Legendary Inter striker Alessandro Altobelli has admitted that he feels the Serie A season being suspended due to the Coronavirus pandemic for a few months has completely changed everything.
“If I look back at the results against Sassuolo and Bologna, I see what we lost points and we could have been very close to Juventus,” he explained in an interview with Italian radio station TMW Radio yesterday afternoon.
“It is a strange league. Coronavirus has changed everything. If it had continued normally, Lazio could have had their say. When you stop for 2-3 months though, everything changes. Lazio, Juventus and Inter had a drop off wilst Verona, Sassuolo and Atalanta have all done well.”
Altobelli then proceeded to speak on Inter attacking midfielder Christian Eriksen, who has left a lot to be desired with his performances since his arrival at the club back in the most recent January transfer window.
“He is a good player, he has a particular role. At the beginning, perhaps he had no role in Conte’s 3-5-2, today with the 3-4-1-2 he has his role. The sub-optimal performances are not only Eriksen’s fault.
“He is a strong player. It will still take some time, but yesterday I liked what I saw from him. I want to see him on the pitch again against Roma.”
He proceeded to sing the praises of Inter striker Lautaro Martinez, despite his lack of goals as of late, and also discussed the 22-year-old Argentine’s future with the club amid continuous links to Barcelona and new links to Manchester City.
“He has all the qualities to become one of the best in Europe. At the beginning, Inter made a mistake by putting in the release clause. When you do that, it means that he is for sale.
“Before there was Barcelona, now there are other teams like City. I hope that he will stay one more year in Italy, because it would do him good. His ideal destination would be Barcelona, because he would find Messi there and adaptation would be easier.”
Altobelli joined Inter in 1977 from Brescia and spent the next 11 years at Inter. Altobelli is one of the most prolific goalscorers Inter have ever had and he is in second place on Inter’s all time top goal scorer chart with 209 goals.
