Spalletti: "The good of Inter comes before anything else"

APPIANO GENTILE - LucianoSpalletti today held his pre-match press conference on the eve of our match against Sampdoria.

“It's a step towards fairness in terms of Inter and the squad. It was not a decision taken against Icardi, but rather a decision in favour of Inter. Fairness for the team goes before anything else.

“It was an extremely painful and difficult decision, but for a professional role like this, then the main thing is to be right. We must take Inter and our fans into account when making all of our decisions.

"As has been confirmed by the club, Icardi has an injury and he's currently not available. He's not been called up due to inflammation. We also have to wait a few more days for Keita.

“The team responded well on Thursday. We have more potential but when there is tension and certain events are happening within the team, then things are never easy, particularly against teams of this level.

“Other options in attack? At Sassuolo, Politano also played as a main striker, while there are also other players that can operate there, Perisic for example. However, we must always trust our reasoning that we can use all that is available. We have the possibility to manage many resources and we want to have all of them available. Keita is another alternative.

“Ranocchia is someone who we’ve spoken about very often. He’s put messages on social media, while he’s also a leader in the dressing room and for the team. There are many leaders like this, including Mauro, Handanovic, Ranocchia and Borja Valero.”