Marotta: ‘Many who criticised Chivu now respect him’ and new Inter approach

Inter President Giuseppe Marotta insists they are back to the ‘normality’ of winning ways as they visit Napoli, noting Cristian Chivu is now ‘respected by many who criticised him.’

It kicks off at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona at 17.00 UK time (16.00 GMT).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from today’s four Serie A games on the Liveblog.

The Nerazzurri had stuttered early into Chivu’s reign, losing to Udinese and Juventus, but have now won seven on the bounce between Serie A and the Champions League.

“If we look back, then that defeat to Juve was also paradoxical, as we had been winning until stoppages,” Marotta told DAZN Italia.

“Aside from that, the change was a natural result of Chivu’s daily work in training, the way the team put the work in with the staff, and with all due humility and respect, we got back to the normality of winning ways.

“We are a big club and therefore destined to follow a certain path to go as high as possible. We are second in the table, facing the reigning champions of Italy, so we need an extraordinary performance. You can just sense the atmosphere from the fans in this stadium and how important the game is.”

Inter missed out on the Scudetto in a battle that raged to the final day last season, and this is another head-to-head for top spot, as Milan were held 2-2 by Pisa last night.

It had been said that the Nerazzurri squad needed to revolutionised, but Chivu is doing well with practically the same players Simone Inzaghi had last season.

“It’s not an alibi, but Chivu had his first official game in charge during the Club World Cup, just days after the end of the previous season. It was atypical, so was the fact we could not have a ‘normal’ pre-season training routine,” added Marotta.

“We managed eventually to deal with these situations, but nobody should be surprised at how good a coach Chivu is. We evaluated this choice and knew who we were dealing with, so we’re not surprised that he is now respected by many who had criticised him.”