Simone Inzaghi wants Inter to feel ‘motivation and not pressure’ as the Serie A leaders visit Bologna, backs Marcelo Brozovic to stay and shrugs off the Romelu Lukaku controversy.
It kicks off on Thursday at 11.30 GMT at the Stadio Dall’Ara, although Bologna have numerous absentees between COVID-19, injury and Africa Cup of Nations duty.
The Nerazzurri too are missing Edin Dzeko and Alex Cordaz with COVID-19, while Hakan Calhanoglu is suspended.
“It’s a complicated match, Bologna beat Sassuolo 3-0 before the break for Christmas and we know how good a coach Sinisa Mihajlovic is. We need a strong performance,” said Inzaghi in his press conference.
“I don’t think this climate of uncertainty is good for anyone in football, because it’s difficult to prepare for games, you have to be ready to change personnel and strategy at a moment’s notice. It happened a lot over the last two years of this pandemic, but everyone is in the same boat.”
Inter won the Scudetto last season under Antonio Conte and their results have actually improved under Inzaghi, sealing the Serie A Winter Champions title and reaching the Champions League Round of 16.
That was achieved despite selling Achraf Hakimi and Romelu Lukaku, the Chelsea striker confessing last week he had regrets over the way he left Inter.
“It’s not something that really has to do with me. All I can say is that Lukaku is a great player who had two extraordinary seasons here. He worked with me for 10 days and is a top player, so I’m sure he’ll do well at Chelsea too,” noted Inzaghi.
“As I said before, we need the enthusiasm around Inter to be motivation and not pressure. We know that we are the leaders and everyone will be out to cause us problems.
“Nobody thought we were favourites two months ago, now they are saying it because we are on top. Compliments are nice, but the objective is to win trophies, which I achieved at Lazio and now want to do here too.”
As for the future, Inzaghi is confident that he won’t lose his key midfield star, whose contract is set to expire in June.
“I have said repeatedly that I believe Marcelo Brozovic is happy here, he’s very important for this team and I think he will extend his contract.”
#Inter, #Inzaghi: ‘Aspetto #Zhang per il mercato. Penso che #Brozovic rinnoverà e su #Lukaku…’ https://t.co/ip9TxNfaRL pic.twitter.com/jr6yqiFP3L
— calciomercato.com (@cmdotcom) January 5, 2022