After a worrying start to the season, Piotr Zieliński has finally started playing regularly for Inter, where he moved from SSC Napoli in the summer. Our national team player has now played three games in a row in the Milanese club's shirt: 35 minutes after coming on as a substitute against Monza, the first team and a 66th-minute change in the Champions League clash against Manchester City, and the last match in the derby.
Italians mentioned Zieliński after Milan derby. “Nothing more”
The 30-year-old played 17 minutes plus the referee's added time on Sunday, and when he replaced Nicolo Barella in the 74th minute, the score was 1-1. In the end, just before the end of regular time, the winner for Milan was scored by Matteo Gabbia, who made a great header after a free kick.
Zieliński only took part in a few actions of his team. After coming off the bench, he was unable to change their style of play, without making glaring mistakes. It was a rather colourless dozen or so minutes for the Pole, as some Italian media highlighted. “He was unable to keep calm and pass it on to the team,” said journalists from the local Eurosport, where the player received a score of 5.5 on a ten-point scale.
Sky Sports and goal.com gave Zieliński a similar rating, giving him the same score. Sportmediaset.mediaset.it journalists were a bit more understanding, emphasizing that in such a short time, the 30-year-old did not have time to show what he was capable of. “He had too little time to express himself,” we read.
Another slap in the face of our player was thrown by calciomercato.com. “Free dribbling. And nothing more” – it was written. Other portals did not even attempt to evaluate Piotr Zieliński's short performance. They only noted it in the post-match report. They wrote mainly about the aforementioned Gabbia, who became the hero of Sunday's Milan derby.
Piotr Zieliński has three games for Inter this season, which translates into 116 games spent on the pitch. We'll have to wait for any numbers from him.