Luciano Spalletti insists there is no “depression” at Inter, even with injury woes against Genoa, and urged fans to “support our players, not those who might arrive.”
It kicks off on Saturday at 19.45 GMT, click here for a match preview.
Ivan Perisic, Mauro Icardi and Joao Miranda are not making the trip due to muscular issues.
Luciano Spalletti insists there is no “depression” at Inter, even with injury woes against Genoa, and urged fans to “support our players, not those who might arrive.”
It kicks off on Saturday at 19.45 GMT, click here for a match preview.
Ivan Perisic, Mauro Icardi and Joao Miranda are not making the trip due to muscular issues.
“These are players we’d all rather have in the team at all times, but we didn’t see the development we wanted in training and it was better not to risk it. We have other players who have responded well when called upon,” said the Coach in his Press conference.
Spalletti was asked if January signing Rafinha was ready for his first Serie A start.
“That depends on how you look at it. I don’t tell you my line-up the day before a game. He has helped us, but if he does start then there are times during a game where we’ll have to cover for him.
“I won’t stand for criticism of Borja Valero’s fitness levels, as if you look at the statistics and the running he does, you’ll see there’s no issue. Marcelo Brozovic will not start tomorrow, as I have chosen someone else.”
Inter beat nine-man Bologna for their first victory of 2018, but despite that poor run of results, they are in third place.
“Keep the depressing people away from us,” shrugged Spalletti. “We at Inter have no depression. We know the path we have taken to reach third place today, though clearly we could’ve done other things better.
“I didn’t particularly like the performance against Bologna, especially when we had the extra man, but we are capable of going to Marassi and beating a stratospheric Genoa that has been the third best side in Serie A since Davide Ballardini took over.
“There will be a passionate atmosphere in the stands that bleeds through to the players, but I maintain we are capable of winning and that is what we’re going for.”
The increasingly irritated Coach also hit out at the media for some of today’s headlines on the transfer market.
“It creates problems for me if there is talk of a ‘revolution,’ because everyone reads the papers. I thought of asking the club to create a third team, so we have the main squad, the women’s team and then a third virtual side made up of all the players people say we’re going to sign.
“People talked about Daniel Sturridge coming in to replace Eder. Well, Sturridge is injured now and if Eder hadn’t scored over the last couple of games to rescue a few points, we’d have been stranded. Someone met Eder and told him he ought to leave to bring in Sturridge. The fans should support our players, not those who are in some virtual Inter team.
“It’s true Inter have not expressed themselves to their full potential yet. We were growing and growing, there was a bump in the road and that caused us problems, but overall the situation is fine.
“I want to also point out to those who loved telling us we were just lucky at the start of the season that we’ve hit the woodwork more times than any other side.”