Cagliari coach Leonardo Semplici has sought to play down midfielder Radja Nainggolan’s return to the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza when his side face Inter in Serie A tomorrow.
The struggling Sardinians take on the league leaders in the hope of securing a positive result and pulling themselves out of the relegation zone, with Nainggolan included in the squad following his loan switch from Inter in January.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, and as reported by Cagliarinews24.com, Semplici insisted that there were no issues with Nainggolan and he was satisfied with the Belgian’s positional play, after dropping into a deeper role.
“There is little to say at the moment, we have to only focus on the facts. When a coach makes a choice, he makes it in agreement with the player,” Semplici said of Nainggolan.
“I don’t see any problems. Radja is an excellent player, he has shown that he knows how to play more different roles and now he is in front of the defence.”
Semplici admitted that he was expecting a difficult afternoon against Antonio Conte’s side but was optimistic his team could challenge, whilst also providing injury updates ahead of the match.
“Tomorrow we must play a match full of sacrifice, we will certainly suffer but we intend to fight and be aggressive, putting into practice the qualities of our players. We have prepared for a match like this and must defend and attack with balance.
“[Nahitan] Nandez trained separately all week as a precaution after the injury he picked up. The lad is fine and has recovered, so we’ll see tomorrow if he is in the team. Unfortunately, today we lost [Alessandro] Deiola due to a calf problem,” Semplici added.
Inter have the opportunity to extend their winning run in Serie A to 11 matches when they take on the Isolani and move a step closer to the Scudetto.