Walter Mazzarri felt Inter would’ve beaten Napoli if they had taken some of their many first half chances.
The battle with his former club ended 0-0 at San Siro with many opportunities for both teams.
Walter Mazzarri felt Inter would’ve beaten Napoli if they had taken some of their many first half chances.
The battle with his former club ended 0-0 at San Siro with many opportunities for both teams.
“We weren’t attentive enough in the first half on their counter-attacks, which are their greatest strengths, and it’s a shame we didn’t take any of our chances. If we’d have scored in the first half, when we deserved to, then we could’ve won,” the Coach told Sky Sport Italia.
Mauro Icardi said something to Mazzarri when substituted, but the tactician assured it was nothing to be concerned about.
“I had told Icardi and Rodrigo Palacio, who both had cramp, to run back and help the midfield after Marek Hamsik came on. He told me he did all he could and I shook his hand. That’s all.
“If Hamsik would’ve played we were going to put four at the back, so when he came on we had to adjust the midfield. It’s not the kind of football I like, though.
“We were also missing Jonathan, so with him we could’ve pushed Danilo D’Ambrosio into a full-back role.
“I like the Roma style of midfield with Daniele De Rossi starting the moves, one I also adopted at Napoli a few times last season, usually in the second half. However, those players were with me for a long time and knew my tactics very well, so here it would’ve been too risky against Napoli’s quality.
“The mechanisms and channels change when you have four at the back. We had so much work to do this season that it was better to keep things simple!”
Inter have notched up more draws than any other Serie A side this season.
“There have been too many draws, many of them recently at home with throwing points away. It’s a shame, as we played well and couldn’t finish the games off.”
Mateo Kovacic is finding his form now after Mazzarri benched him for most of the campaign.
“I am a Coach who tries to improve his players. He had a few naive moments at the end tonight, but overall he is improving and is doing beautiful moves that help the team rather than just entertaining for the sake of it.
“He’s doing better off the ball too now and is growing to become a champion in future.”