AC Milan head coach Ruben Amorim was brutally honest after the draw with Juventus, claiming his side didn’t deserve to win.
It was so close to a perfect night for Milan as they led against Juve heading into added time. The opening goal came midway through the second half from substitute Alphadjo Cisse, who collected a ball from Samuel Chukwueze and finished on his right foot from the left side of the box.
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It looked like being three wins from three to begin Amorim’s tenure, but there was a late sting in the tail in the second minute of injury time. Federico Gatti was left unmarked to head in a cross from a free-kick taken short, earning Juventus a draw their pressure had probably warranted.
Amorim spoke to DAZN just after the final whistle went in Turin and he gave a rather blunt assessment of his side’s performance, with MilanNews transcribing his words.
What was missing from Milan today?
“We didn’t deserve to win: if we’re honest, I don’t think Juventus deserved to lose. We tried to play our game, but we weren’t good with the ball. There were moments when we controlled the game in the first half, but then, when we started losing a lot of the ball, we struggled.
“I don’t think we played well, but we’ve only been working together for two months. We got a point. Obviously we need to do better, but we need time. It was a tough match.”
Photo by AC Milan
Is it a problem of concepts not yet assimilated or of individual technical quality?
“We have individual quality, but today we lacked the simple things: in football, the simple things are the best. Even just in the way we receive and pass the ball: we have to do the simple things excellently. Today we weren’t good at the fundamentals.
“My feeling is that when our team doesn’t have the ball much, it struggles. Today, when they brought a lot of attackers forward, we managed to defend near our penalty area. I think we struggled more when we lost the ball and were too exposed in transitions.
“It’s something we need to work on, but we won’t change our way of playing because we already know that in some games we’ll play well, while in others we won’t. The important thing, however, is to fight to the end in every game: today we could have won, but I repeat, Juventus didn’t deserve to lose.”
Is it difficult to change the teamwork mentality?
“Obviously, we’re changing the way we play. We did well at times: my feeling is that in the first half we weren’t under a lot of pressure and could have had better possession. Sometimes we lost the ball without any pressure.
“We were constantly taking risks, and that’s something we need to improve: how we play with the ball, how we defend with the ball, how we are more aggressive. Sometimes, if we go towards goal, we need to be more aggressive.
Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images
“If we want to keep the ball, we need to move more, have more desire to do so, and be a little more courageous. But it was a great stadium, against a great team and an excellent coach, and we were very close to winning. So I don’t want to be too negative with my players, but obviously I expect more, and they want more too.”
How satisfied are you with Cisse?
“I’m really happy for all the players, but I want to be careful with our young players, because in football these days there’s a tendency to over-promote players too soon. We mustn’t forget that he’s a young player at the beginning of his career.
“I think he needs to continue training very well. Obviously, I’m really happy for him, because everyone likes to see a young player do well, especially an Italian. So it’s a great moment, but again, I look at Cisse and I think he can do much better.
“The same goes for the other players. I said I love Cissè, but I love all my players and I’m really happy with all the training sessions and all the games they’ve played. Today wasn’t the perfect day, but sometimes we expect too much, and I expect a lot from our players.”
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