GENOA – Speaking to Mediaset Premium before Inter’s away meeting with Sampdoria, Nerazzurri sporting director Piero Ausilio called on the team to show their worth.
"The signal must now come from the team. We played a great game on Wednesday and deserved to win. We pushed until the end to win the match, with quality of play, and in the end we were rewarded.
"[Geoffrey] Kondogbia has a physical problem, people try and look for some kind of strange explanation behind that but it’s merely a physical issue. Otherwise, the coach has made technical decisions; perhaps his expectations haven’t been met. Gabriel [Barbosa] needs to be protected and guided because he is still getting to know the Italian league."
Ausilio was keen to underline the class in the Inter ranks: "It’s an advantage to have quality in the squad and we’re happy with that. We have experience and quality both up front and in midfield, we have different ways of playing, all of which can be useful.
"I’d like to recall [Rodrigo] Palacio’s 20-minute cameo on Wednesday; also those who come off the bench are showing the right attitude."
When asked about PSG midfielder Marco Verratti, he commented: "You can only speak well of him, but he’s a PSG player and the team has a clear and ambitious plan. Any sporting director would have some interest, but it’s much too early to talk about that.
"We have a great deal of faith in our youth set-up, we’ve got so many youngsters that have come through at Inter and are playing a key role. We want to develop our young players, including those in the first team. Senna, Gnoukouri, Santon, Andreolli and Biabiany are five who have broken into the first team."
