Ahead of their Club World Cup debut last week, Cristian Chivu urged Inter Milan to showcase the best possible version of themselves at the tournament.

That standard remains some way off for the Nerazzurri, who needed a 92nd-minute winner to overcome Urawa Red Diamonds after being held to a draw by Monterrey in their opening fixture.

Against the J-League side, Lautaro Martinez equalised just as he had done four days earlier, before Valentin Carboni stabbed home the winner in injury-time.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was efficient, which is as much as Chivu can ask of his players so far.

In both of their Club World Cup fixtures, Inter have looked leggy. If the stifling heat of Pasadena’s Rose Bowl exacerbated the issue against Monterrey, Seattle’s milder climate did little to improve it.

Watching Inter is like watching a stream that is constantly buffering. What should be fluid, natural movements have become jarred and slow.

Nothing ever seems to happen at the right time, everything is always delayed by a couple of seconds. It’s football via hotspot. 

There is a wider conversation to have over the wisdom of crowbarring in a month-long tournament played in extreme heat at the end of an already gruelling season, but the reality is Inter have been dead on their feet since April.

Saturday’s game was the 61st of Inter’s campaign, one which has been exhausting from a mental and physical standpoint.

It is still less than a month since they were on the receiving end of that historic thrashing in the Champions League final by Paris Saint-Germain.

Seven of the players who started the 5-0 shellacking in Munich were named in the starting XI against Monterrey, before Chivu rang the changes against Urawa Red Diamonds.

Alessandro Bastoni, Francesco Acerbi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were dropped, as Chivu deployed a brand new back three of Matteo Darmian, Stefan De Vrij and Carlos Augusto.

With Marcus Thuram still sidelined, Sebastiano Esposito kept his place up-front alongside Lautaro. Esposito’s younger brother Francesco Pio came off the bench.

Nicola Zalewski came into midfield, where Chivu is still without the injured Davide Frattesi and Hakan Calhanoglu.

Appointed 48 hours before Inter kicked off their Club World Cup campaign, the Romanian has overseen an evolution more than a revolution so far.

The 3-5-2 formation that was the bedrock of Simone Inzaghi’s four seasons at the San Siro, remains in situ for now.

Against Urawa, Inter controlled the possession battle 82% to 18% and completed 815 passes to 187, taking 26 shots to five.

But it was a sterile domination, which generated just three big chances. More worryingly, until Martinez’s equaliser 12 minutes from time, the Nerazzurri trailed in the only metric that mattered.

Chivu, however, warned against reading too much into the performance.

“It’s difficult to discuss formations and systems against a team that was essentially defending deep in their own box,” he said.

A Treble winner under Jose Mourinho in 2010, Chivu spent six seasons at the San Siro as a player before managing their youth teams from Under-14 all the way up through the age groups.

He left Inter in February to replace Fabio Pecchia at Parma and won 16 points in 13 games to keep them in Serie A.

Chivu’s proven track record with young players – Parma had the youngest squad in Serie A by average age last season – convinced Inter he was a gamble worth taking, despite his near-total lack of experience at senior level.

In that respect, there are promising signs the decision may pay off. Match-winner Carboni is 20. The Esposito brothers are 22 and 19 respectively, while new signings Luis Henrique and Petar Sucic are 23 and 21.

The feeling this season was that the Nerazzurri were reaching the end of their cycle and Inzaghi’s departure only accelerated the process. Under Chivu, the seeds of a new generation are slowly being sown.

“We need to make things difficult for them and see how they react,” was the Romanian’s blunt verdict when asked about his crop of youngsters. 

So far, the reaction has been encouraging. 

After a season that promised everything and ultimately delivered nothing, Inter need fresh legs and fresh minds.

And therein lies the strange paradox of this Club World Cup. 

Were the Nerazzurri to qualify from Group E, and they only need a point against River Plate on Thursday to clinch a spot in the round of 16, they will extend this already exhausting season even more.

Inter are in desperate need of a break, but if they are to at least partially banish the demons of Munich, they may have to wait a while longer.