AC Milan boss Sergio Conceicao was left bitterly disappointed with our display in a 1-1 draw with Cagliari on Saturday night.
After the high of our Italian Super Cup triumph, it was hoped that the Rossoneri could transfer that form across to Serie A as we look to climb the table and close the gap on our rivals at the top.
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It looked as though we were on track to do that when Alvaro Morata gave us the lead in the 51st minute, but the visitors struck back just four minutes later and held out for a share of the spoils.
Ultimately, it was a disappointing and frustrating night for Milan as we dropped valuable points having been wasteful in the second half, and Conceicao was not only far from impressed with our performance in the opening 45 minutes, but he felt as though we should have been better in every aspect.
“I expected more from all points of view,” he is quoted as saying by Sky Sport. “Since I’ve been a coach, 13 years, this was the worst first half I’ve seen. We lacked rhythm and vivacity. Cagliari played to protect the goal and we had to find spaces even if we were not deep enough. We were neither good nor intelligent in this respect.
“Better in the second half with many shots, but they wasted a bit of time…I understand the opponent’s strategy, but then the referee cannot award five minutes of injury time. In any case, we should have done much more. Milan’s problems are both mental and physical: we need to work to improve, we need to get out of it together. I’m angry because we didn’t do what we prepared for, we need to improve.
“We lacked width, when we had width we were too still. We were almost filming the game. We need more support for Leao and Pulisic, this was one of the problems. Are Milan’s attackers too generous? They are altruistic, that’s fine and I like it. But in certain moments they need to be more pragmatic: football is simple, in front of goal you need to be selfish. Sometimes we look for difficult things and that’s not okay with me.
“It’s not my way of doing things, I didn’t come to impose rules. Every coach has his own, but these are simple things linked to the schedules and the involvement of everyone. Let’s take our responsibilities.”
It’s good to hear the Portuguese tactician speak frankly and not sugar-coat anything, as if he sees things he doesn’t like, he will call it out.
However, the most critical aspects of that approach though is to not lose the dressing room with that public criticism, and more importantly, get his ideas and the way he wants us play across to the players to ensure that we learn and make progress.
Milan have a packed schedule for the rest of January as we face Como, Juventus, Girona, Parma and Dinamo Zagreb before the end of the month, and so with a short turnaround between games, Conceicao won’t have too much time to continue working closely with the players on the training pitch.
In turn, it’s hoped that we learn from our mistakes and impose his style sooner rather than later, but ultimately it comes down to cutting out errors like the one for the goal we conceded against Cagliari, and being more clinical at the other end to put teams away.
