Poor mentality cost Inter, says De Boer

Under-fire head coach Frank de Boer believes Inter are suffering from mental frailties after Sampdoria condemned them to a fourth defeat in five Serie A matches.

Fabio Quagliarella struck one minute from the end of a first half stained by poor Inter defending and, although the visitors improved after the break, they were unable to find a goal and build on the 2-1 midweek triumph over Torino.

The result is set to spark further speculation over De Boer’s future, with Laurent Blanc and Leonardo among the names to be linked with his job as Inter languish in 11th place in Italy’s top flight.

“This is just an issue of mentality. We have a lot of quality but we can’t do much when we have the mentality I saw in the first half,” the former Ajax boss told Mediaset Premium.

“We have a problem at this moment. I said to the team during the break that we had to change and it looked like another team in the second half.

“We must forget the first half, we did not play. In the second half, yes, we played but we cannot start like this – only playing after 45 minutes. I am very disappointed with the first half.”

On his future, De Boer added: “I have faith that we can change this difficult time.

“As I said, I’ve seen a good team many times, but we must have the conviction to do it for 90 minutes, as [in the wins] against Torino and Juventus. We cannot always stay in this form.

“The words of the board? Talk to the board – I do my job.”