Luciano Spalletti was interviewed by RAI following the win against Sampdoria at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza where he analyzed the match.

Giampaolo has stated that you are opportunistic

“Giampaolo and I love each other, he loves me and he knows how much I love him. We’re like brothers. We’re friends and more so is a huge reason why we obtained Skriniar, they put their hands in the fire, they pushed to sell him to us and not so much the others. Good job Ausilio on obtaining him.”

The best Inter we’ve seen in years, but a very complicated final part to the match?

“Yes, today we took strides. We were very short in our play and we pressed highly, we did this so we can break up their transition of play.  They gave us a very hard time.  They’re behind us in standings but they create difficulty for any opponent. They’re one tough team, everyone knows this. We have to give them one huge compliment.”

From Trapattoni to you, not many coaches have situated themselves so quickly as you have for Inter. What does this challenge give you?

“It’s perfect for football, to grow in this job. The club have listened to me, they’re tremendous professionals. They want me to advise them on what can be done and what not but they do simply everything perfectly, no reason for me to indicate what is needed, they create such a perfect environment for the players.”

What more could you want from Mauro Icardi?

“Icardi is perfect the way he is. He’s created a role for how we want him to be. He conducts himself in such a manner where he’s very professional. Few times today he dropped down in order to help the team. He controls the ball and holds it when the players need time to push up. He’s such an exceptional player, you all see it. He could have even scored more times tonight, his presence on that pitch is huge for us. He never loses his vision nor puts us in a dangerous spot, he creates many chances not just for himself but for his teammates as well.”

Being without European competition isn’t a positive thing but does it give you an advantage?

“Playing less is always a small advantage because you don’t need to recover players from playing in short time periods but we have a roster adapted to this which also makes them feel all part of a project together.  We created a team with a smaller roster size that creates less turnover withstanding the less matches played.  For today I needed to remove Vecino for precautionary measure.  So even without these competitions you still are put in these sort of positions.