Frank de Boer denies he has a problem with Inter midfielder Ever Banega – “it’s a tactical question”.
The Argentinian international arrived on a free transfer from Sevilla this summer, and was initially a key part of the Nerazzurri side.
However, after being hooked after an hour in the defeat to Cagliari Banega hasn’t featured since.
Frank de Boer denies he has a problem with Inter midfielder Ever Banega – “it’s a tactical question”.
The Argentinian international arrived on a free transfer from Sevilla this summer, and was initially a key part of the Nerazzurri side.
However, after being hooked after an hour in the defeat to Cagliari Banega hasn’t featured since.
“It’s a tactical question, I won’t explain my decision,” De Boer told reporters in his Press conference ahead of the Torino game.
“I’m very happy with Ever though. He’s doing well, but we have a lot of good players. I preferred [Marcelo] Brozovic, but that can alway change.
“It’s not a problem with the player, but a tactical choice.
“Gabigol? I’ve said repeatedly that you have to understand it’s not easy for him here, the team isn’t going through a good spell and it’s not easy for a new face.
“He’s working hard and his time will come.”
Gary Medel will miss the next three games, subject to appeal, after elbowing Atalanta’s Jasmin Kurtic and De Boer is less than impressed.
“The club will decide if he gets fined. He hurt himself but also the team. He needs to know he made a mistake, at a time like this an experienced player like him is important for us.
“Soon we’ll know the outcome of the appeal but he’ll definitely miss tomorrow. He didn’t behave in a very intelligent way.”
With the Coach under pressure, high-flying Torino aren’t ideal opponents.
“Torino are a team who play with the ball and press high up the park,” De Boer explained.
“They’re in a good period and they have three strikers are in form. [Adem] Ljajic, [Andrea] Belotti and [Iago] Falque are doing well, they’ll come to San Siro full of confidence.
“It’ll be an interesting game, they play a 4-3-3, they press and have a philosophy like ours.”
Much has been said about Inter’s pressing, but against Atalanta they seemed to be second to every ball…
“The first half was very bad in Bergamo, I don’t know how we could play like that.
“We know though, that when our opponent scores first it affects us mentally as happened on other occasions.
“That costs us a lot of energy, so our concentration has to be better, we have to be the ones to score first. We spoke to the players yesterday, and it’s very important to maintain concentration.
“I don’t want to talk about what was said, I just want to see a team united by the same idea of how to play, that’s very important to me. We have to win with our philosophy.
“Against Southampton I saw discipline without the ball and it was the same against Juventus. We must alway start from that, whatever way we want to play.
“First things first we have to be compact, then when we get on the ball we can play with confidence.
“That’s what happened in the second half [in Bergamo], especially after the goal.”