AC Milan general manager Adriano Galliani says Filippo Inzaghi's job was never in doubt as he hopes for a run of wins to follow Sunday's 2-0 victory over Cesena.
That win has "extended the life" of Inzaghi as Milan coach, although Galliani insists he was never in any danger of being shown the door, contrary to reports which claimed Sunday's Serie A match would have been his last in the event of a defeat.
"We just need to find a bit of continuity now," Galliani said at the presentation of La Gazzetta dello Sport's new television channel. "Inzaghi was never in danger. Victories certainly extend your life, but he was never in any danger."
According to Galliani, Inzaghi has been unlucky this season with injuries preventing him from fielding his strongest team week in, week out.
"The injuries have been terrible," Galliani said. "The central midfield of [Andrea] Poli, [Nigel] De Jong and [Riccardo] Montolivo seen at the weekend have only played together twice before. These changes to the starting XI were due to injuries so I've got no particular reproach for Inzaghi.
"We've had the whole defence out injured, while in attack everybody's fortunately been fine so the coach has had to make these choices lately. Nobody is thinking about changing the coach. Everybody thinks things have been going bad since the start of the season, but remember that up until Dec.14, we were level with Napoli."
Inzaghi offered the club words of encouragement on Sunday.
Coach Inzaghi: "With this attitude and confidence we can get back on track" http://t.co/YHayw1sIHA #MilanCesena pic.twitter.com/6iWyTECuFZ
- AC Milan (@acmilan) February 22, 2015
Sunday's win lifted Milan to ninth in the table, still six points behind the top five and a return to Europe next season. Their next two games come against strugglers Chievo and Hellas Verona before they travel to fifth-placed Fiorentina on March 15.