MILAN – "We need to be sincere, clear and lucid. We aren't having a good season. We won seven consecutive matches when I started at Inter, but then we just fell apart. We need to find the humility again to do well. Nothing is over; now we're going to take on Marseille and we can still pick ourselves up to finish off the season well." Whether things are going well or not, Claudio Ranieri certainly isn't hiding his face and was a guest on "La Domenica Sportiva", on Rai Sport, where he analysed this dip in form that his Inter is going through.
"This
is a team that has achieved so much in recent years," explained
Ranieri, "and you can't expect a team that has run so much to
keep on running. But the truth is that it's not the running that's
lacking, it's concentration, which we had before and we've lost now
and these defeats are hurting because when you suffer you're less
focussed."
Along with the Nerazzurri coach in the
studio was Inter vice managing director
Stefano Filucchi, which allowed Ranieri to reinforce a concept: "I
have never felt in any way detached from the club, from president
Moratti, actually we work well together, with Marco Branca, with
Piero Ausilio, with all of the staff and together we are working
like crazy because when the results aren't the best, the work becomes
twice as much. I'll repeat, I have the best conditions in which to
work."
And regarding work,
Ranieri explained what he'll be concentrating on from now on: "On
the compactness of the group, on the desire to react, on pride
because those Nerazzurri are champions and whenever they lose they
suffer. They aren't people who couldn't give a damn, but they are out
there and they are suffering. They have a reputation to live up to.
Inter is a team with prestige. Now we're going to play on a European
pitch and we have everything it takes in order to play well. We must find
that extra confidence that we are lacking. We have the men, we have
the character, we just have to show people that we have it."
On the subject of Europe and Serie A, Ranieri explained that he has never organised his work, favouring one over the other: "The Champions League is a very important showroom, but that doesn't matter to me and I don't work towards one rather than the other. I just try to field the best Inter possible every time. On Wednesday against Marseille I'll try to organise things in such a way that our opponents are not able to exploit their strengths. Will I change formation? That isn't the point. If we look at the goals we conceded against Bologna, I ask you what did the formation have to do with that? Julio Cesar, and when I say that I don't want to seem to be criticising him in any way, didn't make one save and what I mean by that is the first shot against us is a goal. While our shots don't go in with the same ease. We have to be able to react to all these tribulations. I told the squad that a group comes through when everything is going wrong and you can show you can deal with difficult times. Football, all things considered, is nothing more than a short metaphor for life."
