Chivu after Venezia-Inter: “If I could have changed 10 players at halftime, I would have kept only Provedel”

A victory snatched, not displayed. Chivu spoke at the press conference at the end of Venezia-Inter, openly admitting that the performance was not up to expectations. “We can say that today we did not play our best match,” began the Nerazzurri coach. “In the second half we added a bit more experience and quality, in the end we were lucky to score two goals and win it.”

Regarding Stankovic‘s performance, Chivu preferred to extend the assessment to the whole team: “It’s not fair to fail him. If I could have changed 10 players at halftime, I would have changed everyone and kept only Provedel, so we shouldn’t blame him. We need to improve in many ways. Today there is little to analyze, we played badly. We had a goalkeeper who kept us in the game with many saves.”

Asked about the issue of too many changes in recent outings, the coach broadened the reasoning to the physical context of the group: “Today there was no energy, we have to accept it. When we have energy, we put everyone in trouble, then there were also some players missing which limited us in rotations, but it’s not the fault of those who started but of the whole group.” Chivu also acknowledged the merits of the opponents: “I would like to congratulate Nicola and Venezia because with that organization and structure today we could be talking about something else.”

Regarding the goalkeeper ahead of the derby, the coach dodged the question, but revealed a physical problem that occurred during the match: “We found out during the game that Carlos had a stomach virus and stayed on the pitch, for now I can’t say anything. The only certainty I have is that I will be on the bench for the derby — and even that is not always certain. I just hope I will be on the bench Saturday night.”