After the 1-1 draw in the Serie A at home against AS Roma, Inter coach Luciano Spalletti stopped by Italian broadcaster Sky Sport Italia to share his thoughts on the match.
“A fair result. We had our chances but also left a lot of spaces without being organization. This has become our Achilles heal, but Roma defended deep after taking the lead, they were maybe 10 meters outside their area. They let us have the possession which made our fullbacks be more offensive, something that is dangerous when you lose the ball.”
“We were much better during the second half when we were better organized and finally we managed to build up to a point when we could score. But we could have done more, we missed a couple of balls in a way that is not worthy of Inter. But in the end a good result given how the game developed in the first half.”
Did Perisic do a better job in the second half?
“Sometimes he can read the play in an original kind of way, but for us he is at his best when he runs into space. He raises the level of the team.”
What was missing? What can you improve in order to become more dangerous?
“It is possible to improve how we attack down the wings, with better maneuvering in order to have more precision passing our trequartista. Also, we could have more quality launching passes into the midst of everything. Roma dropped deep with their midfielders and sometimes even their trequartista was dropping deep, making them play with a 4-3-3.”
Against a team that closes up like Roma did today, wouldn’t it be better not to jam things up with the fullbacks and instead go one-on-one?
“We could have done that down our right side with D’Ambrosio, leaving Politano one-on-one. Instead Politano was forced to be more central. In the second half we did better and Danilo was almost playing in a center midfield position.”
How is the Italian football doing, looking back at the recent exits from the European cups?
“We have a journey to make, and we have to convince the players of that. What kind of football do we want to play? Not passing the ball to the keeper? All great teams involve the goalkeeper because goalkeepers nowadays know how to handle the ball with their feet and this is the best way to handle an opponent that puts a lot of pressure on you. Then of course, it depends on what kind of team you are playing, just like what happened to us against Frankfurt. Instead, the PSV game is the one that is painful to think about, because that game we could have won. But in the Champions League we were under some limitations that affected us even in the Serie A. But the Italian teams have strong players and you can win or lose, the only thing that matters is being professional in your work ethics.”
