LONDON - André Villas-Boas and Andrea Stramaccioni: two of the youngest and
most promising coaches in Europe. The Nerazzurri boss continued his press
conference on the eve of Tottenham v Inter and reflected on this fact.
"He’s definitely shown that great coaching talent can be displayed at a
younger age as well. He’s been an example for all young European coaches. He had
the good fortune to work at a very young age with one of the best coaches in
the world like José Mourinho and was able to gain experience and then confirm
his quality. First at Porto, then later in England. I wish him luck as he
continues on his path."
It won’t be the first match against Tottenham for the Nerazzurri coach: last
year there was a 7-1 defeat in the NextGen Series when he was in charge of the
Primavera team. "It’s a bad memory, but at the same time a good one. We
suffered a heavy defeat here in London against one of the best youth teams in
Europe, then we were able to win the reverse fixture and go on to win the
tournament on the same pitch where we had played the first match. Tomorrow’s
game will be one in which Inter will need a great performance to get a result.
I think Tottenham are currently one of the most in-form teams in the Premier
League. It’s not an excuse, but we’re arriving here with much stronger
motivation due to our emergency situation. We’ll show our quality in order to
compete against one of the top teams in Europe at the moment."
The motivation is something that leads to a different type of team spirit, strong enough to overcome any emergency. Stramaccioni explained: "I’m convinced that the second half of the Catania match was a reaction, but there was also a lot of skill involved since the team managed to create a lot after going down. It can’t have been simply a nervous reaction. Since we lost Diego [Milito], and not counting the following game against Fiorentina, this formation with a central striker has allowed the team to grow game by game and impose our play, which is something we weren’t always able to do in the past. Tomorrow’s match will be a bit different from the one against Catania as regards the quality of the opponent, and also because I’ll have to make do without some players who aren’t on our UEFA list. But I’m convinced we’re on the right path. Samuel returned today, Silvestre is on his way and we’re awaiting Nagatomo. Getting these players back is definitely important, and we saw that last Sunday with Stankovic. We have two players here that aren’t in perfect condition; Ranocchia and Guarin, who will be assessed in a final test tomorrow morning. But we can’t risk losing more players to injury because, while we have to honour tomorrow’s challenge, our goal is third place in the league."
