Roberto Mancini seemed almost exhausted when appearing in front of Sky’s microphones after the 2-2 draw against Napoli. “Icardi too cocky? It is one of his strengths, it does not bother me at all. In my career I never attempted to chip a penalty and I didn’t even see the goal live, I saw it just now on the monitor. You have to expect a few dangerous chances when you play against great attackers like we did today, the problem is that we lose the ball too easily and they were expecting it. We were down 2-0 without understanding why. They scored two great goals and we were not paying attention, that’s football. When we stop conceding goals, we can even win games like these. We lack several things to improve, this is one of them. And at the end we should have gone for a decisive third goal”.
Did you like Shaqiri tonight?
“I liked everyone, except when we give away possession too easily. It is worthless to only defend, because sooner or later they will score. At least we played football tonight. Is it better to play Shaqiri as an attacking winger? I see all the positive things that the players do during the week’s training sessions. In the first half, he recovered at least eight or nine balls on the flanks, and this is what we wanted. He also had a goal scoring opportunity. But we played against Napoli, not some minor team. The great thing about football is that everyone can view it as they want”.
Did Hernanes change the outlook of the team?
“We could already have equalized through Icardi after Palacio’s 2-1 goal. And then through D’Ambrosio. We have to improve in the defensive phase, that’s for sure. We need to keep working hard. To improve takes time”.
What error must not be repeated against Wolfsburg?
“As a team they are very similar to Napoli: they share the ball well and they have four great attacking players. Hopefully we will have some chances to score, but it will be a very difficult game”.
Is Santon a certainty in defence?
“He had a tough time in the first half because he left too much space to Mertens and I even considered taking him off. Then in the second half he played much better on the left wing and as the game developed he did very well”.
Guarin a little less impressive?
“He lost two or three balls by overdoing things, but I liked him. I didn’t love him, I love another kind of… (laughs). I love women. But Guarin is a player who we can not be without”.
Source: FcInterNews.it