Ahead of tomorrow’s Europa League fixture against St. Etienne at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Walter Mazzarri met with the press to give his thoughts on the upcoming fixture.
“We have a lot of respect for St. Etienne, it’s a team of high quality, especially from an athletic point of view. They are very strong physically, but we are aware of their strengths. They’re a complete group from every single point of view who move forward very quickly, they have great individual talent. We know that we will be playing in a stadium that has a very heated atmosphere. Guarin has warned us, they have very special fans who go to the stadium with a lot of enthusiasm to help their players and team. We are prepared and we want to play our best. All teams give 120% against us and I expect my team to do the same tomorrow night.”
“Would I be satisfied with a draw? The mentality that I have always drilled home is that we are Inter and we always have to try and win. We won’t speculate about a draw, we go on that pitch tomorrow to win 3 points. I have selected Osvaldo, Nagatomo and Guarin who were previously not available: we’ll test Guarin today to see if he can start whilst the other 2 will start on the bench. I chose them because we’re in a state of total emergency as we don’t have Hernanes, Campagnaro and Khrin available. I repeat, we’re in an emergency but we have to only think about giving a great performance tomorrow.”
Then Mazzarri was asked to comment on the heavy criticism directed against him personally for the teams poor performances: “My method of coaching my players is the same as it’s always been, that is to say that with my players I act like the father of a family, meaning I use both a stick and a carrot. Sometimes I get angry, sometimes I give compliments. I always behave in the same way and the criticism doesn’t affect me. I concentrate on what needs to be done and to do it in the best way possible, the rest doesn’t interest me.”
“Will I be rotating the squad tomorrow? I’ll decide the starting line-up tomorrow also because one thing happens after the other. Right now we’re testing Guarin and we’ll see if he can play or not. I don’t know who will play. Kovacic played as a trequartista already against Sampdoria when he didn’t have the ball in order to put pressure on them. He has to find space to go get the ball towards the goal and to receive the ball in dangerous positions, as he’s done in matches when he’s made the difference. He’s doing even better than he’s done in the past as well as continuing to grow.”
Finally Mazzarri was asked to comment on the fact that the French media that he’s under a serious threat of losing his job to which he replied: “I have never raised this issue. I always train the players and give my all, they know what they want and they try to do it. They will also do it tomorrow.”
“Would I be satisfied with a draw? The mentality that I have always
drilled home is that we are Inter and we always have to try and win.”
You mean, like every other club in the world? What coach is sitting around thinking “Hmm, I wonder if I’d rather have 3 points today or 1, decisions, decisions…”
Mazzarri has completely lost it. He has no more ideas, he’s lost the dressing room, he’s even lost the faith of Thohir. It’s time to bring in Mancini while the season is still salvageable.
By the way, “try and win” is loser talk. “We are Inter and we always win,” even if it may not be true gives the team that much more of a subconscious boost of confidence.
“We are Inter and we always win,”??? not if you play last place in the serie a standings……….
I dont think any coach goes into a match hoping for a draw or a loss. Any coach will have some idea about winning the game even if it is sitting ten men behind the ball and looking for counter attacks. Mazzarri however, doesnt send his team out to dominate matches, he is more concerned about shutting down the opposition, particularly away. I cant see him sending his team out for this match with any other thought than to defend in numbers and try to hold possession. We will play slow and look to restrict their counter attacking opportunities. Hopefully there is an early goal so the game doesnt fizzle out like last time.
oh ya, i saw that winning spirit against parma it was excellent !!!!! if you show that kind of winning spirit today you will get your rear end whooped !! Just don’t forget that this is a much better team than parma who whooped you 2-0 so you will need to play only your best players and have them push hard just to get the tie !!!!!