Inter Coach Simone Inzaghi: “As Coach I’m First One Responsible When Things Go Wrong, Bastoni’s Response To Being Substituted Understandable”

Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi feels that he must be the first person to be held accountable for the team’s 3-1 loss to Udinese earlier this afternoon, and for results this season generally.

Speaking to Italian broadcaster DAZN after the match, the coach reflected on how the team have to grow after a string of disappointments, and also said that he understands the anger shown by defender Alessandro Bastoni after being taken off during the first half of the match.

There were very few positives for Inter to take away from the Dacia Arena as they head into the international break, having squandered an early advantage to an in-form Udinese who showed exactly why they had won their four matches going into the match, whilst the Nerazzurri saw the ghosts of losses to Lazio and AC Milan return.

Inzaghi admitted that “Udinese had more ruthlessness and determination, and deserved to win. It’s a loss that hurts, as a coach I’m the first one to be responsible.”

“It’s not good,” he continued, “we’ve lost three games out of seven and we have to take responsibility, me first of all. We have to analyze this defeat and figure out what we have to to to get past it, no one more than me.”

He said the thirtieth-minute substitutions of Bastoni and Hernikh Mkhitaryan that he made were “Because they were on yellow cards, and one wrong tackle and we could be down to ten men.”

Of the visibly angry reaction of Bastoni after being removed, Inzaghi said that “It was absolutely understandable, but I had to give the team something different without changing the shape. I put on two good players who had solid matches.”

“We were fortunate enough to go ahead early, but then we had to manage the game differently,” the coach admitted. “But they were more aggressive and determined.”

“We approached it well in the first 10-15 minutes of the second half but then we allowed too many counterattacks, which is exactly what Udinese are very good at,” he noted.

Inzaghi admitted that “We need more consistency and determination. We’re Inter, we can’t be satisfied with winning two games, it’s not enough to say that we’re playing every three days.”

“It’s not enough,” he reiterated, “this defeat will cause us to reflect – we had to do more, Udinese were superior to us in the match in terms of determination and intensity, and they deserved it.”