Inter coach Claudio Ranieri hopes the return of stars Wesley Sneijder and Diego Forlan will spark a turnaround in fortunes for the club.
After seven consecutive wins thrust them up the Serie A table, Inter have struck a poor run of form that has seen them rack up a draw and two losses in their past three encounters, including a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Roma last week.
But Ranieri is refusing to panic and is looking forward to Sunday’s match against bottom side Novara.
“We have seen that after the Christmas break almost all teams, except Juventus, have made the same performance: from Lazio to AC Milan, from Udinese to Napoli and Roma. Every team is almost in the same situation,” he said.
“The fans can calm down. Before the game against Roma we had a good thing going, but they managed to get everything right and defeat us.”
“I am serene, because if the team struggles, the lads will react, because they are true champions.”
“The return of Forlan, (Dejan) Stankovic and Sneijder are a great boost for us.”
“Sneijder in particular is in very good shape and will definitely be taken it into consideration.”
“There was Scudetto talk until a couple of weeks ago, while now everyone is speculating on who will be in charge from June. This is the job of the coach, there is no balance.”
“In Italy, tacticians are considered ‘moreish’- like eating cherries, one leads to another. I continue to work with the same determination as the day I arrived.”
“I would wipe the entire Roma match from our memories, because as the President said, we didn’t even step on to the field. That performance was inexplicable. A total blackout. It was a crazy 4-4 against Palermo before that and we were crazy too.”
“None of us expected something like this. The team fights and the lads are relaxed. A game like we played at Roma seems impossible.”
