Some highlights from his interview yesterday:
Should Skriniar leave, will that cause problems in defence?
“We know who our directors are and what they’ve done in the last year and a half. Skriniar is an Inter player right now, one that had a brilliant campaign last season and he will come with us to our training camp. Then we’ll see what happens. We’re in constant contact with the Club.”
Who will be first-choice goalkeeper?
“Handanovic will start in goal because he earned it after a great season. We all know what Onana can do: he is young, he is the future and he will get his chance this year. We believe in him.”
Will the eventual arrival of Dybala be an extra boost?
“We know Dybala well. He has a lot of quality but we have six forwards in the squad, the four we have mentioned and Pinamonti, who has a bright future, and Sanchez. So it’s not right for me to talk about other players right now.”
Are there alternatives to the 3-5-2?
“We’ll try some new systems in pre-season but I like this formation and I have the perfect players to fit this system. We have a lot of options and we saw last season – for example in the Coppa Italia Round of 16 against Empoli – how this can change games. There’s been a lot of talk about Lukaku and Onana but the Club has also gone out and got two talented young players, not to mention Mkhitaryan, who I have always liked and who will help us kick on as a team.”
It’s important for you to play to the max in every competition: is this team more complete?
“The Club has made some brilliant moves. We now need to cover for Ranocchia’s departure and we are working on that. The aim this year is to have a core squad of 20 outfield players, two for each role, who are of a good level because we’ll need to alternate a lot with 20 games from matchday 1 until November. Then we have three goalkeepers. We also want to bring in three players from the Primavera because our Youth System is producing a lot of talent. We’ll have Valentin Carboni and we also want to bring in Casadei, who we have a lot of faith in. Zanotti made his debut last year and I hope a few others can make their debits this season too. I know that it’s tough to break through at Inter but I hope to be able to do it with a few others because we value our young players.”
With Lukaku, Inter played on the break a lot. How will you get the best out of him?
“It’s too soon to say but I have some ideas. Last year, we alternated between recovering the ball high up the pitch and winning it in deeper areas. It’s clear that Romelu will give us something a bit different. The higher up the pitch you win the ball, the less you have to run to score. We’ll have more solutions with him and our other forwards, who have already done well.”
What impression has Asllani made?
“He’s a young player, who seems older than he is. He knows that there is a player ahead of him, who has done great things at Inter. He’s grown exponentially in the last six months and we have a lot of belief in him.”
Numerically speaking, can we expect there to be four strikers?
“We know that, with the fixture list being so packed, we’ll need a fifth attacker. That will be a young player. Pinamonti is an established player, who has received a lot of offers. We’ll see what happens. He is in the squad for the training camp and he will come with us. But, normally, a fifth striker in the squad is a young player.