Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi has made clear that he is the first one to blame for the Nerazzurri slumping to a shock 2-1 defeat away to Spezia this evening.
Speaking to Italian broadcaster DAZN after the final whistle, via FCInterNews, the 46-year-old took responsibility for the result, admitting that there is a lot of disappointment at how the match went.
There were any number of factors behind the Nerazzurri’s loss to Spezia this evening.
On the coach’s end, the selection decisions both from the start and from the bench played a role, as did the team’s approach which saw no shortage of possession but a turgid pace in which the ball was kept in front of Spezia for too long.
Meanwhile, from the players there were errors, from missed chances including a saved penalty by Lautaro Martinez to the foul by Denzel Dumfries which gave away the match-deciding penalty.
However, as far as Inzaghi is concerned, it is he who should have to stand in the line of fire following this shock loss.
“It’s a bad defeat,” the coach confessed, “and I take full responsibility, the guys put everything into it and we just needed to be more clinical.”
“We’re disappointed,” he said, “it’s a terrible evening for us, but on Tuesday we play for a place in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.”
“This defeat hurts,” he continued, “but it isn’t the same as the other ones.”
“We put everything into it, but we needed more of a cutting edge in front of goal to score.”
“You just can’t go in 0-0 after that first half, this is football we’re talking about.”
“Right now when we play away from home, we’re not getting the results.”
“The result isn’t at all what we wanted, but the team did push up the pitch and give everything,” Inzaghi said.
Regarding the Nerazzurri’s first penalty, which Martinez missed, the coach said that “Lukaku and Lautaro are our two penalty takers, this we never ran into the situation where both of them were on the pitch at the same time when we had a penalty, because Lukaku was out for a long time.”
“Dragowski did well to save the penalty, but I would say just as important to note is the fact that we had 28 or 29 shots in it, we needed to be more clinical because we deserved to take the lead, and then when we equalize we shouldn’t have given away the penalty,” Inzaghi added.
Asked if this evening’s match changes the first-choice penalty taker in the team, the coach replied “No, it’s still the two of them, then we’ll decide on a match-to-match basis.”
Asked if he’s spoken about the loss with the players yet, Inzaghi replied “No, we’ll take tomorrow in training.”
“There will be plenty of time for that.”
“This defeat hurts, football can be a cruel game sometimes,” the coach reflected.
“We said good night to our fans, they weren’t happy but the team gave everything on the pitch.”
“Clearly a defeat like this isn’t what we need, we need more cutting edge and conviction,” the coach said.
Of the first twenty minutes of the match where the Nerazzurri looked the better side, Inzaghi said that “The team took the right approach to the match.”
“But we conceded two goals cheaply, which is something which we need to stop doing away from the San Siro,” he added.
“The trend needs to change, a lot of teams are right there in it playing for the Champions League places,” Inzaghi noted.
“Now we have to react, this is football.”
“After three days, we’re right back in it playing an important match in the Champions League,” he added.
And of whether the team just needed more luck, Inzaghi said “I don’t believe in luck, luck is something that you have to earn in football.”
