Claudio Ranieri has Wesley Sneijder back against Novara and believes Inter’s 4-0 defeat at Roma was “inexplicable. A total black-out.”
Claudio Ranieri has Wesley Sneijder back against Novara and believes Inter’s 4-0 defeat at Roma was “inexplicable. A total black-out.”
The Nerazzurri had put together seven consecutive Serie A victories, but have struggled recently with a Coppa Italia exit and last week’s Stadio Olimpico hammering.
“It was a strange week for two reasons: firstly the Roma game and secondly we were able to focus only on training for the entire week,” said the Coach in his press conference.
“Sneijder has been working with us all week except the first day, so he is fine, while Diego Forlan is still not 100 per cent.
“There was Scudetto talk until a couple of weeks ago, while now everyone is speculating on who will be in charge from June. This is the job of the Coach, there is no balance.
“In Italy, tacticians are considered ‘moreish’- like eating cherries, one leads to another. I continue to work with the same determination as the day I arrived.
“I would wipe the entire Roma match from our memories, because as the President said, we didn’t even step on to the field. That performance was inexplicable. A total black-out. It was a crazy 4-4 against Palermo before that and we were crazy too.
“None of us expected something like this. The team fights and the lads are relaxed. A game like we played at Roma seems impossible.
“We can go into the second half of the season with more quality, as players like Cristian Chivu, Sneijder, Dejan Stankovic and Forlan have barely played so far. Fredy Guarin’s treatment is going well, so I hope to have him with the squad in around two weeks.”
Inter squad: 1 Julio Cesar, 12 Luca Castellazzi, 21 Paolo Orlandoni; 2 Ivan Cordoba, 4 Javier Zanetti, 6 Lucio, 23 Andrea Ranocchia, 26 Cristian Chivu, 37 Davide Faraoni, 55 Yuto Nagatomo; 5 Dejan Stankovic, 10 Wesley Sneijder, 11 Ricky Alvarez, 17 Angelo Palombo, 18 Andrea Poli, 19 Esteban Cambiasso, 20 Joel Obi; 7 Giampaolo Pazzini, 9 Diego Forlan, 22 Diego Milito, 28 Mauro Zarate, 30 Luc Castaignos