Nicolo Barella feels that Inter were punished for ‘individual and collective mistakes’ in their 3-1 derby loss against Milan on Saturday evening, but insists that Cristian Chivu’s tactical choices were not to blame for the defeat.
Goals from Christian Pulisic and Adrien Rabiot sent Milan into a two-goal lead after 10 minutes, but their deficit was halved by an Alessandro Bastoni header midway through the first half. Diego Moreira, who had set up the first two Milan goals, restored a two-goal cushion with an excellently-struck free-kick towards the end of the first half.
You can see how the action unfolded on the Football Italia Liveblog.
Barella reacts after Milan 3-1 Inter: ‘We needed to do better’
Speaking to Sky Sport Italia after full-time, Barella did not deny the fact that Inter did not start the game in the best possible way.
“We paid for individual and collective mistakes,” the Italy international admitted. “Sometimes, as I’ve said when we’ve won as well, we haven’t always approached it at our best. Not to say badly, but we need to improve.
“There have been derbies where we’ve played well and not won, others where we’ve played badly and drawn. There have been ups and downs in those derbies. Today we needed to do better to keep our [unbeaten] streak alive.”
Questions were asked of head coach Chivuu and his decision to experiment with a lone striker for the first time this season in such a high-pressure derby, but Barella insists that this was only because of an injury to Lautaro Martinez and the fact that Pio Esposito and Ange-Yoan Bonny were struggling with illness.
“We were in a bit of an emergency because Pio and Bonny both had a fever. Not having fresh changes in attack conditioned the coach’s choices, and he had to try to do something different. It’s the attitude that counts in these games. We struggled to get going, but we realised that too late. The formation doesn’t matter.”
