Inter coach Antonio Conte discussed the Nerazzurri’s important 4-2 comeback win over Torino earlier tonight in an interview with Italian broadcaster DAZN after the game.
“I think we need to look at both halves. The approach was not the best, we had to be very ferocious like Torino were. We did not even win a one on one, I understand the difficulties after returning from international duty to pull the trigger and understand the importance of the match.
“We saw the difficulties everyone had a little bit. Surely, we disappointed from this point of view, we had little decisiveness and fury in the first half.
“The 2-0 would have ended it for anyone, but we have to congratulate the guys because we realized we had something more on a character level.
“Sometimes you have to look deep, I have to be good at digging too. It was not easy, but we managed to score 4 goals and we risked conceding more, but we only let in two.”
The 51-year-old Italian coach touched on how the team need to work hard in training in order to perform better in matches.
“We have to work, we have to find certain types of chances. The players always know that in addition to preparing for the games you have to put in everything, head, heart and legs.
“I hope that this is useful for the future, if we want something, we have to roll up our sleeves and get dirty.
“In the first half of the match we did not do that and I didn’t like it, I hope it will serve as a lesson to understand that the road is long and tiring.
“We have to work, we have to dig in the ground, we have to let the opponents climb the uphill field.
“Sometimes this has not happened or has happened late, we must be good at finding the way because if you don’t put something of yours on a personal level it becomes difficult, Inter needs these things.”
He responded to Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku’s suggestion that the team was not a great squad yet.
“I know I have smart guys at my disposal, who even in difficulties make evaluations. I’m glad he made these evaluations, when I talk about things that can’t be solved from the outside I also talk about these things.
“Certain things are emphasized that make my hair stand up, I’m sorry if some get alarmed. We have to work incredibly hard, at that point we can go and talk about objectives.
“We need to combine technical qualities and fury and desire to win that the opponents must feel in the underpass of the stadium.
“We do not have it yet but we are working on it. We have made changes, new people have arrived. I hope that we can all understand this, this is a group of intelligent guys who must understand each other. I agree with Lukaku.”
Finally, Conte did not think that it was a tactical problem that Torino managed to largely dominate the midfield in the first half of the game.
“It cannot be a tactical issue. In the second half, we played with Lautaro, Lukaku and Sanchez as a trequartista with Vidal and Barella. The attitude changed, the desire to press ferociously arrived.
“If you press in a slow way you get two per hour, the opponents find the solution. Then the competitive fury arose, the desire to press increased, we could have scored more than four goals.
Inter’s win means that they are now fifth in the league table after eight games, sitting on 15 points, one behind rivals Juventus.
The win over the Granata was key, pushing the squad forward ahead of next week’s key Champions League clash against Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid, a must win game in the competition.
Inter have failed to win a game in the Champions League so far this season.
