Icardi: "We must learn to play as a team"

FLORENCE – Mauro Icardi said Inter must learn to channel their individual talents and play more as a team if they want to avoid losing more games like Saturday's visit to Fiorentina.

The skipper ended up on the losing side despite scoring a hat-trick as a poor second-half showing saw the Nerazzurri slip to a 5-4 defeat at the Stadio Franchi.

"There's not much to say. We're sad about the result and the second half especially because we produced very little. "There's no explanation. We're struggling to get ourselves out of this rut," the Argentine lamented.

“Pioli's future? That's up to the club to decide. As I said a while back with De Boer, unfortunately it's always the coach who pays the price, but the gaffer has shown what he's capable of and we went on a good run. He had us playing really well but sadly things aren't going for us at the moment. We need to look at our mistakes, play with more determination and be aware that we play for a great club.

“With the players we have here we should be able to at least get into the Europa League and that's why it's so frustrating, but we must keep trying till the end.

“It's hard to explain what happened in the second half – that's not how a great team plays and it's not how Inter should be playing. Going out there and letting in four goals... It's inexplicable.

“Last year we ran into trouble in January. This year we were doing really well under Pioli but then we threw it all away. Now we have to pick ourselves up and make sure that what we've done counts for something.

"After everything we've done it would be a failure if we didn't qualify for European football. We wanted to be in the Champions League but we must at least try to get into the Europa League – that's what we all want. It would be a shame if we didn't make it.

“I don't think this squad has been overestimated. We can give anyone a game because we have a great squad. We have some fantastic individuals; we just need to learn to play more as a team.”