Spalletti: ‘Gabigol must prove himself’

By Football Italia staff

Inter Coach Luciano Spalletti says Gabriel Barbosa “has to give the answers”, but saw positive signs from his side against Schalke.

The Nerazzurri drew 1-1 in their first Chinese friendly today, with Jeison Murillo scoring a long-range stunner.

“Both Inter and Schalke have the right ideas about developing the play,” Spalletti said in his post-match Press conference.

“Both teams showed good organisation and ideas, so there’s a way of working properly and from that basis you can start talking about something more.

“I saw a lot of order from my team in the first half, there’s a lot of good raw materials that with proper preparation can lead to improvement.

“We lost possession at times, trying to force situations when we should have been keeping possession, but overall in terms of attitude and being a team we did well.

“I think we need to do better in attack, like when we were superior in the middle of the pitch. We did well in pressing high and attacking though, winning back some important balls.

“There’s only one way to make the play: keep the ball. There’s only one way to avoid fatigue: not to run. To avoid unnecessary running, you have to keep the ball and control the game.

“Gabigol? Gabigol paid attention to what I asked of him, I know him well enough.

“There are games he’s played that I could go and see, but then training also counts, even friendlies.

“It’s the footballer who has to give the answers though, just like all the others.”

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