APPIANO GENTILE – A week on from the match at the Olimpico and ahead of welcoming Andrea Stramaccioni's Udinese to the Meazza, Roberto Mancini shared his thoughts with the gathered media at a news conference.
He began: "I hope it's a great game tomorrow. We'll take the positives from Rome - and I think there were plenty of them."
A lot of the media attention in the build-up to tomorrow's game has been on whether Mauro Icardi or Dani Osvaldo will start. The coach immediately satisified the journalists' curiosity by declaring, "Icardi will start tomorrow. I went with Osvaldo against Roma because he was fresher but I have faith in both him and Mauro. I think Icardi can develop into a top-class centre forward. As I said, I have great confidence in him."
Mancini then analysed last Sunday's game in more detail: "We did make some mistakes in Rome but I think we're on the right path and I'm sure things will start to pick up. I'm convinced that if we hadn't made those mistakes we wouldn't have lost. And if we hadn't conceded the third right after pegging them back to 2-2 we would have pushed on and tried to win the game."
The topic switched to talk of his future number two at Inter. "I worked with Sylvinho at Manchester City. As a coach he can really help these lads. He's got lots of experience and he's much younger than I am so he can run about the pitch with them more than me. He also speaks several languages."
Asked about having a leader in every area of the pitch, the coach continued: "All the players need good leadership skills. I'm sure they can improve greatly in that too. Our target at the moment is to do as well as possible in the next three matches. I came here to get Inter winning again and to build a great team."
Mancini then spoke about his opposite number, Andrea Stramaccioni: "I know he did a magnificent job here with Inter's Primavera side. It's not easy for any coach to come in after a very successful period. When you're young you can make mistakes – we all can. He's already a good coach and I think with experience he will only get better."
Finally, a word on the fans: "I hope the crowd can be our 12th man on the pitch. When we have them behind us they give us a huge hand."
