“Today was like against Cagliari last year? These are the matches that are born like this, with an error after 4 minutes. The third goal was beautiful and with the red the match was finished. We didn’t even have time to react”. This is what Mancini said to Sky after Inter-Fiorentina. “A legacy of the uncertainties of last year? For us this changes nothing, it was unfortunate. We accept that this has happened, we’ll give our compliments to the opposition and move forward. Everyone can read it how they like, but we already had our feet on the ground before the match, there was no need for us to lose.”

Why the three man defence with Santon?

“It went well for us on Sunday. In the first 20 minutes we were put in a difficult situation and then hoped to push Perisic on the right against Alonso. The match, unfortunately, took a different route and when you go 2-0 behind everything becomes more difficult. I made this choice, I thought it might be the right one. I thought of repeating  Sunday’s game against Chievo.”

Perisic on the right of a five, why?

“Perisic was in his role; he plays on the left, be he also knows how to play on the left. He has to adapt and he has room to improve massively like Kondogbia. We have great confidence, it’s just a matter of time.”

A review of Handanovic?

“Today he made an error, but what can we do? It happens.”

Did the plan change after the injury of Jovetic in the warm up?

“No, it remained the same.”