Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho sprung a surprise be selecting Adriano for last night's crucial 1-0 victory over Juventus. Sully Muntari tapped home Inter's winner and Mourinho had special praise for Adriano after a month of controversy.
The former Chelsea manager said: "With two centre-backs like [Giorgio] Chiellini and [Nicola] Legrottaglie who are very aggressive, I thought it important to play with an 'animal' like Adriano - in the nicest possible way! He is very powerful and can do battle with two defenders.
"He created the goal and is very fast as well as effective helping out in defence. I am happy with his contribution."
Zlatan Ibrahimovic missed two easy chances, but provided the assist for the winning goal.
"He did fantastic work for us tonight and even if it had ended 0-0, I would be here defending him, as he played for the team. Sometimes he can find space and shoot, so to miss two goals today means little.
"The important thing is we scored with a goal that wasn't exactly a beauty, but we created chances and the Inter family can be happy after a run of negative results against Juve.
"I wanted a great deal of intensity and tempo in midfield, as Juve's full-backs push forward, so I wanted to keep the three midfielders able to run and fight for 90 minutes.
"Patrick Vieira is a great player, but in my opinion is better when facing teams that have wingers, so he can use his tactical intelligence there."
Mourinho continued: "I watched last season's game three times - twice by myself and once with my collaborators.
"If I have to choose the football I prefer, then it is with wingers, but they aren't doing very well at the moment and so I have to adapt to the situation.
"I think the team has found the best balance this way. I like three players upfront, but this team has better balance playing this way. I had [Luis] Figo and [Ricardo] Quaresma on the bench in case Juve scored first or went deep, but we respected the Bianconeri and studied every detail.
"We came here with courage and the right attitude, talked only about two or three little details at half-time and I told them they did not need to improve in order to win, to just carry on as they were.
"We are on top of the table with four consecutive victories and must now focus on Panathinaikos, where we will hopefully win and finish top of the Champions League group."
