Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi believes that the team must do more to assert themselves and keep opponents from staying in matches against them after needing a very late winner against Lecce.
Speaking to Italian broadcaster DAZN after the Nerazzurri’s Serie A opener which was a 2-1 win, the coach stressed that the Nerazzurri must do more to put results out of sight if they are to achieve their goals this season.
Three points were what was vital for Inter in their first match of the season, ensuring that they don’t fall behind city rivals AC Milan and potentially other title rivals from the very first weekend of the season.
However, the nature of the win was not overly convincing, as the Nerazzurri needed to push until the very end until they finally found a way through, rather than controlling the match and having the three points secured earlier.
When this was noted, Inzaghi remarked that “We know, we’ve been working in football for years. We showed a lot of heart to win in the 94th minute, but there’s also a lot to be analyzed.”
He continued that “We had an excellent first half hour, then after the challenge on Lautaro we lost our composure. We let Lecce back into the game, we lost control. Then we won in the 94th minute, but a team like Inter cannot let the game go until the 94th minute.”
Of his decision to play with four forwards in the closing stages, Inzaghi said that “We have strikers who allow us to play like this. With Dzeko and Lukaku we went direct, then the two midfielders went inside with Lautaro.”
The coach continued that “Without the yellow card Brozovic would have stayed on the pitch a little longer. But he hasn’t trained much, even though he wanted to be there at all costs.”
“He also had a small muscle strain,” he noted of the Croat, “and then before coming off he made an error. If I’d wanted to continue with a deep midfielder then I’d have put Asllani on.”
Of whether or not he thinks he could continue playing with three forwards in the future, Inzaghi said that “It’s an option we could consider.”
“Now I have four,” he went on, “they’re all doing well and they give me a difficult decision to make. With the back three we have better reference point, when we switched to a back four we went man-to-man.”
Of things that need to be improved for next weekend’s match against Spezia, he said that “We’ll do the usual analysis together. The guys have shown that they believe until the end, even when changing the formation and game state.”
“But we need to understand why we let it get to the 94th minute like this in a match that we’d already unlocked in the second minute,” he emphasized.
And of striker Romelu Lukaku, Inzaghi said that “I’m happy, he’s working hard and has has a great willingness to help out. He can improve as everyone else can but I’m happy to have him available, he’ll score a lot of goals from now until the end of the season.”
