MILAN - Roberto Mancini feels Inter only have themselves to blame if they come away from the last game of 2015 against Lazio empty-handed.
Mauro Icardi equalised in the second half to cancel out Antonio Candreva's opener before the Lazio man fired home the winner following Samir Handanovic's spot-kick save.
Speaking after the final whistle, the coach admitted the Nerazzurri weren't on their game tonight but insists it was carelessness and a lack of patience that cost them the points.
"We knew it was going to be a difficult match but we brought the defeat on ourselves," Mancini explained. "It's disappointing because we threw it away.
"I don't think it has anything to do with all the Christmas parties, although obviously you need to stay focused until the last match of the year. I didn't even really like our warm-up tonight but we got it back to 1-1 before stupidly throwing the match away again.
"We didn't play well but Lazio didn't do all that much either and sometimes you can win even when you don't play well.
"We weren't compact enough initially, then we got ourselves back into it in the second half and we had them pegged right back. We needed to be a bit more patient. We could have taken a draw; you can't just go and throw it away."
The boss went on to discuss his choice of tactics.
"We thought we could hurt them with Perisic and Biabiany out wide and Icardi and Jovetic through the middle, but we didn't do enough attacking and rarely tested Lazio's defence. We were too stretched out and struggled to keep the team tight together."
He was also asked about the increased pressure from the chasing pack.
"It's a long season. If you'd told us we'd be top at the end of the year, we'd have taken it, but we could have had a few points more.
"The result is a bit of a downer for us going into the holidays but we're still top. Juventus, Napoli, Fiorentina and Roma have a bit extra."
Finally, Mancini spoke about Marcelo Brozovic's position: "He's not ready to play as part of a double pivot if we have two wingers and two centre forwards. He runs a lot but has a strong inclination to get forward. With time he could play in that position though. He'll develop into a fantastic midfielder."
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