Romelu Lukaku believes Inter are the team he ‘needs’ after confessing he ‘didn’t want to be’ at Manchester United any longer.
Lukaku has slotted straight into Inter’s attack following his €75m arrival from United, the striker a long-time target for Coach Antonio Conte.
“The first Final of any kind I can remember watching. You never lose that,” he told ESPN, referring to the Nerazzurri’s 3-0 win against Schalke in the 1998 UEFA Cup Final.
“This could be the team I need. There’s the love I have for this area. The love that I have for Inter. And it was the perfect moment for me to leave England. I didn’t want to be there anymore.
“This group of players we have here is a special group. And we have the right leader in front of us to take us to the right places.
“Inter is an ambitious club. It wants to get back where it needs to be. I want to help them build something here. It’s the right move for me.
“The guy can make a team. It’s already like the guys have been there for many, many years together, even the ones who just arrived. It’s the strangest thing.
“They embraced me and I embraced them. It’s like I’ve been part of it for many months. It’s important for me to express myself to my teammates.
“It’s important for me as a player that they understand me perfectly. How I want the ball. Where I want the ball. In front of the defender, beside the defender, behind the defender.
“I have to know those exact words in Italian because the subtleties are different in every language. There’s no substitute for that.
“I don’t think you say, ‘you have to win.’ [We have a] new Coach, new team, new way of playing, so it’s one game at a time.
“We’re learning. But we have to move the right way. And we have to make it clear that that every time you face Inter, it’s a battle.”
The Belgian was then asked about new strike partner Lautaro Martinez.
“I can play one-touch to him and make another move. Go into certain spaces where I want to go, and he’ll get me the ball.
“If you analyse Conte’s teams, you see there’s a lot involved on every play. When the ball is in a certain area, we make a certain type of movement.
“If I make a movement, Lautaro should make the opposite movement. And if he makes a movement, I should make the opposite.
“We should know perfectly well where we need to go.”
Much has been made about the 26-year-old’s physical condition, with Gary Neville branding him ‘overweight’.
“Normally I have a fine digestive system. I digest everything very quickly.
“That’s how it had been my entire life. But what the nutritionist said to me was, it had stopped working.
“I’m good now. My body is in the zone.”
