(Reuters) – Defending champions Inter Milan will still need to put their best foot forward when they visit AS Roma in Serie A on Sunday despite the capital side’s recent struggles, coach Simone Inzaghi said.
Roma have won two in nine games across all competitions this season as they sit ninth on 10 points in the league standings, but their search for form will not be a reason for visiting Inter to put their guard down.
“We know what kind of opponent we are going to face,” Inzaghi told Inter TV on Saturday.
“We’ve faced (coach Ivan) Juric many times in recent years, he is clearly bringing his philosophy to Roma and we must be ready to put in a good performance, both with and without the ball. (Achieving) it will take a great Inter.”
Inter will be without injured midfielders Piotr Zielinski and Kristjan Asllani.
“The international break shouldn’t influence us. Before the break we had three wins, we need to continue on our path,” Inzaghi said.
“We’ve got many players who have played many minutes, others like Lautaro (Martinez) and (Mehdi) Taremi who have flown far but come back in quite well, all except Zielinski who returned with a slight injury and will not play.
“Yesterday, Asllani picked up a slight knock to his knee and also won’t be available but (Thomas) Berenbruch will be in the squad, a promising talent from (our under-19 team), so we won’t have any issues.”
Inter, second in the standings with 14 points, beat Udinese and Torino either side of their 4-0 thrashing of Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League before the international break.
They return to Europe’s elite club competition on Wednesday when they travel to Young Boys.
“We know that we’re about to play seven games in 20 days so we need to do well but at the moment, the only concern for myself and the squad is to prepare well for the game against Roma tomorrow evening,” Inzaghi said.
“We will try to draw on the entire squad knowing that many of the lads try to cause me and my staff trouble on a daily basis when making our selections.”
(Reporting by Anita Kobylinska in Gdansk; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
