AC Milan coach Sergio Conceicao has reiterated that there are no excuses as he prepares for his first match in charge of the club against Juventus.
The 50-year-old was appointed as the new Rossoneri coach earlier this week, and so he’s had just a few days to get to know his squad and prepare the players for our Italian Super Cup clash in Saudi Arabia against the Bianconeri.
READ MORE: How Milan could line up vs Juventus: Conceicao system tweak, crucial double boost
Aside from the difficulty of processing so much information so quickly and trying to get his ideas across to the players to play in a way that will resemble his style moving forward, he arrives at a difficult time following our underwhelming and inconsistent start to the campaign under former boss Paulo Fonseca.
Despite all that, Conceicao has been clear since his first interview after arriving in Milan that he will not make any excuses, and his focus is simply on working hard with the players at his disposal to start delivering results as soon as possible.
“I found a humble team, that wants to learn, that wants to understand what the coach they have now wants,” he told the media at his pre-match press conference, as per MilanNews. “And this is the basis for working with quality. There was little time to work, but we were incisive in saying where the team needs to improve in various moments of the game to be competitive tomorrow.
“The timing is what it is. Of course I would have liked more days to work and more players available, but when I arrived I already knew about this situation. So there are no excuses. Heads up. We are preparing for the match to be incisive, without having too much information in our heads, to try to win.
“We can only work: words don’t count for anything, in these big clubs what counts are the results. And the result we are looking for is to win tomorrow.
“Life is like this: risks, challenges. I worked hard to get here, otherwise I would have stayed quietly in my country. For me it is an honor and a source of pride to coach a team like Milan”. The responsibilities of defending these colors are many, it has fans all over the world. We will try to make a good impression.”
As he says himself, he will ultimately be judged on results and performances on the pitch, and so although he’s sending the right messages and certainly sounds the part, time will tell if the team can back that up with a positive run to start the New Year.
Despite that though, it will be difficult against Juventus as it’s asking a lot to change enough in a matter of days, and so the focus perhaps will be on showing the right attitude, commitment and organisation to start building a foundation.
Milan face Cagliari on January 11 in a Serie A encounter, and so with more time to work with the players, we’ll likely see more of his influence and style come through then. That said, we’re in Riyadh to win, and hopefully Conceicao can start his tenure with some silverware to really build confidence and belief in what he can do at the helm.
