PINZOLO - Andrea Stramaccioni commented on how his players performed in this afternoon's in-house friendly between Inter Green and Inter Orange: "I don't think a coach gets any clear signals at this stage; it's more about gathering ideas. The game has only just finished and I haven't had the chance to take everything in yet. What I do know is that Inter must be ready before the other teams. First of all we have to find the right balance, the right spaces on the pitch. There are some encouraging signs of course: for example when the Greens were chasing the ball I don't think they ever seemed stretched out of shape. But it was just a game among ourselves."
Asked whether his team might have lost, or might lose, players with personality, Stramaccioni replied: "I think it's up to the coach to make the players feel comfortable and get them playing to their strengths. It's up to me to work out how Inter can be more dangerous and try to control games. Today I saw Inter stringing moves together. I don't think I saw a single long ball played, which is something that might happen in a real game, but it means we're working in the right direction."What about the lack of decent service for Giampaolo Pazzini? Stramaccioni explained: "He's a striker, he was playing with ten kids so it's quite normal that he should have few decent balls. It would have been the same if Milito had been in his place. Anyone playing as centre forward in that team would have struggled."
"There's no Ranocchia situation, otherwise there would be a Chivu situation and a Samuel situation as well," the coach replied when asked about the 'Ranocchia situation'. "Why don't you ask me why Samuel didn't start the game? I wasn't giving out any instructions today, I rarely intervened. It's still early, we're just working."
So is there a Stankovic situation? "Dejan had an operation, he will join up with us tonight or tomorrow. He's an Inter player and you hear lots of things."
On the impact made by the new players: "It was very positive. At the start of the training camp I spoke about motivation and I think there are some very motivated footballers here. I saw desire and the team showed continuity. I think those who have come back are looking good; there are players who must have worked over the holidays because they look better. As for the new players, you can only talk about an initial impact."
Finally there was a question about tactics and whether 4-3-2-1 is Stramaccioni's ideal formation. "We've talked about this lots of times. I think the main thing is the team's playing philosophy; after that it's just variants on the same theme. We certainly won't be playing with three at the back or with two centre forwards. And we certainly want to be playing attacking football."
