REGGIO EMILIA - Roberto Mancini is confident Inter have a good platform to build on next season when they will be looking for further improvement on this year's result.
The Nerazzurri finished the 2015/16 campaign with a 3-1 defeat at Sassuolo having previously secured fourth place and Europa League qualification.
Speaking after the match in Reggio Emilia, the coach began his analysis by commenting on some of the mistakes his team made.
"The mistakes we were making during part of the season were repeated tonight. We did quite well in the first half. Their first goal was slightly fortuitous then after that we were naïve on two occasions.”
Where do Inter start from next year? “I think Inter already have good foundations in place. We need to improve on what we have. How we do that is hard to say right now. We'll see what we can do over the coming weeks. With Financial Fair Play you have to see what you can actually do. Sometimes you need a bit of luck in the market to get a good player on loan, for example – someone who can improve the team without weighing heavily on your finances.”
It was put to the boss that several of his players have performed lower than expected this season.
“For a start I'm not happy and I wouldn't be happy even if we'd finished third. If we'd got the same number of points in the second half of the season as we did in the first, we would have finished on 78 points and it still wouldn't have been enough to get into the Champions League – that's never happened in the last ten years, in Italy or any other European league. The teams who came second and third this year racked up a huge amount of points.
“As for the players, for some of them it was their first year in Italy and next year they'll have to do much better. A lot better because if we want to improve we really do need to do much better.
“I think Murillo was superb in the first half of the season but it's also his first year in Serie A and that's why he had a few difficulties in the second half. He made some mistakes but he'll improve.”
Asked about his comments during his pre-match press conference, Mancini replied: “I've spent a long time at Inter and I've won seven trophies here so I'd like everyone to understand the work we're doing."
Can we say Roberto Mancini is 100% sure to be the Inter coach next season? “If everyone is happy, yes.”
