Antonio Conte admits Inter are in ‘a great position’ to clinch the Serie A title after tonight’s win at Parma.
An Alexis Sanchez double helped Inter to a 2-1 victory at the Stadio Ennio Tardini, moving them six points clear of AC Milan at the top of the table.
Conte praised his players for the work done so far but made it clear there was a lot of hard work still to do.
“We are in a very good position, compared to last year we are ahead of everyone,” the Nerazzurri’s head coach told Italian broadcaster Sky Sport Italia.
“There has been an improvement but there are 13 games left, in Serie A every game is a battle.
“You can drop points against everyone, we have 13 finals to play and we want to play and do our best.
“If we are at the top at the end of the season we will be very happy with the progress made.”
Conte then went on to sing the praises of Sanchez, who bounced back in the second half of the game this evening after a quiet first half.
He also spoke about Andrea Pinamonti and whether he could feature in the remainder of the season.
“I talked about Sanchez yesterday, there is no need to talk about him after he scored two goals,” Conte said.
“He is good at working and we have patience.
“He knows that only work has brought him to certain levels, now Lautaro Martinez and Romelu Lukaku know that he is behind them.
“Creating this situation is important for us, let’s not forget that for a year and a half we went on with Lautaro and Lukaku.
“Last year there was Sebastiano Esposito and this year Andrea Pinamonti, a very good prospect who can become strong but he has a long way to go.
“He has potential to grow, we will see that after this year he will be much stronger.”
Conte was asked if winning a ‘dirty match’ like tonight, in the opinion of Sky’s interviewer, gave added value to Inter’s three points.
“I do not think it was dirty game, both teams played well and we had opportunities to extend our lead,” Conte argued.
“Congratulations to Parma who have an excellent coach, Roberto D’Aversa was trying to split us in half to get the ball up to Juraj Kucka.
“Every match for us now must be played with the right determination, we could have done much better with the goal we conceded.”
Next Conte spoke on the growth of both Achraf Hakimi and Ivan Perisic, both of whom had some difficulties in adapting to Conte’s ideas.
“I think I am a very democratic person, I don’t give anything away and I wait until a certain point.
“They know very well that we have an idea, first there is the team then the individual who is made better by the team.
“We have to think about the ‘us’ and not the ‘I’.
“I have met a team of guys eager to do this and Hakimi has improved a lot.
“Beforehand he forgot to defend and sometimes he remained on the bench but now he is deserving of his place.
“And let’s not forget that against Genoa, Matteo Darmian was one of the best players on the pitch.”
Conte, proceeded to discuss the team and their understanding of when to do certain things and recognise situations.
“The team knows very well that when you lose the ball it must be recovered in 5-6 seconds, then if the team is good at evading the pressure you have to drop back but now we can choose areas to start with pressing, during the match.
“The team are able to recognise situations.
“It was not easy tonight, Parma tried to split us in two.
“We always evaluate our opponents and understand where they can hurt us.”
Conte also admitted that it is good to have multiple choices for places in the team ahead of Monday’s match versus Atalanta when asked whether Sanchez or Lautaro are more likely to start.
“It’s always better to have these choices.
“You have to watch everything, the various games.
“Previously I didn’t have many choice but now I am more relaxed in this regard.
“All the team is involved, Darmian demonstrated this in the last game.”
