We can´t afford to make defensive mistakes, says Mourinho

Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho said on Saturday that his team needs to cut out the defensive mistakes when they meet AC Milan in Sunday’s derby at the San Siro.

Champions Inter top the league by seven points and have an eight-point gap to third placed Milan.

But they lost September’s derby 1-0 to a rare Ronaldinho header and Mourinho is expecting this match to be just as tight.

“We have to take advantage of every opportunity we get because the derby is always very close and it’s not easy to create four, five, six or seven goalscoring chances,” said the Portuguese boss.

“In September’s match we had two great chances but we didn’t take them. Tomorrow we will have to.

“The level of effectiveness in games such as this needs to be very high while on the other hand a team that has defended very well, as we did last time, can’t afford to make a mistake in the defensive transition.

“We had an excellent transition and arrived with five or six players in (our) area, we had a five against one situation but Ronaldinho was left on his own and he scored.

“I think it will be a match that requires exceptional concentration in defence, a lot of attention to every detail, because those are what make the difference.”

Mourinho was at his mischievous best during Saturday’s press conference, offering to tell journalists exactly what his team would be if they agreed to ask no further questions and let him go home early.

“I have a proposal for you. I’ll give you the team, the formation, the system of play, everything together and then we finish the press conference and we all go home,” he said when asked if Brazilian right back Maicon, who picked up an injury in mid-week, would be playing on Sunday.

“Because if every question is going to be about who’s playing and who’s not playing I’ll just give you the team and go we can all go home, have something to eat and we’ll all have some extra free time.”

Mourinho has often had disputes with the Italian press, who are unused to his at times maverick ways.

He upset them firstly by sending his assistant Giuseppe Baresi to a post match press conference while his comments about preferring the English press, referees and style of play have also irked local hacks.