“All I’m interested in is seeing the team improve from one game to the next.” That was how Andrea Stramaccioni opened his press conference the day before Inter’s trip to Bologna.

“We won a difficult match on Thursday. We struggled in the first half but then we managed to pick ourselves up. We’re on the right track, we’re working and growing. The hunger I saw in training today is yet another sign that we want to keep winning.”

Stramaccioni was then asked when would be the right time to start looking at the league table. “We’ll have a look at where we are at the halfway point. Then we’ll be able to give a partial assessment of how we’re doing. It’s too early at the moment. I prefer to evaluate things when you reach the end of a cycle.”

The Nerazzurri coach expects to see no drop in his players’ motivation against Bologna. “I have a group of highly experienced, highly motivated players. The way we rotate the group between Europa League and Serie A games and the emphasis I place on things in training also help ensure we always send out extremely motivated players. Inter will be massively motivated again against Bologna tomorrow.

“The players are in good mental and physical shape at the moment, we saw that in the second half against Partizan. Bologna have had a full week of training and more rest than us, so can expect to have our work cut out tomorrow.” Andrea Stramaccioni assessed the size of the task for his side tomorrow speaking to Inter Channel after his press conference.

The coach also considered the importance of Rodrigo Palacio’s return to fitness: “It’s good to have him available again, just as it will be good when we have Sneijder and Coutinho back. Palacio is in fine fettle, you can see that. He’s settled in perfectly, he’s happy, relaxed. He’s doing exactly what our president bought him for – scoring goals.”

What about Bologna’s strengths? Stramaccioni explained: “Diamanti and Gilardino are Italy players, Pioli is a very adept coach and Bologna rarely play badly at home, especially in the big matches. It will be intense. But we’re Inter and we’ll go there to play our game.”

Source: inter.it