Roberto Mancini spoke to Mediaset Premium after tonights game against Cagliari and had the following to say: The fear of conceding a goal in the last minutes is always there. It happened against Torino, Napoli and Celtic, but it had to stop sooner rather than later. We defended much better today during the last 8 minutes than we have done previously. The table? I don’t think it’s time yet to start looking at the table, we have to take one game at a time, we have to win and improve.
The dangerous chances that Cagliari created? Up to a certain point in the game the defense managed to defend high up on the pitch and the team was very compact. But as soon as the defense fell back, Cagliari started to create more and more chances. We have to keep defending high up even when we’re tired.
Kovacic? He’s young, he needs time to improve on everything and finally become a complete midfielder, but it takes time. He has very good technique and at the moment the best position for him to play at is as a trequartista. As a trequartista he can afford to lose the ball more than doing it in a more defensive position. Why have I kept him [Kovacic] on the bench? It’s a nice problem to have, having either him, Hernanes or Shaqiri on the bench, this means that Inter slowly are becoming a great team and that is important.
The Europa League game against Celtic? We got a good result with us in the first leg, we have to try to go through to the next round. But for us every game is important.
Source: fcinternews.it
this fell back mancini is talking about continue for almost 20 minute , what he’s doing during that is beyond me
Enough of kova we won 3 in a row because of mancini decisions. That is what is important
i understand what kind of mancio’s problem right now, and i think its just right thing to do to bench kova in the previous matches, shaq is in form and why would we bench him? kova in the other hand loses the ball too much, and with that kind of statistic, it’s better to put him behind shaq in trequartista queue line that to put him in deep midfielder position
I will choose to get ride off Hernanes. Kov and Shaq are really great prospect. 🙂
Having Kovacic, Shaq and Hernanes only means one of them will have to go. I think the time on the bench helped Kova. Would have been worse to play him at his bad form and watch him suffer. I think he should play with Shaq behind Icardi. Podolski and Palacio at this time are pretty useless, so we don’t really need a second striker. Having two great playmakers at the same time however passing all the balls to Icardi. That would be great.
Ummm…yeah good win and everything but the only part in that interview that i didn’t like was when he said that’s a good problem to have and that means that inter are becoming a great club again because we have good players on the bench? I don’t think that’s how it works.The “big” teams have a great first team so that some quality players are forced to fight for a spot in the team,so there are good players left on the bench to come on as a sub,but when you look at the first team it isn’t to the calabar of any European powerhouse at the moment,especially not the defence though the midfield and attacking options isn’t bad.What i see is a bench filled of midfielders who more or less can’t all fit in the 4-3-3 system,also with Kovacic..yeah he needs to get better to become the complete midfielder yeah sure,but isn’t the best way for him to develop is to give him opportunities? Then it would be much easier to pinpoint his weaknesses and work from there…Just my opinion.
I don’t think that is bad to have Shaqiri, Kovacic and Hernanes, if you know how to use and rotate them properly. There’s enough games for everyone to play, even Kovacic and Hernanes could be very useful more deep in the midfield on Brozovic and Guarin places or in a different tactical systems, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, 3-4-3, etc. But the big problem is that Mancini doesn’t want or can’t rotate the squad and the systems. Other thing that annoying me is that Mancini can use the substitutions effectively, against Celtic that cost us the win, now we were close to repeat the same.
Yeah,I mean what good is a strong bench if you don’t use it effectively, also what good is it if there’s only midfield players? I know some would say well we have podolski,but honestly he hasn’t exactly set the stage on fire playing as a centre foward,quite frankly he hasn’t set the stage on fire period.And well for defence since apparently Vidic is not a primary starter we have him to come off the bench,which isn’t bad,prefer him over rano anyways but yea…proper rotation is vital.
Yes, I think Mancini will rely more on 4-3-1-2 as primary formation. I see Kovacic develop really well as a player, he can’t score at the beginning of his carer in Inter, and now he can score. Anw, we definitely need to evaluate our strikers, center back and fullback in the summer.
You see the thing is I think Mancini really is trying to develop Kovacic into a player that is able to fit into the trequartista role I’ve noticed that he’s really adamant on it also,although Kovacic doesn’t like that role all to much as he rather plays in a more centralized position it seems to be working in terms of the team,you did mention that he wasn’t scoring before and now he is and that is the reason.He is more likely to join up with the attack and as in the game today he may as well come out with a a goal or two,which is fine by me.My major concern is if he develops properly because he has world class potential and i can’t help but think of courthino and how differently things would have been with him.
Yes, sure he is.
Well actually, Mancio had spotted Kovacic’s main weakness. He saw that Kova was losing too many balls as a regista or deep playmaker. That’s why our previous opponents started fast counter-attacking when Kovacic lost the ball in the midfield and we all know what would happen next with our ‘awesome’ defenders like Rano and Campagnaro were standing there. Simple mistakes but deadly to the team. That’s why, Mancio benched him in several games to prove the hypothesis that Kovacic was the big hole in our midfielder. Kovacic has an enormous talents to become a world class player and Mancio knew that. Mancio feels that it is important to give a suitable position for him in the team. I guess he already knew the best position for Kovacic, at least for now. Mancio can rotate Shaq and Kovacic in each game to keep their legs fresh.
In my opinion, Kovacic is the heir of Iniesta. He reminds me a lot of Barca’s Iniesta in his early career. Iniesta was also developed as defensive and center midfielder. He also did not perform best at that positions. But when Rijkaard and Pep pushed him more offensively and deployed him as a winger or a trequartista, we knew the rest of the story. If Iniesta played against us in semifinal CL 2009, I would bet the story would be different. So please be patient, Mancio definitely will help Kovacic to develop into a better and more complete midfielder. Someday, we will see him shine as bright as Iniesta.
mancio II professore