Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi feels that there’s no denying that his team were second best as they slumped to a 3-1 defeat away to Udinese this afternoon, their third in Serie A this season.
Speaking to Italian broadcaster Sky Sport Italia after the match, the coach reacted to the loss and gave the view that the Bianconeri deserved their win, whilst he also explained why he made a double substitution just thirty minutes into the match.
Inter will have few positives to take away from this afternoon’s match, which saw them squander an early 1-0 lead after having been overrun in midfield for much of the match and seemingly second to every ball.
The Bianconeri extended their winning run to five matches in Serie A and went top of the table at least until Atalanta play later in the day and then AC Milan and Napoli face off in the final kickoff before the international break.
Inzaghi reflected, “We aren’t able to show consistency right now. There have now been three consecutive away matches where we’ve taken the lead and then ended up losing 3-1. This isn’t good. We certainly had to do more and better.”
The coach explained that he took off Alessandro Bastoni and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in the first half “Because they were both booked and because Udinese were winning all the individual duels.”
“We needed a shock to the system to change things,” he continued. “Udinese approached the match better despite our early goal. We have to reflect on this bad defeat, Udinese deserved it.”
Inzaghi lamented that the team have now conceded “Nine goals in three away matches, last season we virtually took a year to concede that many.”
“It’s down to collective and individual mistakes,” he continued, “we have to pay more attention. We also had the good fortune to take the lead and then after that you cannot play like that in the first half.”
“If you keep allowing them in like that then you can concede,” he added. “It’s a loss that hurts, we have to reflect on it a lot.”
Asked if he thinks that this start to the season could be a hangover from last season, the coach replied “No, the season had been very positive. If you then start by losing three matches out of seven there are questions that have to be asked, we continue to work along with all the rest of the staff.”
“I’m the person primarily responsible and I have to do better,” he admitted. “We had to win the duels and be more determined.”
Of the midfield’s poor performance, Inzaghi said that “There’s a lot of blame to be spread around, I don’t stop by looking at just one area of the pitch.”
“There are individual and collective mistakes that add up and have caused us to lose three matches,” he rued. “We’re Inter and we can’t afford to play like this.”
Of what he wants to see on the return from the international break, Inzaghi said that “Let’s hope there are no injury problems with the national teams first.”
“We’ll work with four outfield players, two goalkeepers, and a lot of Primavera players,” the coach said of how the team will spend the break. “We have to analyze what happened today.”
