Antonio Conte has revealed he is working on multiple solutions to help Christian Eriksen settle into the Inter team.
Eriksen impressed as a deep-lying play-maker during Saturday’s 4-0 win over Benevento in Serie A and seems set to enjoy more game time with the Nerazzurri during the second half of the season.
Conte more or less confirmed this while speaking to Rai Sport ahead of tomorrow’s Coppa Italia semi-final first leg at home to Juventus.
“Christian is an excellent guy, he’s working hard and we’re trying to work a lot with him on not one but several solutions,” Conte said.
“We want to give him, myself and the team the opportunity to have an alternative option we can count on.”
Inter face the prospect of two Derby d’Italia matches in the next eight days, after which the winner will meet either Napoli or Atalanta in the cup final.
“We have to respect a team which is very strong,” Conte said of his former employers Juventus.
“We’ll have to play a great match.
“The qualification will be decided across the 180 minutes like last season against Napoli, when we lost 1-0 at home and then drew 1-1 at the Stadio San Paolo.
“We need to try and do our best, we need to be good.”
Conte also played down the importance of Romelu Lukaku’s absence for tomorrow’s match at San Siro, with the Belgian suspended alongside Achraf Hakimi after being booked in the quarter-finals against AC Milan.
“It’s not the first time we’ll be without Romelu, we’ll have Alexis Sanchez alongside Lautaro Martinez,” the former Italy boss confirmed.
“Romelu is in good shape, he responded well on Saturday with two goals against Benevento.
“Now he’ll be able to take a forced rest and he’ll prepare himself to play in the league again next [against Fiorentina on Friday].”
Inter beat Juventus 2-0 in the sides’ only previous meeting this season with goals from Arturo Vidal and Nicolo Barella.
