Simone Inzaghi uses a Formula 1 comparison as Inter march 15 points clear with a hard-fought victory over Genoa. ‘We weren’t a Red Bull a few months ago.’
The Nerazzurri are now 15 points clear at the top of the table and have amassed 72 points in Serie A – as many as throughout all of last season.
“Our destiny is in our hands, we put 15 points between Juventus, Milan and us in the space of 33 days,” Inzaghi told Sky Sport Italia.
“We must remain concentrated, because we’ve been in football for many years, we know there are a lot of games to be played, the fixture list will be increasingly packed with Bologna, Atletico Madrid and Napoli before the break for international duty.
“I have to thank these lads, as in 2024 they played 12 games in 50 days and won all 12. We must not look back over our shoulders or pat ourselves on the back, we have to look forward to the future.”
- Raspadori Napoli’s Juventus Killer, Roma‘s Dybala On Fire & More – Listen to the new episode of the Italian Football Podcast here.
However, it was by far from their best performance this evening against a plucky Genoa side, as Kristjan Asllani’s strike and a very contentious Alexis Sanchez penalty proved enough.
Johan Vasquez managed to pull one back on the volley from the edge of the area and Vitinha had a goal ruled offside, but after the 1-1 draw in December, Genoa finally capitulated.
“We must praise Asllani, as he had three games in a week and has been so precious for us, training to his best, even when he didn’t play that much. We did well against Lecce to make that seem easy, but it was an intense match. The same goes for Atalanta and Genoa. I want to publicly praise Kristjan. We need everyone this season and he is a great example of that.”
Squad rotation is necessary, but Inter are also now marching towards a record-breaking campaign.
“We must continue like this, trying to work the way we have been. The lads know what our objectives are, there are still 11 rounds to go in Serie A and 33 points up for grabs, so we can’t let anything go.
“As for squad rotation, I follow what I see in training. People asked me a month ago about Alexis Sanchez and Marko Arnautovic. They say we like the Red Bull in Formula 1, but we weren’t that a few months ago, we weren’t called a Red Bull in August, we got like that by working hard. Alexis and Arnautovic are not a surprise for me, if we did not have them over this period, we would not have got those results.
“It’s the situation in attack, but this goes for all through the squad, in every area of the pitch.”
This was the 300th Serie A match for Inzaghi and he has won 178 of them – more than any other coach at this stage in his career.
Keeping the Formula 1 metaphor going, Inzaghi was asked if he sees himself more as a designer of the vehicle or the driver of the car.
“It is the work of everyone, my staff, the players and the club that tries to support us in every tiny detail. I am so fortunate to have a squad that works like this and we have to keep going.
“We won the Supercoppa, we qualified for the Club World Cup, now we have to keep pushing and try to take this form to the Champions League.”
Marcus Thuram and Francesco Acerbi made their comeback off the bench, but Davide Frattesi was warming up and suddenly stopped with a grimace, sitting back down.
“He went to warm up, didn’t feel completely comfortable, so was very intelligent and showed maturity in recognising he was not ready. There were some good sensations in training yesterday, but when he was warming up, he realised it was best not to run any risks.”
It was shown that the winning penalty was a mistake, as Morten Frendrup clearly got the ball when sliding in to block on Nicolò Barella. Without getting into that particular incident, but noting it has been a very controversial week in general, Inzaghi was questioned on how Italian football can improve its refereeing problems.
“I’ve experienced a lot of games in Italy and Europe, probably around 400. Having seen many games abroad, I must say our referees are some of the best around.
“I think the change really will be when we don’t ask who the referee or the VAR is, we just go out there and play.”
#Inter, #Inzaghi: "Noi come la Red Bull? Lo siamo diventati col lavoro, ad agosto non lo eravamo. #Frattesi ha dimostrato maturità" https://t.co/uoC8GsecGQ
— Gianluca Di Marzio (@DiMarzio) March 4, 2024