Inter coach Simone Inzaghi was full of praise for striker Lautaro Martinez after he scored a brace during the 4-3 win over Fiorentina in Serie A yesterday.
The Argentina international struck from the penalty spot after earlier netting a fine solo effort, as Inter secured a third consecutive league win to move to within touching distance of the top four and Champions League qualification.
Speaking to Italian television broadcaster DAZN after the final whistle at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, Inzaghi lauded the impact of Martinez and claimed he was looking forward to a long-term partnership with the striker.
“He’s a very important player for us and before Barcelona I said it was not a problem that he wasn’t scoring because he did what I asked of him since August,” the former Lazio coach claimed.
“There are times when you have five shots and don’t score, but I wasn’t worried. He is a very strong striker who I want to continue to work with.”
Inzaghi admitted that his side were showing greater determination in recent weeks, and this has been reflected in his manner on the bench.
“This is how I am, with my strengths and weaknesses.
“We’ve had a difficult moment, missing important players on whom we had built a lot of the team. But the group has always followed me and I have always been calm, in football there are criticisms when you coach Inter, just like at Lazio.
“I try to understand the players and take the ones that can help. I’m calm, but we have not achieved anything yet.
“The important step will be Wednesday (against Viktoria Plzen), which would be very important. We have to rest and hope to recover some players to rotate, as the fixtures have built up, but we have had four victories in the last five.
“More than the victory I look at the hug after the winning goal, after being pegged back twice and with many Viola fans.
“We know that nothing stops, we won against Barcelona and drew at the Camp Nou but you have to look straight ahead because we have a very important match on Wednesday.”
With Inter still in seventh place, the pressure is on to close the gap to the top of the table before the World Cup break in November, and Inzaghi insisted that the Nerazzurri were aiming to push themselves up the standings.
“I’m thinking about Wednesday, to get the 10 points I said would needed on the day of the Champions League draw.
“There are several games to go and they are all difficult, but we have to stay on track and shorten the gap, as we want to stay in the mix.”
Inter have been without striker Romelu Lukaku for much of the season after an early injury following his return on loan from Chelsea, but Inzaghi felt that his absence was too easy an excuse.
“If you win you are very good, if you lose they tell you that you have made a mistake in the formation, and in hindsight it is always easy.
“We must recover him, Brozovic and Gagliardini as soon as possible because with so many commitments it becomes difficult,” he concluded.
