Luciano Spalletti wants Inter to remain consistent against Sampdoria, elaborates his criticism of their ‘quality’ and reassures Ivan Perisic.
It kicks off on Sunday at 11.30 GMT, click here for a match preview.
“Samp are strong and have quality, they play a modern style of football and have a fine Coach. They’ve dropped very few points in their own stadium,” noted the Coach in a Press conference.
Luciano Spalletti wants Inter to remain consistent against Sampdoria, elaborates his criticism of their ‘quality’ and reassures Ivan Perisic.
It kicks off on Sunday at 11.30 GMT, click here for a match preview.
“Samp are strong and have quality, they play a modern style of football and have a fine Coach. They’ve dropped very few points in their own stadium,” noted the Coach in a Press conference.
Spalletti raised eyebrows with his comments after the 0-0 draw with Napoli, noting the Partenopei had considerably more quality in the squad than his own players, and continued the praise today.
“Napoli have great character because they play the same way, whether at home or away, and scored goals past everyone except us. We have proved that we are able to show that strength and solidity against very good teams, but the essential thing is to do that in every match.
“Interpreting my comments on Napoli is your problem more than mine. We are seeking solutions, giving something more and aiming to be more than the sum of our parts.
“Maybe I’m not being clear, but among our qualities are character, pace, the way of interpreting games. At times we don’t give it our all. I say certain things so that they are taken into consideration and acknowledged, realising we can do more.”
Perisic was criticised in recent weeks for his lacklustre performances and seems to be unmotivated.
“I don’t think his performances have changed that much, even if when there are these players who have divine quality… Perisic stayed alone to practice his shooting yesterday and you could see the extraordinary abilities he has. Clearly, if he was able to give his all in every game, he’d be amazing, but it’s difficult for everyone to do that.
“At times players go through periods where they are unable to distribute their qualities throughout many games. You accept that, knowing that he has those qualities and can bring them out at any moment.
“I would always love to train someone like Perisic. There are moments where things don’t go the way you want and you just have to put up with it. Stay quiet and go forward. The more we talk about it, the more it becomes an issue.
“I have great faith in Perisic the person and the player. If at the end of the day he hasn’t given the result he needed to, you can ask any question of me.
“I think things have changed for the team, very clearly, over the last couple of games, so tomorrow I expect to see proof of what has changed.”
Considering his criticism of the squad’s lack of quality, it harks back to when Spalletti complained in January that he was working with an actual team and not the ‘virtual’ Inter imagined by transfer speculation.
“I have a two-year contract and must earn my right to work at Inter,” noted the tactician. “I have at my disposal directors who I’ve known for a long time, like Walter Sabatini, or having met Piero Ausilio this year.
“Thanks to them, we were able to bring in two important players. Lisandro Lopez gives us a little more reassurance after Andrea Ranocchia’s injury, while I didn’t know Rafinha much, but Walter and Piero told me great things, despite his fitness concerns.”
The race for a Champions League spot is increasingly tight, as Milan are back in it and even Sampdoria could cause Inter problems tomorrow.
“We must find the strength to play 11 games at a certain level. It’s no good having one great match followed by two below par. We cannot make a mistake, the motivation must be absolute until the end of the season.
“I haven’t been able to explain why we can’t always play the way we did against Napoli, Juventus or Roma. In other matches, even with a positive result, we played below our capabilities.
“I still maintain the difference in quality I was referring to against Napoli was in one detail: how many times they won back the ball and how many we gave it to them. They pass the ball constantly, we make fewer passes and move the ball more slowly.
“The difference between the teams is this: we won back the ball often and they lost the ball only a few times. Then we lost the ball a lot.”