian continue his season at least until January as with the heavy critics his having and also his intention to follow his former boss Jose Mourinho last summer, the next few games won’t be an easy ride for the attacking full back.
One thing for sure though, despite isn’t showing his usual form at least Maicon still earns the support and trust of his current coach, Rafael Benitez, who stood up for the Brazilian after the Spurs game saying that people are too critical. The tactician’s support could be seen as a very huge morale boost for the ex-As Monaco player in keeping his head straight and improve his performance in the next few games for the Nerazzurri.
“It’s true that Bale had a lot of space tonight and we couldn’t stop him, but people are too critical of Maicon. He had problems when defending tonight, but in attack he’s always great,” Benitez said.
photo credit: sing95
