MILAN – The second part of Walter Mazzarri's press conference at the Stadio Meazza.
"The boos at the Lazio game? I understand what that was about. The fans didn't understand my decision not to pick Zanetti. They were thinking about the old Inter that was coming to an end and deserved a tribute, but the current Inter coach was focused on getting the team back into Europe. With hindsight I think people appreciated the way I handled the farewell of a champion like Zanetti. It was done the best way possible: he came on at the right time and helped us obtain a result that was partially in the bag. Inter won an important match. Javier was able to go on with his farewell to the fans after the game. He might not have been able to last the whole 90 minutes at a certain tempo. He knew all that and he agreed with me about it. The result proved us right and the fans appreciated it.
"Every year is different and you always get a surprise package or two, like Udinese last season - clubs where there's less pressure, whereas here we have to live up to our tradition. What matters at the end of the day is reaching your objective. It'll have been more or less the same last year but what matters is that Inter got back up to 5th. It comes down to your target and your results. Inter are undergoing a rebuilding process, there are times in football when you can't apply maths to certain parameters.
"As for our Europa League campaign, I'll speak to the president then at the end of the transfer window we'll look at the squad we have, but speaking generally when I was at Napoli we made certain choices with the aim of getting through the group stage without dropping too many points in the league. We came second and went through to the next round and it was a useful experience for everyone – you can see that in people like Insigne this year. If you want to try to win on several fronts you need to invest and put together a certain type of squad.
"Thohir always talks to me about formations, he's very enthusiastic. There were games that got him excited and others when we didn't play well, and when that happens he says so. You expect that, I do the same – it's normal. This year we started playing aggressively and setting ourselves up in the opposition's half. We played very well at times too, and less well on other occasions. We were very inconsistent and that's something we have to work on. We'll try to learn from it so that we don't go through the same again next season. I see lots of positives to take from this season. We've laid some good foundations to build on next year.
"Fitness levels? Giuseppe Pondrelli and I have always excelled in that respect because our teams have always had very few lulls during the course of a season. This year it was more about how we managed our games and acquiring the right mentality to get going a certain way. It was my first year in charge of this team, there were lots of things to assess and manage over the season and all those factors meant we weren't able to perform consistently and at our best. If a player is at 100 I want to push him to 110 but it's hard to keep that up for 38 games. Sometimes you manage it but you need everything to come together, it's the same for the team as a whole. There could be lots of reasons for it, I think I know what they are but it's a professional secret.
"What do Inter need for next year? You'll see that on the first day of pre-season training. There will be players who are still with us. In the first week I'll work on a four-man defence. I like to be able to balance the team a certain way and I'd like to be able to play with four at the back and a holding midfielder – an important position that could be useful if I played a 3-5-2 too. It's the most important signing for us to think about, with a view to playing four across the back as well. To give you an idea of the sort of player I mean, but someone we wouldn't be able to get, take Luiz Gustavo. If you have someone like him you can play with a four-man defence and do it properly. Or the De Rossi we saw this year: you have an extra man in midfield and can apply more pressure further up the pitch. One thing is the idea you have as a coach, another is what you're able to do. I'll choose the most suitable formation depending on what new players we have. I want my team to be able to slot into these formations I have in mind immediately so that we can switch mid-game, with the players aware of the movements and the lines that I want."The president said we need to grow before we can play in the Champions League. This was the first year of a new era under a new president, a transition year. The club dictates the guidelines we'll have to follow. If you ask me, I'll try to take us beyond expectations, doing better in an environment that I know now after working here for a year. You need to have an objective starting point but never set any limits and always try to go as far as possible.
"We have made a few considerations since we'll be involved in two competitions and will have to think differently. I'll rotate much more with the Europa League. We'll try to work out a basic starting 11 after the transfer window, but it depends on how that goes too. In any case, 'first-choice players' is a term I want to use as little as possible because everyone should be vying for a berth next year since we'll be fighting on two fronts.
"This year, for various reasons, such as having a new group of players who weren't familiar with my methods, I wasn't able to do what did at Napoli. I want to give the team an alternative way of playing: if they adapt to it well I'll consider the option of being able to switch mid-game. When I put a team out I have to be sure my players know what they're supposed to be doing. What I wasn't able to do this year I'll try to do next year.
"Could we have done better in the Coppa Italia? The choices I made at the time were the right ones to make, even though it meant putting the result of the game at risk. The match in Udine was our last opportunity to figure out what we wanted to do in that transfer window and decisions were taken together with the management. It really was a case of collecting information. You need to see a player in action before you can make any sort of decision about him. You can't just get rid of a player like that, because you like or him or don't like him. At that point in time we needed to make some choices and the result didn't go our way on the pitch, but that's the season we've had.
"Luiz Gustavo? I just wanted to give you an idea of the sort of player I mean, even though he's beyond our reach. Obi Mikel? Yes, he's another player of a certain level but I'm not going to talk about the transfer market. It's only right that Ausilio should do that.
"How do we replace Milito? Having Icardi injured for so long was one of my biggest regrets this season. And Diego was the big question mark, I spent the whole year trying to get the best Milito – he's a player I've always liked, even when I wasn't at Inter. If I'd had him at his best, we probably would have achieved more this year. Icardi did really well, with ups and downs. He started well, had a dip then turned it on again. But we've given ourselves a good starting point for next year with a young player who's full of promise.
"How much does the coach influence things? Look at last year's league table: from ninth upwards, apart from Juventus, the only teams that have improved their positions are Inter and Roma. Then look at the signings made by other clubs and what we did. For a start, we're back in Europe again and we weren't this year - that's already something. It's been a positive year: it could have gone very differently and that's the truth.
"When faced with certain situations you have to make do with what you have. I'll always try to do the best I can. What a club would like to do is one thing, what it can actually do is another. I'll optimise everything that's made available to me.
"Our youngsters? We're weighing things up at the moment because being in the Europa League we need to work out which ones are best to keep here with us, also bearing in mind things like the rules for registering your squad. We're looking at who should come on the pre-season training camp with us."
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CONFERENZA STAMPA WALTER MAZZARRI 21/05/2014 12:30 CEST
