Italian Journalist Fabrizio Biasin: “Inter Boss Conte Had To Have More Courage, You Can’t Play Eriksen For 10 Minutes” | OneFootball

Noted Italian football journalist and known Inter fan Fabrizio Biasin has expressed his thoughts following on from Inter’s elimination from the UEFA Champions League at the group stage earlier on this week.

Inter finished bottom of their group as they picked up just six points and as a result of finishing bottom they will not even have the Europa League to play in in the new year.

“There is great bitterness but there is also a hint of anger. This is to all intents and purposes a missed opportunity, the team really had everything to move forward in Europe,” he began an interview with Italian news outlet PassioneInter.com.

“They didn’t make it and they have to blame themselves for it. The team was built well and had all the credentials to take this step forward that we have been waiting for for three years.”

Biasin was then asked how much of Inter’s elimination was Inter manager Antonio Conte’s fault.

“Given that Inter are one thing and everyone has done something wrong, it is clear that Conte also has his responsibilities.

“I believe that he has chosen to carry on his idea of ​​football, he did so in the match by choosing his team. By doing this, however, you put yourself in front of a crossroads that of praise, in case of winning and that of criticism, in case of failure to qualify.

“On an occasion where they drew and defeat made no difference and they just had to win, a coach as good as Conte had to have the courage to go beyond his football creed.

“He had to try to field the Inter player with the most experience at European level [Christian Eriksen], who was limited to playing only 10 minutes at the end. This is not forgivable.”

Biasin then went on to speak about the treatment that Christian Eriksen has been subjected to in the past month or so with him having been limited to making cameo appearances.

“He has been a bit abused in the last month and yet he has shown that he has every interest in doing good for Inter.

“Eriksen had two shots at goal, took excellent corners and put all the good will in this world into his performance. I’m not saying he should have started, but because of the way the match went, even the one in Madrid, a player like Eriksen can’t play for 10 minutes.”

He was then asked if winning the Serie A title would be enough to forget the elimination from the UEFA Champions League, which was their third straight elimination at the group stage.

“Of course, yes! If Inter managed to win it, and the possibilities are all there, we would forget this bad moment but today we are living it. Now we can’t ignore it. Now it is no longer a ‘let’s try to win’ but ‘we have to win’.”

In conclusion Biasin was asked about Conte’s treatment of Sky Sport Italia pundits Fabio Capello and Anna Billo following the match at San Siro.

“It doesn’t have to be easy for a coach to be poked at but it is also true that in a certain way you put yourself in a position to be attacked. He was wrong, I think he knows that.

“As an intelligent person, you don’t have to fight back but accept criticism. Not everyone must be the Gattuso’s of the situation and take all the responsibility but that is not even saying that Shakhtar came to Milan to play defensive football which is not good.

“We expect more from Conte, he has a type of curriculum and we expect him to be less nervous in certain situations because he represents himself but also Inter.”