Roberto Mancini insists the 4-1 defeat to Fiorentina “changes nothing” and explained his unusual Inter tactics.
The Nerazzurri had won five out of five, conceding only one goal, before this home hammering.
“These are games that start badly,” he told Sky Sport Italia. “We conceded after four minutes, were caught on the counter and then there was the red card. It was impossible to come back from that.
Roberto Mancini insists the 4-1 defeat to Fiorentina “changes nothing” and explained his unusual Inter tactics.
The Nerazzurri had won five out of five, conceding only one goal, before this home hammering.
“These are games that start badly,” he told Sky Sport Italia. “We conceded after four minutes, were caught on the counter and then there was the red card. It was impossible to come back from that.
“I read it the way I do and others will read it their way. It changes nothing, it was a stumble and I am happy for Fiorentina.
“We had our feet on the ground before too, we didn’t need this defeat to get us there. Nothing has changed.”
Inter switched to a three-man defence at times during the match.
“We did well on Sunday against Verona with three centre-backs too. We started tonight with Ivan Perisic on the right and Alex Telles left.
“I had hoped Perisic would cause problems for Marcos Alonso down that flank. Clearly after that start, the match changed and from 2-0 down it all became more difficult.
“I would make the same choices again. I made them because I believed they were right. Davide Santon was in his natural role and could go forward. Perisic was also in his natural role, even though he often plays on the left, so it wasn’t a wild idea.
“After going 3-0 down, we moved to 4-4-1 to not concede any more goals, then on 3-1 we pushed Palacio further forward in the hope of scoring another goal.”
Stevan Jovetic pulled out in the warm-up, so did that affect Mancini’s tactics?
“It was the same line-up, the only difference was Rodrigo Palacio for Jovetic.”
Samir Handanovic made a couple of howlers for the first two goals, including a poor first touch to give away a penalty.
“Unfortunately today there were mistakes, but Handanovic made some great saves this season. These things happen.
“Ivan Perisic arrived at the end of the market and needs to adapt to Serie A. It’s just an issue of time and the same goes for Geoffrey Kondogbia.”