Antonio Conte deserves real credit for his handling of Christian Eriksen at Inter, according to former Juventus boss Max Allegri.
Eriksen is enjoying a second wind with the Nerazzurri after a terrible first year at the club, having been moved into a deeper midfield role in recent weeks.
The 29-year-old is now widely thought to be a pivotal player in Conte’s side and Allegri is impressed with how his colleague has managed the Dane.
“Antonio did very well to wait for Eriksen and eventually bring him into his new role,” Allegri told Sky Sport Italia on Sunday night.
“Conte worked on him in training and gradually Eriksen has adapted, because football is more tactical in Italy.
“If you move Eriksen back by 10 meters on the pitch, compared to where he played in England (for Tottenham Hotspur), he can put the ball wherever he wants.”
Eriksen has made 24 appearances in all competitions for Inter this season, scoring his only goal during January’s 2-1 win over AC Milan in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals.
He has started five of Inter’s last eight league games and also made a decisive impact as a second-half substitute during the 2-1 win at Torino two weekends ago.
Inter’s next match will be at Bologna on April 3 after club football resumes following this week’s international break.
Conte will be hoping to have everybody fit and available for the game at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, with four of his players currently positive for COVID-19 (Danilo D’Ambrosio, Samir Handanovic, Stefan de Vrij and Matias Vecino).
The club confirmed yesterday afternoon that there were no further positive cases among their first-team squad, although a member of Inter’s ‘team group’ (not a player) did return a positive test on Monday.