PESCARA – Frank de Boer has praised his Inter side after they battled back from a goal down to secure a 2-1 win at Pescara on Sunday night.
"The team wanted to win," said the Inter boss after the game. "It was really important for me and for our morale. We pushed for the three points right until the end and played quite well. We worked hard and there was some good stuff on show, but we can get a lot better.
"Pescara’s chances stemmed from our lapses of concentration – we lost our heads after their goal and opened up a bit too much. In the end I think we deserved to win because we created a lot of chances by playing well, not by taking advantage of their errors. Four of their five chances came from our errors – we need to improve on that."
It was De Boer’s triple change midway through the second half – Palacio, Jovetic and Eder on for Medel, Perisic and Candreva – that seemed to spark the Inter revival.
"I saw that a few players were tired and we have an excellent squad. We put on three fresh players to apply pressure to their defence and I think that was the right call. I wanted to win and we got the three points. We don’t just have 11 players – we have 25 and all of the players in this squad are important," said the Inter coach.
Next up for the Nerazzurri is a mouth-watering home clash against champions Juventus, and De Boer is looking forward to the test.
"It’s a fascinating game. We’ll be up against a great side but we can cause them problems. We need to improve in some areas because at times we lose the ball too easily. They’re a quality side so we need to raise our game. That said, we fought hard today and that’s why we got the three points.
"Palacio is working hard – he deserves to play every game. He’s a great professional and I’m really happy with him. His time will come. He played a key role tonight and deserved a goal, but he was just lacking that bit of good fortune. He’ll be very important for us this season – he’s experienced and is good at finding the space. We have lots of great players," explained De Boer.
With Gabriel Barbosa waiting in the wings, the Nerazzurri coach said he thought the Brazilian could play up front alongside captain Mauro Icardi.
"He’s shown he’s a fantastic player – anyone would want to have him in their team. He’ll be an important player for us. We need to get him settled in but we can’t wait to have him available. He can play in any of the three attacking positions, so we’ll see. He and Icardi can certainly play together – I don’t see why not. We have lots of games to play so we’ll need everyone.
"We may play with two strikers. Rodrigo can play behind Mauro, for example. When Pescara were winning we put the three strikers on and they dropped deep to defend their lead, giving us more space. Icardi made sure he was in the right place at the right time, and with a player close to him he’ll find more space."
De Boer recognised that it had been a mixed bag from Inter at Pescara, but declared himself happy with the result.
"At half time we said we could improve, especially in terms of the full-backs getting forward – they were too deep in the first half. We did lots of good things tonight but there were a few mistakes too. We know we need to get better and we spoke about that at half time. We wanted to equalise as early as possible but we gave stupid balls away at times. Thankfully Handanovic was extraordinary – he stopped basically everything. I’m really satisfied."
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