Inter boss Claudio Ranieri has admitted that he is obliged to ultimately build his Nerazzurri side around Wesley Sneijder.
The tactician is struggling to incorporate the Dutchman into his team right now as their slump continues.
Inter boss Claudio Ranieri has admitted that he is obliged to ultimately build his Nerazzurri side around Wesley Sneijder.
The tactician is struggling to incorporate the Dutchman into his team right now as their slump continues.
“Sneijder not a problem but a solution, yet at the right time,” Ranieri explained on TV show La Domenica Sportiva.
“I think that an Inter Coach is duty-bound to try and integrate players with a special quality, even though by doing that the team is now suffering a lot.
“I'll have to take some decisions and I will.
“At the beginning of this run I said the good part and the hard part was starting – good because we had to integrate some top players into a perfect machine, hard because you couldn't hide the fact that the team had a few problems.”
Inter did get their campaign back on track as, without the injured Sneijder, they won seven successive Serie A matches. However, they have now picked up just one point from the last 15.
“We need to be sincere, clear and lucid,” the Coach added. “We aren't having a good season. We won seven consecutive matches when I started at Inter, but then we just fell apart.
“We need to find the humility again to do well. Nothing is over, now we're going to take on Marseille and we can still pick ourselves up to finish off the season well.”
Inter will travel to France this week for the first leg on their last 16 tie in the Champions League.
“We'll be facing a team that hasn't lost a game since 23 November. They have some very skilful players. A French team playing football with an 'Italian' Coach.
“On Wednesday against Marseille I'll try to organise things in such a way that our opponents are not able to exploit their strengths.”
The pressure is again on Ranieri after his men surprisingly lost 3-0 at home to Bologna on Friday evening. It was a defeat which angered President Massimo Moratti.
“I was sorry and that's why I immediately apologised to him first of all,” the former Chelsea man explained.
“Let’s not forget that President Moratti has spent an awful lot of money on this team and he intends to keep investing to win. That's what he said again just a few days ago to me and the team.
“He told us he is in charge of a prestigious club and he wants to carry on winning. Absolutely. As a Coach I say that a team can have a few problems for a year, but there is a good team here and the club is healthy and strong.”
Ranieri also refused to criticise the club for their January transfer dealings which saw Thiago Motta head for Paris Saint-Germain.
“I said I would like to have a wide attacking player but if it wasn't possible then it wasn't possible, that's all there is to it.
“We would have preferred not to sell Thiago Motta – we managed to convince him to stay until June and then he came back and said he wanted to move to Paris.
“Why force him to stay at all costs if he would then be lacking motivation? When I put him in the side against Napoli he gave away a penalty.
“I prefer to have players who want to stay. I've lost a top player and I'm really sorry about that, but that's how it goes.”