Antonio Conte was full of praise for Romelu Lukaku after the Belgian scored on his debut for Inter at San Siro.
Lukaku scored the Nerazzurri’s third goal in a convincing 4-0 win over Lecce, following up a shot from Lautaro Martinez which was spilled by Gabriel.
Tonight is the fourth time the striker has scored on his debut for a club, after equally successful starts with West Brom, Everton and Manchester United.
Conte told Sky Sport: “We paid €65 million across five years for Lukaku, which isn’t an exaggerated price. Tonight he showed what kind of player he is and why we were so determined to sign him.”
Inter’s new boss was happy with their positive start to the campaign but admitted their performance was far from perfect.
“We need to improve, we need to get better at managing the game,” Conte said.
“We started very strongly and played well in the first 30 minutes, but then we lost our way a bit and at the start of the second half we were still tense.
“We did well after that to follow the ideas we’re working on. It was a good performance, but we need to work and try and become consistent if we want to play a big role this season.”
Conte thanked Inter’s players for their willingness to work in training and assimilate his footballing ideas.
“We need to be more consistent with our pressing but we’ve only been working on it for a month and a half,” he continued.
“I was actually surprised at first by how great these players are. I’ve discovered a group of people who have made themselves available for me and a coach can only be happy in this situation.
“The player must express himself within our collective ideas. If we do this then everyone will become better players. We can’t afford to rely on individual flashes of talent, that’s not my idea of football.
“There’s room for improvement because there were moments when we allowed ourselves to be carried away by the events in the match. That mustn’t happen because you have to manage every situation.”
On his first match as an Inter coach at San Siro, Conte said: “It was a natural first impact, like with other situations I’ve experienced.
“I give everything in training and during the match, that’s what I am. I’m not looking to win anybody over, this is who I am in the good and the bad.
Conte then ran the rule over a series of individual performances at San Siro, with particular praise for Andrea Ranocchia in defence.
“We didn’t want to risk Stefan de Vrij who had a small problem in the warm-up, but Andrea put in a great performance,” he assured.
“There are players with important qualities here. Marcelo Brozovic showed off his talents for instance. If he completes his process of maturing then he could become one of the best midfielders in Europe.
“Nicolo Barella has quality and dynamism, now he needs to improve and learn how to be fully in sync with the rest of the team. Matias Vecino also did well tonight, as did Roberto Gagliardini.”
Conte also commented briefly on the situation concerning Mauro Icardi, following stern comments from Beppe Marotta before the match towards Wanda Nara.
“I saw what our director Marotta said and I think he was very clear on the matter,” he responded curtly.
“We’ve moved on three players who were a key part of the team last season, but we’ve replaced them. We have clear ideas and we know how to strengthen our team, finding opportunities like we did with Lukaku.”