Ibrahimovic comments on Morata’s exit, Gimenez’s arrival and derby ‘mentality’ | OneFootball

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has spoken about the exit of Alvaro Morata and the signing of Santiago Gimenez, while stressing the importance of mentality in the derby.

Milan take on their city rivals at San Siro tonight in the third derby of the season, after winning the reverse game 2-1 back in September and the Supercoppa Italiana final in early January.

However, the Rossoneri come into it with a lot of uncertainty. A defeat to Dinamo Zagreb in midweek in the Champions League resulted in dropping into the play-off zone, and since then there has been a flurry of transfer activity.

Inter meanwhile are in excellent form coming into the game and are hoping for revenge after the previous two defeats to Milan, while they are also right in the title race again.

Ibrahimovic spoke to Sky during the build-up to the game to give his thoughts ahead of the fixture and also provide a mercato update, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.

How do you experience this derby? What kind of derby is it?

“A derby is a derby. A derby is won and faced with a great mentality, it is more than a match. Two great clubs, two great teams. Everyone wants to win, we have prepared well, we are charged and we want to win.”

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What went wrong with Morata? What do you expect from Gimenez?

“First of all Alvaro is a great person and a great player, I wish him the best. Some stories for various reasons don’t ‘click’. I won’t say more than that.

“We followed Gimenez for many months, we also tried in the summer but it was a different situation. He’s ready, I saw him live and he’s fired up, he’s really eager to start. We’re all fired up.”

How to help the team to be consistent?

“You have to keep up the winning rhythm. If you don’t keep winning there’s always something holding you back. We have to support from above, put everyone in the best possible condition: they have to be focused on the field and play.

“There are high moments and low moments, but the important thing is to continue and this desire to improve and bring results.”