APPIANO GENTILE – Inter coach Roberto Mancini believes his Nerazzurri side are in for a real battle when they visit Torino tomorrow lunchtime. Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Mancini declared: "It’s never easy against Torino, they’re a quality side and Ventura is a great coach. We’ll need to fight for every ball, be aggressive and ensure we don’t give them too much space because they have some very good players. Ventura and I have our bond with Sampdoria in common. How are we different? Our age!"
Mauro Icardi started on the bench for the match against Roma, but Mancini believes he’s ready to start tomorrow: "Mauro didn’t need to prove anything to me during the week, it was a tactical decision to leave him on the bench, just like it was in Bologna with Jovetic. It happens in all teams and is pretty normal – the coach has to make decisions and unfortunately sometimes you have to leave big players on the bench. He just needs to keep doing what he’s always done and get back to scoring lots of goals."
Mancini also addressed the rumours linking Inter with a move for Andrea Pirlo: "I’ve not spoken to him. But anything can happen in football. MLS is over for the season so maybe he wants to rest, but I’m sure clubs will be interested if he fancies a return to Italy because he’s a fantastic player. He’s a champion – not your average player. He has amazing technique and reads the game quicker than most other players. In the future we may look at players with similar characteristics because we have players that are very physically strong and they can give us more when the pitches cut up a bit."
The Inter coach was then asked whether he knows his best formation, given that he has changed the line-up several times over the first 11 weeks of the season: "Rotation shows we have faith in all the players. The only player who hasn’t played is Martin Montoya – he’s a fantastic professional and a good player, so I hope he can get a chance. All of the others have played, we’ve made lots of changes because we had three matches in one week, including two on the road."
Asked who the favourites for the league title are, Mancini replied: "I don’t think there is one team significantly better than all the rest. Some sides have less of a problem in gelling the players because their squads have been together for longer and they’re more sure of things, like Roma and Napoli. We have fewer uncertainties than a few weeks ago, but we’re still lacking something."
Mancini then spoke about the form of some of his players: "Nagatomo and D’Ambrosio are model professionals and trained really well even when they weren’t playing. Medel is fine, he has no fitness issues. Kondogbia is a very young player, let’s not forget that he’s 21 years old so obviously doesn’t have the same experience and knowledge as other older players. He’s really talented – he makes some errors, like everyone does, but we just need to be patient and give him some time."
Last but not least, Mancini said a few words on Valentino Rossi ahead of his date with MotoGP destiny: "He’s made comebacks before in his career. It won’t be an easy race but he is still ahead by a few points. He believes he can do it and that’s vital. We all hope he wins – he’s been leading the way for ages and he really deserves it. Even if he doesn’t manage to pull it off, he’s still the best rider in the world."
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