GENOA – At the end of Sampdoria v Inter, Walter Mazzarri answered
questions from reporters at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.

Here are his words:

"I look at the performance. Today we won, playing worse than normal
in the first half. Sampdoria deserved more, even though they left us a lot of
space behind them and countered quickly. I didn’t like the first half for the
way I view the game. Then after half-time we sorted things out. If you score a
goal at the right time, instead of missing one, the result can turn out differently
than the performance put in.

"Do
we always need a wake-up call at half-time? I don’t know. Perhaps. We need to
be more consistent. I blamed myself for not shouting at the players more in Livorno,
but our approach to games has to be different.

"Kovacic?
If I started him it’s because I’ve seen an improvement in him. He helped the
side out a lot, worked hard for the team. And he showed the touches of skill
all good players have. He’s young – he can only get better and have a big
impact.

"My
team selection depends on a lot of things: I had come to other decisions about Ranocchia,
but I never cast him aside. He’s done very well recently. I tried to make him
feel under slightly more pressure. Their penalty was a soft one and perhaps he
should have avoided making the tackle when he did, and he too realised that
immediately. He’s having a good season and he’s in good form at the moment.

"We
start a lot of our moves from defence, but with Campagnaro missing on the right
we still needed to get a man forward. Ranocchia has always played as a central
defender but I thought this would be the perfect game to have Samuel playing on
the left side of central defence, to stop them attacking on that side of the
pitch.

"D’Ambrosio? He did a lot of good things, but
I’m still not completely satisfied. However, it is true that today he did play
well.

"Icardi? He should have avoided making that
gesture, but, other than that, he did exactly what he had to do. In fact,
considering the sort of things he was up against he showed tremendous strength
of character. If he carries on this way and we manage to get rid of some of the
unnecessary things in his game, then he really will develop into a fantastic
player. He has all the characteristics of an out-and-out forward – he just
needs to concentrate on playing football. I’ve told him to just concentrate on
playing football. You have to leave personal matters behind you when you walk
onto the pitch. They are professional sports people and everything they do is
scrutinized. They have a certain responsibility to everyone. 

More to follow