andrea stramaccioni

 

Ahead of tomorrows fixture against Atalanta in the Serie A, Andrea Stramaccioni held a pressconference today where he answered a range of questions which mainly focused on Palacio.

How’s the team? Atalanta isn’t the easiest team to play against…

Atalanta is a good team and they came from a defeat against Napoli. We [Inter] come from a tight schedule when we played Juventus and Sampdoria. When we clash against our neighbors [Atalanta] we have to play with respect, despite our great desire to win this game. Stramaccioni uses a quote that follows “The righteous ones fury will be put into play as we want our fans to enjoy the result”.

How’s Palacio doing? And how did the medical go?

I haven’t had time to go through all the details in the medical report but i will answer whats important. His injury is an second degree hamstring stretch. With such a injury you could consider his season to be over. It was a really hard to swallow the fact that we’ll be without him but we’ll carry on.

What kind of formation and system will you use?

I can play with a lone forward upfront backed up by a massive midfield that fills the holes. I can also use Rocchi as a striker with Cassano surging around him to receive passes from the defense and midfield.

Rocchi hasn’t played for a while, is he ready?

Rocchi has been injured a long time while he has making his best efforts to find his form. I’m not sure if he will play from start. Even thou’ he had a hard period because of injuries he still has the important experience that he will never loose.

Now you stand there without Milito and Palacio, it can’t be so easy?

I like those two players alot, but for the moment they aren’t with us. Their abcence makes our team wanna fight even harder to prove their worth. The team is motivated on practice which is a good signal, we will fight til’ the end.

On the bright side you can adjust your midfield, with a winger such as Schelotto …

Everything is about getting the results we need. I will go after the positive sides our midfield has shown when it comes to structure, but the most important thing is that it works before i make my decision.

Kovacic plays in a defensive, laid back role. How come?

Mateo Kovacic is good at many aspects when it come to the midfield, and when some players are missing Kovacic will cover it up. What he has done for us so far is magnificent, ge gives us the second gear which makes me happy as a coach.

Before Palacio got injured you got criticized because you didn’t rotate enough with the team …

There are many people that speaks about me and my decisions lately. They seem to forget the injuries we’ve had in the team. Keep that in mind while everybody wants good results, with so many injuries at the time it isn’t easy to rotate as you want to.

Will Palacio be able to play in the Coppa Italia?

You have to remember that the injury Palacio got himself is pretty serious. With that said you cannot predict the exact dates when players will be back. Media writes about things and edits the main statements. For a fair comparison look what the media did to all of us when they wrote about a Mourinho return. In a couple of days the news was hot then the flame died. Nothing regarding Palacios return is hundred procent sure.

How is it mentally with Palacio?

We just have to play without Palacio, we’ve put that bad news behind us. From Thursday til’ tonight we will always be there for Palacio. We will do the same thing until he fully recovers, the same way we handle it with Diego Milito.

What are your thoughts whilst watching the game between Fiorentina – Milan?

I will only focus on the game between Inter – Atalanta because that’s where my energy is needed.

Are the days for Alvarez counted this season?

Ricky has had many chances to prove himself this season. Not until the end of this season he has been able to make an impact. The kid [Alvarez] found it hard to play with regularity. But here at Inter we believe all our players can perform good.

Will Nagatomo undergo operation? If yes, when?

I’m not a doctor.

In the last couple of games you have changed from a 3-man defense to a 4-man defense, is it because of the opponents?

No it’s not. I have to adjust my formations and tactics to what players i have to work with. For an instance, when i have Cassano, Milito and Palacio in my choice i always go with the tridente in attack. Now when i got Walter Samuel back i can play with my 3-man defense because Samuel is a perfect defender i the middle of that 3-man defense. Everything depends on what players i have to choose. I will always play the best team available.

Should the fans still believe in the third spot of the league?

This year the supporters has shown us real love when it comes to support. The season has had a really bumpy ride, the objective to reach the third spot is a objective of many other teams, but to us it’s different. From this day til’ the last game against Udinese i will do my best to gather as much points as possible. It’s going to be a hard way to go but we never give up a fight in our black and blue colors.

What’s your take on the reserves league that starts next season?

I do think it’s positive, there’s much that needs to be fixed off course. But as a whole i think the Italian Federation did a good job on this. Sometimes I feel there’s a bridge missing between the Primavera and the Serie A. I hope this will fix the gap and develop our youngsters even more.

Cassano and Rocchi, will they sync as they haven’t played together?

I actually believe they will solve this together, in the worse case scenario i will have to use Ranocchia as a striker [laughs].

Once again, the reserves league, do they do a better job in Spain?

I haven’t read about it nor do i follow it so closely. But i will play more youngsters against real teams in the Pro League. Development is needed because football is much faster than before. I think Italian football is on the right track.