Inter defender Danilo D’Ambrosio feels that the team aren’t playing with the same intensity that they had shown when they were at their best earlier in the season.
Speaking to InterTV after their 1-1 draw with Fiorentina in Serie A, the 33-year-old identified this drop-off in enthusiasm as a factor in the team’s sagging form in the league.
The Nerazzurri have now won just two matches out of their last nine in the league, a run which has seen them surrender a sizable lead at the top of the Serie A table to find themselves chasing AC Milan and Napoli.
The team have not been able to really put their stamp on matches as they so often did when they were at their best, particularly in November and December.
D’Ambrosio feels that the team have ultimately let their confidence and enthusiasm dropped off, and that this is something they must recover in the run-in of the season after the break.
“To get out of a moment like this you need to put your head down and keep working,” he said. “Grafting and giving 100% without asking too many questions and without making any excuses.”
“We missed a bit of cynicism,” he said of the team’s middling display, “but on the part of everyone and not just the forwards. When you get in front of the goal you have to think that it could be the decisive one in the match.”
On the match against Juventus after the break, he said that “There’s little to do to really prepare for matches like these, we’ll have to regain our energy above all.”
“Lately we’ve lacked the enthusiasm that distinguished us in the earlier part of the season,” he went on, “we were more mentally free, we played a simpler but more effective game. More compact.”
“We have to get back that joy of playing without neglecting the competitive spirit,” he reflected.
