After the end of the game against Cagliari, Inter coach Luciano Spalletti entered the press conference room at San Siro in order to give his views on tonight’s game while answering the questions of the journalists. First up for Spalletti was a question on Lautaro Martinez.
“I will stop you right there, you want to ask me if he will play with Icardi. At the moment the team can not afford to play with two players like Icardi and Lautaro. Lautaro is strong going for the immediate impact of the ball, he is a strong player. But we also have to think about the balance of the team. Tonight he had an exceptional game and it was important to get this result with 5-6 players that had not played that much so far. It allows us to allow players to recuperate during these kind of games. There are 3-4 days until next games, but already players are starting to think about worn out muscles and fatigue. We have not been at this level since many years ago but playing like this allows a lot of players to recuperate.”
Spalletti was then asked to address the system change and whether it was permanent.
“Tonight we saw that in important moments when we lose 4-5 possessions in a row without a strong defence, our opponents find a way through. But the defence made up for some of those errors. There is one aspect where we have to grow and that is when it comes to commanding certain stages of the game, because we threw away many a lot today when we lost the ball, something we can not afford to do. We did not suffer that much other than two shots against us but otherwise we didn’t allow Cagliari that many opportunities.”
Spalletti discussed whether he thought the difference between the first and second half performance was a matter of mentality or the players simply thinking about the next game.
“It is always a question of mentality, there is no other situation. The most important thing of our current mission is to bring Inter back to a position in the standings where we belong and where the entire Inter family can be proud.”
Spalletti was then asked about Juventus who have won all seven of their Serie A games to date.
“We said at the beginning that Juventus have a habit of staying at the top. They have important substitutes, Allegri changes a lot and manages to always have 5, 6 or even 7 fresh players in the next game. They have so much depth and who knows the whole story of the complications they have of staying at such high levels.
Spalletti then spoke on the importance of himself and his players feeling connected to the Inter cause.
“We are here to work and to improve Inter, we have to do it for the whole feeling that surrounds us. Inter is known and loved around the world. Everyone of us must want to one day say that they we gave strength back to the club.”
He was then asked about the affect Inter’s four match winning streak will have on the players mentally.
“These results will help to increase team mentality to deal with having just 3-4 days before the next match. There are those who are not happy because they did not play tonight but those who played will tomorrow realise that they will recover worse than those that didn’t for the next game.”
Spalletti concluded the conference by speaking on Radja Nainggolan and his performance in the win over his former employers.
“He lost the ball and couldn’t recover it two or three times and when you think he’s finished he goes and makes a run almost the full length of the pitch to recover the ball. I know him well and he always manages to do a lot more. He is a good passer and played a beautiful ball to Candreva and it is just a pity it was not scored.