Cristian Chivu said it is difficult for Lautaro and Thuram to play Inter’s first league match against Monza on 22 August, a warning that could leave Milan Inter without its usual front line at the start of the season. If that call holds, the opener will be shaped by replacement choices rather than by the team’s preferred attack.
The question is being asked now because Chivu is preparing for a Serie A debut that may arrive without the pair that has carried so much of Inter’s recent edge. He is expected to keep the team in a 3-5-2 system, which means the decision is not only about who starts up front but also about whether the structure stays intact if the names do not.
That is why Pio Esposito and Bonny have entered the conversation, with Mosconi and Lavelli also among the young attackers hoping for minutes in Serie A. Chivu does not need to abandon his shape to make room for them. He only needs to decide whether to start with two forwards or lean on one and keep the rest of the attacking burden on the midfield line.
The numbers behind the choice cut both ways. Lautaro and Thuram were both missing from the starting lineup only 10 times across three seasons in Milan, and in most of those stretches Inter could still find a way through. In the next season, the team won seven times without the Lautaro-Thuram starting pair, across three league matches, two European matches and two Coppa Italia matches.
But the cleaner record is not the whole story. When both forwards did not start in the return derby in the league, Inter did not win and did not score. The same happened in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinal in Como. Chivu can point to the seven wins, but he also has to account for the matches in which the attack stalled completely.
There is also a longer pattern that keeps ThuLa at the center of the discussion. In the 2023/24 season, Lautaro or Thuram were starters in every match except one Champions League group-stage game in Lisbon against Benfica, which ended 3-3 and featured goals from Arnautovic and Alexis Sanchez. Against Young Boys in Bern, Thuram later settled the match after coming off the bench, a reminder that Inter can survive without both starting, but not always by design.
So the immediate issue is not whether Inter can function without them at all. It is whether Chivu wants to begin the league season by asking that question in public. If Lautaro and Thuram are not ready for Monza, the opener will test how much of Inter’s attack still belongs to the pair and how much now depends on the next wave behind them.
