Conte: “Let’s keep moving forwards, we’re ready to hold onto our lead”

APPIANO GENTILE - Just one day to go until Inter’s next match against Roma at San Siro, matchday 15 of Serie A TIM kicking off at 20:45 CET on Friday. Antonio Conte met with journalists ahead of the game in the Press Room of the Suning Training Centre: “We’re preparing to host a Roma who are in a very strong vein of form. They’re a team who have reached a certain maturity and strength, with good staff and players who are not only talented but young, with great futures ahead of them. Fonseca is also proving that he’s a great coach: the Italian league is very tactical, you need a period of acclimatisation but he’s sticking to his ideas and adapting as needs be.”

Inter are ready: “It will be a game right out of the top drawer. We’re preparing in the right way. We’ll have to soak up some pressure, but we’ll also have to be ready to keep fighting and take our chances, we’ll have to be precise when going forward. We’ve had our foot right to the floor since the start of the season, if we want to continue like this then we’ll need to keep that up, we can’t do anything by halves.”

Despite some absences, Conte was clear in his outlook: “We always see the glass half full because these boys have taken responsibility in difficult times. We’ll approach the final four games before Christmas with our heads held high: we’re well aware of both our strengths and weaknesses. There’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves, we’ll make it to the winter break and then we’ll get some players back into the side. Let’s grit our teeth.”

Finally, a quick word on individuals: “Lautaro is young, he works hard and he always wants to play, he’s growing. But it’s not right to focus on just one player, that would be a lack of respect for the others. Asamoah as a central midfielder? He was born a midfielder, I moved him to wing-back when I signed him from Udinese. Politano spent three weeks out with an ankle injury, he has different characteristics to the others and he’ll be useful for us.”