Simone Inzaghi admits Inter ‘can’t maintain the same level of concentration and determination every two and a half days’ after their damaging defeat to Bologna.
The Nerazzurri already lost at the Stadio Dall’Ara last season, a result that effectively ended their Scudetto hopes, and the same happened in 2023.
Riccardo Orsolini’s chest and half-volley into the roof of the net beat Andre Onana for ultimately a deserved Bologna victory, allowing leaders Napoli to go 18 points clear at the top of the Serie A table.
Coming off a Champions League win against FC Porto, Inzaghi rested some players and was missing others like Milan Skriniar and Federico Dimarco to injury.
“We had the wrong approach from the start and the first half was not up to Inter standards,” confessed Inzaghi to Sky Sport Italia.
“Bologna are in good shape and once we got the measure of them, we believed in victory, but conceded a really avoidable goal. We are angry, because coming off a big match and having injuries is only an excuse up to a point, we should’ve done more.”
This result is part of a wider pattern in Inter’s campaign, following up an impressive victory with either a draw or defeat in a match that on paper was easier.
Their away record is also dismal, with only five wins, two draws and five defeats, conceding 22 goals.
“We must seek new motivation every two or three days. I am the coach, so it is my role too, we all must do more in these situations and have a better initial approach to these games.
“You cannot deny the statistics show our away results have been insufficient. We have analysed it, talked it over with the lads, but the fact is we have now thrown away the advantage we had over the other teams in the Champions League race. We must do better away from San Siro.”
Inzaghi admits that aside from squad rotation, it is a psychological issue preventing Inter from keeping their focus over several different tournaments, which is a problem considering they are in the Champions League Round of 16 and the Coppa Italia semi-finals.
“We can’t seem to maintain the same level of concentration and determination playing every two and a half days. We know that we are Inter and we have a packed fixture list, we used up a lot of energy against Porto on Wednesday, but still we ought to do better.
“The second half wasn’t bad and with a little more precision in our finishing, we’d be here talking about a very different result, but in the first half we did practically nothing.”
This is BS. Inzaghi had 9 days to prepare the Empoli match and it was a pathetic loss.