Frank de Boer points out he had no pre-season at Inter – “we have to try things in competitive games…”
The former defender replaced Roberto Mancini on the bench over the summer, but his first match in charge was the Serie A opener against Chievo.
“When you have more weeks to prepare for the season, you can try and find the limits of the team and prepare for the League,” De Boer explained.
Frank de Boer points out he had no pre-season at Inter – “we have to try things in competitive games…”
The former defender replaced Roberto Mancini on the bench over the summer, but his first match in charge was the Serie A opener against Chievo.
“When you have more weeks to prepare for the season, you can try and find the limits of the team and prepare for the League,” De Boer explained.
“What we should have tried in friendlies we’re trying in competitive games. Now we’re finding problems which otherwise we’d have found in pre-season.
“That’s very difficult, the real problem is that we didn’t play many friendlies. Inter wanted to play a more attacking style, but it takes time to implement that.
“In time I might discover the perfect squad for that philosophy, but for now we have to accept the situation and move forward step-by-step, and at some point the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place.
“It’s not easy to do that when the League is already underway, but I accepted this situation at the beginning of the project and the club and the ownership were aware of it.
“It’s not like these problems would be solved with another Coach, another Coach would face the same problems.
“All that counts is that Suning believe in this project and we can fix the situation.
“The philosophy has always remained the same, in a lot of games we’ve played the way we wanted.
“Maybe not for 90 minutes, but against Juventus, Roma, Cagliari and Bologna I saw the Inter that I want to see more of.
“Right now we need to understand how to avoid mistakes. As far as I’m concerned it’s just a matter of time, it’s very difficult to work with 20 new players.
“A lot of them are disappointed because they haven’t played, but only 11 can take the field. You have to accept that, but even for me it’s not easy.
“I’ve said this to the team too: only 11 can play.”
It’s reported that even a win against Torino wouldn’t be enough to spare De Boer the sack…
“I don’t want to think about it, I’m just concentrating on preparing the team. After that I’ll think about the rest, I’m optimistic.
“I have faith in the team and I think they can get out of this period. The club knew it was a difficult project and they’re supporting me now.”