Marcus Thuram says Inter need to reset their mentality immediately after Saturday’s 3-1 derby loss to Milan, and he has thrown his support behind Nicolò Barella and Alessandro Bastoni as the team tries to respond before Feyenoord Vs Inter in Rotterdam. The 29-year-old said he fully agreed with their message that the squad has to change its approach.
That is why the search around this match has sharpened now. Inter go into Tuesday’s Champions League game with three points from their first three matches, while Cristian Chivu believes around 16 points may be needed to finish in the top eight. At the moment, Inter are still trying to recover from their first league defeat of the season and an eighth derby without a win, so the trip to Rotterdam has become an early test of whether the message inside the camp is turning into a response on the pitch.
Thuram was direct about where he stands. “I fully agree with what they said,” he said of Barella and Bastoni. “They’re two leaders, and their words were important.” He added that the attitude Inter showed in the second half against Shakhtar Donetsk, when they came from behind to win late despite being down to 10 men, has to be repeated in both the Champions League and the league. That is the standard he wants them judged by now, not the flatness that followed the Milan defeat.
His own role has also become part of the story. Thuram has started every game since the October international break and scored in three straight league matches before the derby, then played alone up front on Saturday after Pio Esposito and Ange-Yoan Bonny were struck down by fever. Even with that adjustment, he said he is happy with the minutes he is getting and has no issue leading the line on his own, a useful option for Inter as they prepare for a 21:00 CET kick-off, 20:00 GMT, on Tuesday.
For Inter, the bigger question is whether the call for a mentality change is just talk after a bruising weekend or the start of a sharper run. Rotterdam will not answer everything, but it will show quickly whether the team can turn Thuram’s backing of its leaders into a result when it matters most.
