Inter coach Antonio Conte discussed the Nerazzurri’s disappointing 1-1 draw against Fiorentina moments after the final whistle with Italian broadcaster Sky Sports Italia.
“These are two games where we have earned less than what we have worked for. Against Barcelona we paid for the fact that we didn’t score goals and for two moments where we could have done better.”
“Today I’m sorry because there was a good response from the team, we also deserved something more against Roma. We have to try to improve in every situation, in both phases of the game.”
The 50-year-old Italian coach touched on the fact that Inter now haven’t won for three games in a row.
“We’re talking about three potential victories that ended up being two draws and one loss. I don’t think we need to complain about commitment and determination, it’s a process of growth. If we have some patience, we must all have it, and we must try to improve on our mistakes. If we don’t have it and we think we can win every game just because we’re called Inter, we’re mistaken.”
He then spoke about Inter’s failure to close out the game tonight, despite being 1-0 up.
“In some parts of the game their goalkeeper was amazing, even in the second half we could have made better use of our chances. But we’re talking about guys who are playing all the time, it’s obvious that you pay the price of tiredness.”
“But let’s look forward to the fact that we’ve come to a difficult stadium like this and left with regret for only taking a point. Let’s look at the glass half full and move on.”
Conte discussed the tiredness that’s effecting the attacking partnership of Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez.
“They are in good physical condition, but it is inevitable that with seven games in 25 days something will add up. Romelu and Lautaro are always playing, the forwards must always be connected to the team.”
“We always try to keep the squad within 30-35 metres of each other in both parts of the game, but unfortunately there have been some particular moments like Sanchez’s injury that deprived us of an important alternative to let them rest.”
“There’s not much to say, I can only thank them because they’re doing great things. They’ve made themselves available to the team.”
He spoke about Milan Skriniar’s defensive slowness that led to Fiorentina’s late equaliser.
“These are moments that we’re going to analyse with the guys, and we’ll try to work on and improve. It’s a shame to concede a goal like that in injury time, on the counterattack. We just have to evaluate calmly and analyse even more to be more precise.”
Finally, Conte discussed the Nerazzurri’s recent decision to cancel their press conference due to an article published in Friday’s paper edition of the Rome based newspaper Corriere dello Sport.
“It’s all in the hands of the lawyers. It was Inter’s choice, I didn’t make the decision personally. You need to be respected to respect, there is little to say.”
“When you have to give an example, you cannot do this. It’s an entire group that must receive the signal, you see that many are not used to managing people and think only of themselves. It was surprising to see that the Union of Sport Media asked for my apology, they should be ashamed.”
“They ask for my apology, but are they kidding? One day they’re being laughed at by the whole world for a headline about racism, another they’re publishing Mihajlovic’s [cancer] story in advance. You have to put a stop to it, those who have the pen can’t have all this power and disrespect like this. We will see if this email is fake or not, we’ll see what happens.”
