Inter coach Antonio Conte spoke about last night’s draw against Atalanta to gathered reporters in a press conference, with Italian media outlet FcInterNews in attendance reporting his words.
First, Conte touched on Inter’s intensity in last night’s game as well as the difficulties they faced against Atalanta.
“I said that Atalanta are a team that practice an intense and physical fight for all 95 minutes, congratulations to them. Atalanta must be considered a great team that will give everyone a hard time between now and the next few years.”
“I think Gian Piero is doing a great job, and in the last four years they have acquired players who play with his philosophy. We started five and a half months ago, the idea is to be intense if you want to win, that’s the rule of modern football.”
“They had it, we did it for a large part of the match. It’s inevitable that we’re in trouble because we’re short of players in one area of the pitch.”
“We played Sensi again in the game that was less suitable for physicality, he held his ground for 70 minutes and I’m very happy. Vecino also had a problem but we held our own. Congratulations to the lads. We want to play this type of football and keep it up for 95 minutes.”
The 50-year-old Italian then spoke about the next steps for the Nerazzurri.
“Surely what I feel is that a great feeling has been created with the players, with the people who work at Pinetina, from physiotherapists to the people who run the warehouses. It’s created a good compactness, it wasn’t easy and I’m very happy.”
“In five and a half months we’ve started something important. People at Inter are developing an important sense of belonging, this is the basis for creating something positive. Having said that, I think we’ve done – some will say I’m blowing my own horn – really important things.”
“Suffice it to say that Atalanta finished ahead of us last year, today we have eleven more points than them. We’re ahead of Napoli, we’re there with Juve, we’re doing something important. We have to remain very humble, but the 46 points we have we have suffered for, we got them with sweat, we don’t have to close our eyes because nobody gave us anything. The credit goes to these guys, we have faced super, super difficult situations.”
Finally, Conte discussed Inter’s high amount of long balls in the second half of last night’s game.
“No one goes down by choice, there are stages of the game. We brought important intensity, but Atalanta – you don’t have to be conceited – brought the same amount of intensity.”
“We are Inter, they are Atalanta, but – with all due respect – they are proving to be a great team, a much more finished product. We’re starting out, it wasn’t easy.”
“They talk to me about Sanchez. To play someone, he has to be okay. Either I’m an idiot or I want them to get hurt. If I don’t bring a player in, it’s not because I’m demented.”