MILAN - Andrea Stramaccioni spoke to Sky Sport Italia after watching his side get back to winning ways with a 2-0 triumph over Pescara: "It went well. I think the most important thing is that we seem to be taking hold of the game again. We took our game a step forward today."
Marco Benassi made his Serie A debut and surprised a few people with his confident display. Stramaccioni commented: "Since the start of the season we've been trying to work on our youngsters as they're an important asset to the club. Some people might have frowned when they saw him in the starting line-up but he showed he was up to it and played a great game. He's 18 years old, his growth is entirely down to all the hard work he and our youth academy have put in."
Antonio Cassano didn't look happy when he came off. "I think that's perfectly normal," the coach replied. "It was at a time of the game when we were creating lots and he wanted to score. It shows how much he cares about the shirt and the team. I thought it was the right moment to give Rocchi his first game at the San Siro and get some minutes in him. Do Antonio and I need to clear things up? No, there's nothing to clear up at all. We added to our striking options precisely so that we can rest our forwards a bit more. Not being able to do that enough was one of the problems we had in the first half of the season."
When it was put to Stramaccioni that the Inter seen in Udine was perhaps better than the Inter against Pescara, Stramaccioni said: "I liked what I saw against Udinese too until Juan Jesus' sending off. Today, if you factor in all the players we had unavailable, we created a lot without giving anything away. I'm sure the reason Pescara didn't play so well was that Inter did. We've clearly made progress in how we deal with teams that try to sit back and defend."
The coach continued: "Having Chivu back in the side boosts our creativity when building from the back and, as I said, compared to some of the other games we've played against teams who come here to park the bus, we didn't get caught out on the counter as we have before. We were solid tonight and I think that's another sign that Inter are determined to get going again."
Finally, Stramaccioni commented on Zanetti's celebration after Palacio's goal: "Zanetti is the heartbeat of this team and it just shows you how united these lads are and how much they want to deflect the criticism that's come our way."
