Roberto Mancini has given his press conference ahead of tomorrow’s match at Stadio San Paolo against Napoli (Kick off 20:45 CET).
Mancini is confident that Inter are continuing to make progress despite defeat to Fiorentina last week.
“Napoli will be a tough game. They may have lost to Torino last weekend but they’re having a great season. Regardless of the level of our opponents we must push on with what we’re trying to do here because this team is clearly on the up. It would do us the world of good if we were to beat a team higher than us in the standings.”
“The lads seem calm. We mustn’t forget we are Inter. We’re putting in tremendous effort so that we can reap the rewards in the short term but also with the future in mind. We have to challenge for the Scudetto next year.”
“Obviously you have the odd match where you don’t get the result you want but the team is making progress week by week. The only match I wasn’t happy with was at Empoli where we weren’t at the races.”
“We didn’t deserve to lose against Fiorentina but football games are decided by moments and if we’d managed to take our chances it would have ended differently. I felt sorry for the lads as they gave everything and created at least 5 good chances. We didn’t play badly. We have to take the positives even after a loss. We are becoming a team and we will soon start to win regularly soon.”
Mancini was asked about any possible rotation to the team ahead of Thursday’s Europa League last 16 encounter with Wolfsburg.
“Probably. I think a couple of players will be changed. Icardi? Yes, if he’s in good shape he will start. Palacio? We will assess him tomorrow morning. If he feels good he will play.”
Mancini was also asked for his opinion on Walter Mazzarri’s claims this week that if he had still been in charge, Inter would finish in 3rd place.
“Anything is possible and I can’t say anything. It is difficult however to know how it would have ended.”
Mancini was asked about Inter being close to signing Salah in the recent January transfer window.
“It’s true, Salah was a possibility. I even talked to him on the phone but we knew Chelsea wanted Cuadrado so we couldn’t offer them a player in exchange the way Fiorentina did.”
The last question was whether Podolski would be leaving at the end of the season and rumours of Inter interest in Barcelona man Pedro.
“Lukas has experience and wants to play but he still needs to settle in. Against Cagliari he had a good game and I hope we can reach important goals with him. As for Pedro, he is an important player but he’s at Barcelona. It would be difficult to get him.”
Source: fcinternews.it
