AC Milan produced a sensational comeback to secure a 3-2 win over Inter in Saudi Arabia on Monday night, as we lifted the Italian Super Cup.
Goals from Theo Hernandez, Christian Pulisic and Tammy Abraham turned a two-goal deficit into a 3-2 triumph, as the Rossoneri launched an inspired second-half fightback.
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Led by coach Sergio Conceicao who lifted a trophy after just his second game in charge of Milan, this has been an exceptional few days for the Portuguese tactician.
Having achieved our objective this week, it’s back to Serie A matters at the weekend as we’ll look to continue this fine form against Cagliari at San Siro on Saturday night.
Huge boost to lift silverware at critical point in season
After such an underwhelming and inconsistent start to the campaign, and with the coaching change just days before we departed to compete for the Italian Super Cup, it looked a rather bleak situation early last week.
However, to come away from Saudi Arabia with the trophy, that should now give all concerned a lift to kick on and turn our year around both in Serie A and the Champions League.
It’s a big moment for the club as it continues our storied history of winning silverware, but it’s crucial we build on this foundation that we’ve built over the past few days.
Stunning impact from Conceicao
Despite only having a matter of days to not only prepare his team for these two games, but to settle, adapt and acclimatise to the change in his life both from a football and personal perspective, this has been a remarkable job from the Milan boss.
Of course, it wasn’t perfect, and so he’ll have plenty to work on when we return to Milanello, while he’ll want to get more of his ideas and principles across to the players to ensure his influence on how we play grows.
However, it’s so impressive to see what he’s done in such a short space of time, and hopefully it bodes well for what’s to come as we look to go from strength to strength off the back of this.
Leao influence a game-changer
This is a critical moment for Rafael Leao, as he returns from injury to try and cement his place in a new coach’s plans and preferred system and style of play.
Much like Milan as a whole, he has been too inconsistent this season, and so if he is to become a leading figure in Conceicao’s Milan, we need him to lead by example and deliver as an elite-level player would.
He was a game-changer in this one as his impact off the bench was decisive, from winning the free-kick for our first goal to providing the assist for our winner. It was an excellent first impression from him under Conceicao.
Defensive flaws still need to be fixed
To be balanced, it’s important not to ignore the negatives or issues that still need to be fixed, and a priority for Conceicao and his staff will be our defensive work.
Both goals were poor ones to concede as we weren’t organised enough and didn’t react well enough to the threat being posed, and while Mike Maignan had to produce a number of important saves, it showed there is still a lot of room for improvement.
It remains to be seen who establishes themselves as pillars of the backline for Conceicao in the coming weeks, and whether or not he looks to the transfer market to bring in reinforcements. What is certain at this stage though is that we need to be better in the defensive third.
Identity, character of this Milan building with much more to come
Aside from the results and the trophy win, the most pleasing aspect of what we’ve seen over these last two games is our attitude and determination to put in the hard work and fight for it.
These are ultimately minimum expectations of any team, but we’ve been lacking that gritty side of our game this year and balancing that with quality, and Conceicao has undoubtedly lit a fire under this group of players.
The fundamental challenge though will be to prove that this isn’t a temporary bump that usually comes with a coaching change, and that this identity and character we’re building under our new boss is just the start of the change that we’ll see under his stewardship.
