Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti is happy to give Jose Mourinho's new-look team time to develop.

The Nerazzurri have so far failed to fire on all cylinders this term, having drawn with Bari on the first weekend of the season and with Barcelona in their opening Champions League encounter.

In between, though, was a glimpse of what Inter fans hope will be things to come with a 4-0 demolition of city rivals AC Milan as new signing Wesley Sneijder, brought in from Real Madrid, made his presence felt.

Sneijder joined a selection of other new boys including Samuel Eto'o, Diego Milito and Thiago Motta in a side expected to continue where last year's title-winners left off.

But, ahead of Sunday's trip to Cagliari, Moratti told www.inter.it: "You can understand that we need time with five new players.

"The players are different and so is the team's game because we have changed the whole system, so the whole team has to learn something new."

The projected battle between Eto'o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who swapped clubs in the summer, was something of a let-down as Inter and Barca played out a goalless stalemate in midweek.

But Mourinho was pleased his side's showing nevertheless.

"We took a step forward," he said. "It's an important point because it's not easy to start the competition by playing against the defending champions.

"I've seen my team play a perfect game in defence. Now we must continue on the same path and keep improving."

While Mourinho was impressed with his side's defence, some onlookers were disappointed, accusing his side of being negative.

Moratti has some sympathy with that point of view.

He said: "It's true that we based our game on the strength of the defence, but it also depends on the opponent. Our opponent played so well last night that we used the resources we have in this moment.

"Hopefully we will see a more balanced system soon."

Cagliari's 1-0 defeat at Fiorentina in the last round marked their second straight loss of the campaign.

Indeed, they sit third bottom with just a single point to their name.

Lack of goalscoring has been the Sardinian outfit's main problem this season, with just one goal notched in their opening three games.

"We are unable to score," said Cagliari coach Massimiliano Allegri. "We make too many mistakes in our game and we must improve.

"In football if you don't score it is very difficult to take home a positive result.

"We need to be more incisive in front of goal."

Their cause is not helped by the absences of defender Francesco Pisano, who is out for around a month with a knee injury, and Diego Lopez, who has a calf problem.

For Inter, Mancini and Marco Materazzi, who missed Wednesday's game, trained yesterday but may not feature.