After chasing Manchester City’s Yaya Toure for much of the summer, it appears as though Inter and Roberto Mancini are still looking for a suitable replacement in the Nerazzurri midfield.

While Geoffrey Kondogbia was signed in hopes of making up for the Ivorian’s non-arrival, the former Monaco man has so far failed to live up to the billing.

As such, Mancini turned to Marcelo Brozovic to fill the all-action position the Italian desires from one of his midfielders in his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation.

The Croatian started, but failed to impress when positioned in behind Mauro Icardi, as his skills don’t translate well to the advanced role as it requires quick cuts and turns.

Hence, when the Nerazzurri switched to a 4-3-1-2 with Marcelo pushed back to midfield and Ivan Perisic positioned in behind Adem Ljajic and Icardi, he showed what kind of an impact he can have on proceedings.

Given that Bologna were quite content to sit and remain compact in a 30 metre space, Inter also turned to more long balls over the top, with Miranda completing seven and Andrea Ranocchia adding two.

Felipe Melo’s sending off changed all that, bringing about an improvement in Brozovic’s performance. Reduced to ten-men, the Croatian was put in a more central position, allowing him to dictate play and move more freely between defence and attack.

It was from one of his passes, after Perisic had won the ball back, that the Nerazzurri finally broke down Bologna for Icardi’s winning goal.

That pass, one of the 64 he completed, stands out, but its the fact that out of the 13 he misplaced, only four of them came in the final 20 minutes, a crucial time for the away side as they looked to control proceedings.

Thus, it was Brozovic’s quality from a deep position that made more of an impact for Inter than the pairing of Melo and Geoffrey Kondogbia.

The duo don’t seem to have the quality needed to establish a fluent style of play, but it’s the many fouls they committed that also hurt the Biscione’s cause.

Kondogbia was called for six fouls, while the Brazilian was called for two infractions that led to his sending off.

At least the Frenchman won the ball back 10 times, along with winning three challenges. It’s those numbers which show that perhaps a pairing with Brozovic would be the most sensible starting duo for the Nerazzurri’s midfield moving forward.