APPIANO GENTILE – The next match is already upon us. Cagliari v Inter kicks off just 64 hours after Inter v Fiorentina, but despite the objective difficulties Walter Mazzarri stressed, "I don't want to make excuses because we still have to produce a top performance tomorrow, regardless of how much time we have."
Speaking in his pre-match press conference immediately before leaving for Trieste, the coach added: "Of course, they could be a bit more careful about making things the same for everyone. If we could have at least played it at 20:45... For example I've just run in off the pitch to come here and talk to you and then we're leaving straight after. I'd just like a bit more attention paid to these things. It mustn't be used as an excuse though, even if an extra seven or eight hours can make all the difference sometimes."
Mazzarri went on to discuss what line-up he is planning at the end of three games in a week: "This is the only time I haven't been able to hand the shirts out and it will all be up in the air until tomorrow morning. I haven't even had time to talk to all the players. I'll go with my instinct, trying to maintain the basic structure of the team while changing the right number of players. I also have to bear in mind that Jonathan came off knackered on Thursday, that Palacio and Alvarez were also tired...
"I'd be sorry if I had to leave Cambiasso out at the moment because he's hit peak form. Who could come in for him? As things stand Kuzmanovic is probably the best suited, but I'll have to think about it. The fact is there's not enough time to recover. I have to weigh everything up, work out what's best and try to put out the line-up that will give me the best guarantees. I also need to consider which players - among those who haven't played much - are most clued up tactically, because while we do our work with 22 players – two for each position – there are some who have grasped it all better than others."
The Nerazzurri coach then analysed tomorrow's opponents: "Cagliari have got an excellent coach who has them playing nice football, some excellent players and some very good ones. If we're not careful, if we don't do everything properly, we could well find ourselves stepping onto a banana skin amidst the euphoria.
"When I start out on a new journey with a team, I try to give everything I have to my players so I say 'Let's go for it'. It's a coach's duty when he arrives at a club to try and get the very best out of his players."
One thing is sure however, that Mateo Kovacic will start. "It's really the only certainty that I have in mind. He's come back and he did well, especially in the last game when I brought him on, and he deserves to start. Now he must prove he's worthy of it."
