Inter defender Alessandro Bastoni feels that he can adapt to different positions in the backline for his club because of the quality of the players and coaches around him.
Speaking to Italian broadcaster Sky Sport Italia following the Nerazzurri’s 2-0 win over Spezia in Serie A, a match in which the 22-year-old played the central role in the back three, he gave his thoughts on the tactical switch.
Bastoni has usually been deployed on the left side of a back three not only this season but also in the past two campaigns.
However, the defender showed that he can fill in as the central player in the defensive unit, as he was selected for the position in place of the injured Stefan de Vrij and the rested Andrea Ranocchia, and helped his team to a clean sheet.
The 22-year-old is not too stressed by the different role, and feels that he has the support to thrive playing the position when called upon.
“I’m used to playing as a wide centre-back, tonight I played in a different position,” he explained. “It takes a lot of intelligence to play from central, but I did well. At Inter I have great teachers who help me and I felt comfortable.”
“We knew that this week was do or die,” he said, “losing against Napoli meant going ten points behind, and losing against Shakhtar would greatly reduce our chances of making it to the knockouts. We did well to win both.”
Of the wins, he added that “They give us confidence. We want to show that we did not win last year by chance, we lost top players but we replaced them well and we want to do well again this year.”
He went on that “Let’s say that as with last year there was a moment where we tried to defend very high up the pitch. But playing three on three man-marking at the back for ninety minutes is not easy, so we found a defensive strategy that allows us to defend counters a lot better.”
