PALERMO - Roberto Mancini rued the fact that Inter were unable to beat Palermo at the Stadio Barbera this evening but said he was nonetheless pleased with the way his team played for large parts of the game.
Speaking to the media after the 1-1 draw with the Sicilian outfit, he said: "We're not totally happy because we wanted to win. We tried our hardest right till the end but couldn't find a winner.
"Palermo caused us problems in the opening stages because we were too stretched out. Then towards the end of the first half and in the second period Jovetic dropped in between the lines and we did much better. We were unlucky to concede that goal to them and unlucky to lose Murillo too.
"Even when we went down to ten men we had chances to restore our lead but Sorrentino did brilliantly.
"I'm happy with our second-half display because we gave it our best shot right up till the end. Now we really need to start winning again though."
The coach went on to field questions about specific players.
"Icardi is going through a period where he's finding it harder to hit the back of the net - that's something all strikers go through. The main thing is he stays calm and always gets involved in our moves. He needs to improve his understanding with Jovetic because they've only played six or seven games together. Even when the team is not firing on all cylinders, if you have two strikers on the same wavelength they can win games for you.
"Unfortunately Biabiany isn't up to playing the full 90 minutes yet, otherwise he would have started today because he's ideal on the right wing. I hope he gets back into peak shape quickly but it's not easy because he's been out for a year and a half. When he was on the field he showed what he can do. He's certainly a very useful player to have around.
"I took off Kondogbia because he was booked but he was playing well. I was going to take Murillo off for the same reason.”
Mancini was asked if Inter will be sticking with 4-2-3-1: "We're trying to find the best system for us to express our ability. The most important thing is we stay up near the top while we're finding our feet."
Do Inter need an alternative to Icardi? "We have lots of good attackers. We're getting Ljajic and Biabiany back to their best and Perisic can play up front too. We also have Palacio who's perfectly capable of playing in that position."
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LE PAROLE DI MANCINI POST PALERMO INTER
