Mancini Salme

Ahead of tomorrow nights Serie A fixture at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza against Torino, Roberto Mancini held a press conference at Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti in Appiano Gentile answering a wide variety of questions.

Do you see that the team has matured?

“Surely having won matches has helped us, it would have been better not to have a break but now we have to continue like we have in the past few weeks. The optimist derives from the fact that we have 8 matches left to play, Roma are in an advantage but these are difficult matches. We’re behind them but have no choice and we have to win a lot.”

Is it frustrating to know that you have to win to win all the remaining matches if Roma don’t drop points? Will there be more pressure if Roma wins the derby?

“We’re behind them and we have to hope, we have to win most of our last 8 matches and if we do that we have a great chance of reachign them.”

Is Eder in risk of losing his spot in the national team?

“I don’t know, Conte will have to say. He knows how to play football, he has the movement, he works a lot. He was unlucky that he arrived during a difficult period, he has had chances to score but it’s not a problem, he has always scored and will continue to do so. You can’t question him as a player.”

Today we’re having an early press conference because you have to talk to Thohir?

“No, just wanted to do this first [laughs].

It’s not true that Inter have to sell important players?

“I don’t know if we need to sell players but we’re Inter and we need to always keep improving the team. We’ll see wjat we can do.”

You went from a string of positive results to a string of negative ones, then again positive what does this depend on?

“Unfortunately we had matches where we didn’t deserve to lose or draw but it happened. Now we have to hope to recover that which we threw away in a month and a half.”

What changed so you could change this negative period around?

“All the squads have delicate moments, we had problems closing matches off in the beginning. It was normal that we did well again after a while, in 4 months the team has demonstrated that it’s a good team.”

What will be the difficulties you will face against Torino?

“It’s not an easy match, it’s a team that can put many teams in difficulty despite going through a difficult time like know. However, they have good players and a good coach.”

Do you expect more concentration in defense?

“The defense does what it can, in Rome they did well then we retreated to much. If we had managed to do what we did in the beginning to become unpenetratable it would have been perfect. I hope that we can return to being that solid.”

Do you think your remaining matches are more favorable than Roma’s remaining fixtures?

“I think that 4-5 opponents are the same, I don’t think that this matters all that much in the end as we don’t have many choices as we have to win almost all of them.”

What will you ask of Thohir for next season?

“Nothing, I think that our focus and concentration has to be solely on these last few matches in order to achieve the initial objective. Then we will see what we can do, what the objectives are and the possibilities to improve the squad.”

Do you think that Torino coach Ventura could be a good national team manager?

“He has enough experience to do so, he’s a good person.”

Zenga said that he played Eder in front of goal because he scored a lot. Do you think that his attitude to sacrifice himself for the team we’re mistaken in expecting many goals from him?

“I don’t think that Eder is a player who will score 25 goals as a central striker, he has other qualities and works a lot. Sometimes he finds himself in front of goal being a bit hazy but he can guarantee 12-15 goals as a second striker. He was unlucky to arrive during a difficult period but it’s not easy to play at Inter, you need time to adapt. We have nothing to reproach him with so far, 3-4 goals would be perfect but our judgement of him wont change.”

What was the best comeback in your career? What words do you use with those who are close to you?

“I think you always have to think that you can do it even when times are hard. Until there are points to play for you need to believe in it, it’s enough for them to make mistakes in two matches and we will be there. However when you’re looking to comeback you can’t make any mistakes either, Roma has many wins and probability dictates that maybe they will lose many times.”

What can Palacio give you that the others can’t?

“We missed him against Roma, with him and Mauro up front maybe we would have won because when we had the chance to close the match we were lacking. Rodrigo is an expert, he knows how to put pressure on the defense and he moves well. He could be decisive in these last 8 matches.”

Why do you have a tendency to concede goals in the 80th minute and later?

“I think that the major problem is that we don’t close the matches off sooner, it’s clear that in certain moments you win like we did in the beginning but other moments it doesn’t happen and they score. If we manage to score many goals like we did against Palermo and Bologna we will have a much more calmer ending as you can always concede a goal. If your are Bayern or Barcelona you can manage better but if your are us going to Rome it can happen that you succumb to pressure. They scored on their least dangerous chance, we defended pretty well.”

Can Inter be interested in Ibrahimovic?

“I’m not convinced that he will leave Paris, he has never said that and he’s doing very well. He has a profile that is adapted to all squads, I don’t think there is a squad that doesn’t want him.”

If Thohir asks you to chose between Touré and Ibrahimovic, what would you do?

“I don’t think he would ask me to do so [laughs]. It would be very difficult for this to happen.”