Inter coach Luciano Spalletti had his say about tonight’s win away against Hellas Verona at the Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi in an interview with Premium Sport.
The former Roma manager started by talking about the episode which resulted in a penalty for Hellas Verona: “You can not talk about millimeters, if it was a penalty it was a penalty.”
What kind of answers does a win like this give you?
“It is clear that we expected something else, there is always that middle area where you risk a lot, we still have some room for improvement. The fact they stood up and tried to play the game and go for the win is impressive. I think my team played a great game today in every aspect, then at times we played too slow and left some spaces open where we shouldn’t have. But we deserved the win”.
How does it feel to be in charge of this Inter who have just had the best start ever since the three-point system was introduced?
“Not that much actually, it is a note in the gigantic history book of Inter. Then you move on. We have to continue in this tunnel until we see the light in June. If we would have lost this game and Roma beat Sampdoria in the postponed game, then we are all of a sudden out of the Champions League. All the teams are there fighting for those three spots, some teams, like AC Milan will re-enter the race and Lazio is there to stay. It is tough to continue like this because one wrong step is enough to change everything.”
The error leading to the penalty was maybe Handanovic’s fault, does that have any affect on how you play the ball starting from the back?
“After the game you analyse what has happened. In this particular case we didn’t do as bad as you think. We just have to be in command when it comes to the middle area of the pitch. Handanovic does a good thing where D’Ambrosio is the one creating the problem. But everything happens based on the position of the ball. But these things happen when we play the ball back to Handanovic, some balls are lost and the only thing to do is to look forward and learn from the experience.”
Why is so hard for Icardi to play against teams that defend so deep?
“For me Icardi had a great game, we consider his games on how many goals he scores, but when he drops down he offers the team a great advantage, to be part of the group that can attack together. And his non-possession work rate is really useful for us, keep in mind also that he very often has one or two defenders following him around.”
