APPIANO GENTILE – His mind is on Cagliari but going into tomorrow's game Andrea Stramaccioni was asked to analyse previous fixtures and explain the difference between Inter's defeat to Siena and last Sunday's defeat to Atalanta: "They are different. Losing to Siena was a major turning point for Inter because that's when we changed our way of playing, whereas last Sunday we lost while trying to win the game, as Inter do. Losing to Siena was like our lowest point."
So what can be learnt from the Atalanta game? "We saw similar situations to those which led us to change our system. We found ourselves exposed to risks at the back again. Atalanta didn't carve out many clear-cut chances but we saw the sort of dangerous situations we had seen before, although there were less of them."
Stramaccioni was also asked if tomorrow's match could be the fourth game running with his side featuring a three-pronged attack: "The team obviously has a huge attacking threat when we field three players of that ilk. However, I think the real question regards the other seven. I don't feel Inter can play with those three in every game or in any case not for the full 90 minutes, because on some occasions you'd risk playing into the hands of your opponents. Whether we go with an attacking trio or not, we must start getting points again but – I repeat – we have to be careful because Cagliari are a dangerous side with the pace they have up front and the forward runs their midfielders make."Another of the topics brought up during the press conference was the recent exchange of words between Cassano and Conte, with the coach asked for his view on the matter: "I've always taken a balanced, clear-headed position. After the Juventus v Inter game I heard a bit too much talk about Inter. As a club, we responded calmly through Marco Branca. But others are free to say what they want. Antonio doesn't need any assistance, he replied in the way he deemed fit, with his own head and his own personality. But after the Juve game, Inter's name got dragged into too many things, and not for footballing reasons, whereas we're only interested in talking about football. We're united and we'll stick to our path."
The Nerazzurri coached also replied to a specific question about Juventus: "I didn't see the Bianconeri struggling energy-wise against Inter: they played the first 20 minutes at an incredible tempo and also at the end. Explaining away Inter's win with a drop in Juve's fitness levels makes me smile. Some people take a balanced view of things and others say that if you win it's because the others didn't play well. We'll continue on our path, but I don't see a drop in other teams' fitness levels."
