Roberto Mancini says a training camp for Inter players this week has not been about punishing their recent performances.

Inter led the way in Serie A early this season, but, having won just one of their last seven top-flight fixtures, have slipped to fifth.

After Sunday's 2-1 defeat to Fiorentina – which included red cards for Alex Telles and Geoffrey Kondogbia – left Mancini's team 12 points off top spot and four adrift of a Champions League qualifying spot, the coach initiated an intense week of training.

Double sessions were undertaken on Wednesday and Thursday and the coach feels it has had the required effect of restoring focus to the squad.

"We took these few days to stay calm and work without thinking of anything else, and it went well," Mancini said ahead of Saturday's visit of Sampdoria.

"The training camp was not about punishing the team. Nobody likes it of course, but you have to do something to try change something so the situation can be fixed.

"Everyone accepted it and worked well. We need to get back a sense of calmness and awareness.

"This is football, you enter a negative spiral and you come out of it. Then you may find yourself winning five or six in a row, all of a sudden.

"It's not a physical, technical or tactical issue. Things aren't going well in spite of playing good games and we must accept that, following the situation closely so we can get ourselves back on our feet.

"We played six games and lost twice, not six times. Unfortunately we had several draws but the points we gathered earlier keep us running for third place.

"The president didn't panic after the match in Florence and knows we can still get third spot."

Inter were held 1-1 at Sampdoria, who sit 17th, in October.