Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi feels that while Samir Handanovic remains an important player in the squad, Andre Onana could be ready to take over the starting spot in goal.
Speaking in a press conference after this afternoon’s Serie A win over Sassuolo, as reported by FCInterNews, the coach updated on the situation in goal within the team, and also spoke about the current injury crisis in attack.
Onana made an important milestone in his young Inter career, starting in Serie A for the first time.
The 26-year-old had already been trusted in all three of the Nerazzurri’s Champions League matches so far this season, but had yet to displace Handanovic in a league fixture.
However, after the Cameroonian’s impressive performance against Barcelona during the week Inzaghi decided to put his faith for this afternoon’s match against the Neroverdi.
“As far as the goalkeepers are concerned, Handanovic gives us added value, he has made Inter history and done very, very well with me over these past fifteen months, but Onana has shown in these two months that he could earn his place,” Inzaghi said.
“I will evaluate them between them match by match as I would with players in any position,” he continued.
The coach said that :Onana has shown that he can be the starter at Inter, without forgetting Handanovic, who gives us added value.”
“In the matches where he hasn’t started he’s always been the first one to help his teammates out and try to get them to improve,” he said of the captain.
Of the Nerazzurri’s two recent wins against Barcelona and Sassuolo the coach said that “These two wins are both excellent signs but we know that it will be a massively difficult schedule and we have to face it one match at a time.”
The coach noted that “Wn Wednesday we expect that Barcelona will be a very strong opponent, but we’ll got there to try and play for the result as best we can.”
Of Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s display against Sassuolo, Inzaghi said that “He came on and did very well, his addition was very important and helped us a lot because in the first quarter of an hour in the second half we played very technically badly.”
“Paradoxically, after their goal we played better because against Sassuolo you have to play well technically,” he added.
Regarding the players missing in attack, the coach said that “With Correa and Lukaku we have to wait a bit longer.”
“Today we saw a great desire to win but also periods of suffering, because clearly we had spent a lot of physical and mental energy against Barcelona,” the coach added.
He continued that “We know that we have some ground to make up and that we have players missing who are very important for us.”
“I had already said against Roma that I was quite calm despite what was said with titles already being talked about being gone.”
“There was hope, desire, and some positive signs, and then clearly as a coach that defeat was a huge disappointment,” he noted, “but these two wins are a great starting point because we know we have to recover points and progress.”
