Simone Inzaghi has confirmed that he plans to start Kristjan Asllani in Inter Milan’s Serie A showdown with Juventus tomorrow.
The Nerazzurri coach spoke in a press conference ahead of tomorrow’s match, as reported by FCInterNews. He also predicted a competitive Serie A title race between 4-5 teams.
Tomorrow evening, Inter and Juventus face off for the first time this season.
The Derby d’Italia is always a showpiece occasion for Italian football. And as is so often the case, the fixture has the feel of a potential title-decider.
But both the Nerazzurri and the Bianconeri are going to have to prepare for this match without a number of key players.
For Inter, there is arguably no absence weightier than that of Hakan Calhanoglu.
The 30-year-old has become virtually irreplaceable in the holding midfield role for the Nerazzurri.
However, Calhanoglu is out with a thigh strain.
In Inter’s last couple of matches Nicolo Barella has deputized for Calhanoglu. But the holding midfield role is not really the Italian international’s best position.
Calhanoglu’s most natural backup in the squad should be back after missing Inter’s last couple matches with injury.
Kristjan Asllani is also naturally suited to playing at the base of the midfield trio like Calhanoglu.
Inter coach Inzaghi said that “We know what Calha represents for us.”
He called the Turkish international “a world-class player.”
“He’s not going to be available tomorrow, though. So we’ll see.”
“If Asllani can give me guarantees about his fitness he’ll start,” the Inter coach confirmed. “Because he’s the backup for Calhanoglu.”
Inzaghi said that Inzaghi “is growing massively, and has improved.”
“The only thing that’s unfortunate for him is that he has Calhanoglu ahead of him,” the Nerazzurri coach said.
“He’s been doing well in training. Unfortunately he had a knock so he wasn’t available for the last couple matches.”
“But yesterday’s training he did well. And then we also have Barella and Zielinski.”
Meanwhile, the Inter coach also confirmed that another player is back in full training.
“Tajon Buichanan had his first session with the rest of the group yesterday,” Inzaghi said. “We’ve been waiting for us, and he can satisfy us because he’s a great player.”
“He was really starting to fit in at his best. And then he had this injury.”
“With Carlos Augusto’s injury we have a bit of an injury crisis,” Inzaghi admitted.
“But we’ve seen how Bisseck has played. And then we have Darmian who can play there, so we’ll have to make do a bit.”
Inzaghi Predicts Tight Title Race With 4-5 Teams
Of the ambitions for this season, Inzaghi said that “After winning a Scudetto and reaching a Champions League final, with all these trophies we’ve won, I want to improve.”
“Football evolves,” the Inter coach said. “And teams become more organized.”
“We have to always to better. We know that all matches are difficult.”
“Look at our last match,” Inzaghi said. Inter eked out a late 1-0 win over Young Boys in the Champions League on Wednesday.
“We were up against a team that have been struggling so far this season, but they caused us a lot of problems.”
“What we need to do is improve day after day. We know there are difficulties along the way, as was the case in the derby.”
“But we’ve analyzed those,” Inzaghi insisted. “We know where we need to improve.”
The Inter coach then said that Juventus have “changed principles” since Thiago Motta replaced Max Allegri as coach.
“Allegri had his. And Motta has his.”
“I have a lot of respect for both of them,” Inzaghi said.
“We’ve played a lot of difficult matches against Motta’s Bologna,” he noted.
Inzaghi noted that “Juve have gotten a lot of points so far. They’ll certainly be competitive.”
And as far as the Serie A title race, Inzaghi said that “We have our objectives.”
“We want to play as many matches as possible, going as far as we can in the cup competitions and then succeed in the league.”
“For me, there are 4-5 teams with the same objectives as us,” Inzaghi insisted.
“This season, there are even more considering the investments that teams made in the summer.”
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