MAZZARRI: "WE NEED TO BE REALLY FOCUSED AT ALL TIMES"

Coach in the press conference ahead of Atalanta v Inter: "A tricky place to play, they're very aggressive and have quality players"

APPIANO GENTILE - Nerazzurri coach Walter Mazzarri took questions from the press earlier in his media conference at the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti, ahead of Inter's trip to Bergamo where they meet Atalanta in Week 10 of Serie A 2013/14 tomorrow.

Here's the press conference in full:

The first question was about Atalanta, the team's next opponents in the league and historically a tough fixture for Inter: "It's always been a tricky place to go to. Not only for Inter, but especially on their own patch they're very aggressive and focused. It's a unique stadium, you feel the crowd. It's a tough place to play and they're a group of players who have been working with the same coach for a while, they play good football and have some quality players. They're a dangerous side and we need to approach the game correctly. We need to be very focused, something I always stress, and we saw in our last match that when we're all together and focused we can play good football and cause problems for anyone. But we're always at risk once we relax.

"I'll definitely make a change, I need to work out where to play him, but Samuel will definitely play, I want to give him a chance, he's training well and is an important player. Injury kept him out for a long time but he'll be involved tomorrow. In terms of the other areas of the park, I still need to speak to the lads, we've only had a recovery session and I need to hear what they have to say. We played a great game on Saturday, aside from the slip-ups, so all the lads deserve to keep their place. We'll look at how everyone is, if they're close to 100% they'll definitely play. Samuel, being left-footed, could play on the left or in the centre of the back three: I'll speak to the three from the backline to gauge their fitness levels and one will be rested, then we have Udinese four days later."

Asked about the loss of bite and concentration which saw the team concede goals on Saturday evening, Mazzarri replied: "It's another important step in terms of our progress to see where we are with regards to our character, playing away from home always comes into it and we have young players too. These are two big games which will tell us a lot about where we might go from here.

"Palacio, to tell you the truth, is someone I always asked to sign when he was at Genoa. I've always liked him as a player, he has the sort of attributes I like, he moves a lot, helps out the team and has an eye for goal. I was confident that he could do well," said Mazzarri when asked for his thoughts on Palacio's excellent start to the season. "Campagnaro needs to be fit, when you get injured you lose a bit of fitness, then it's hard to assess things when you play every three days. I couldn't tell you when he'll next play, but the feeling is that he won't be back in time for these two matches," the coach responded to questions on Campagnaro's chances of being involved.

The press asked the coach to assess the Nerazzurri's season so far, as well as the current standings in Serie A: "I'm very happy with the way the lads have responded to me, it wasn't easy. Aside from the results, I look at the performances and how the players move, and I draw satisfaction from things like that. We've learned how to keep the ball well, I'm very happy with that, I'm disappointed that given our performances we've let a few points slip along the way, we could even have a few more points in the table.

"It's hard to find a team in our league that wins nine out of nine, it's an impressive record which shows the 'anomaly' if you will. They're doing something which would have been hard to foresee and will be difficult to repeat, but the other sides are still keeping up a good pace. Were it not for Roma, the league table would probably be even more exciting, but Serie A is still very interesting this year."


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LIVE! CONFERENZA MAZZARRI PRE UDINESE-INTER 02/11/2013 H. 11:30 CET

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