EMPOLI - Roberto Mancini was keen to praise the contribution made by Mauro Icardi after the Argentine's strike sealed three points for Inter at Empoli.
"I've always thought that Mauro is a matchwinner and said he would score lots of goals. I have complete faith in his ability. He's doing a great job for us."
The coach was asked about Stevan Jovetic's absence from the starting line-up today. "I like playing Mauro and Stevan together but sometimes we need to do without one of the two, or we might go with a different formation. Jovetic is a top-quality striker who could end up scoring another 15 goals which would complement our attack perfectly."
Mancini went on to praise Inter's opponents before discussing the match from a tactical perspective.
"Empoli is a really tough place to go and they play some great football. Giampaolo is doing an excellent job.
"In the end 1-0 was enough, although we had chances to double our lead and we ran a few risks because of mistakes we made. It's always been difficult to come here and even more so now that Giampaolo has got them playing so well."
"Empoli were better than us in the first half while we were much improved after the break.
"Brozovic and Kondogbia swapped positions and did well. Was it my choice? No... [laughs]. They did it."
Next was a question about the transfer window. Can this Inter side be improved? "Yes, you can always improve but the reality is that it's hard to find players who can make you much better in January unless you want to go and fork out the sort of money I don't think it would be right to spend at the moment."
Finally, the boss commented on Empoli's penalty appeal for an alleged foul by Jeison Murillo on Manuel Pucciarelli. "I'm not so sure. It doesn't look like he's shooting to me. Pucciarelli stretches his foot out towards Murillo looking for contact. Murillo is going for the ball and Pucciarelli holds his foot out."
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LE PAROLE DI MISTER MANCINI POST EMPOLI INTER
