Roberto Mancini is happy at Inter and believes their recent slump in form is natural given the number of young players within his team.

Inter were the early leaders in Serie A, but have fallen away and now sit 13 points behind leaders Juventus in fifth position.

The Milan club have won just three of their past 10 top-flight matches, but followed up a 3-0 victory over Juve in their Coppa Italia semi-final second leg – a result which was not enough to secure a place in the final – with a 3-1 triumph over Palermo last weekend.

Questions over Mancini's future at San Siro remain, but he is unconcerned by his side's situation and views it as part of the natural progression of a youthful, developing team.

"I always have incentives here because I like this job," the coach said.

"Everyone can do well or do poorly. We want the best for Inter, but of course the result ends up affecting all decisions.

"We were in the lead for many months. There was a peak in the first few months and then a drop in results due to errors that are part of the growth of a young team; [Jeison] Murillo, [Mauro] Icardi, [Jonathan] Biabiany, [Marcelo] Brozovic, [Geoffrey] Kondogbia are all very young players."