AC Milan midfielder Yacine Adli believes that the team put in a good performance against Atalanta at San Siro, while he also admitted he wasn’t happy with his own display last weekend.
Milan were forced to settle for a point against their Lombardy neighbours tonight despite going a goal up early on through Rafael Leao, as they conceded yet another goal from the spot kick.
As mentioned, Leao opened the scoring with what can only be described as a screamer, bundling past two men on the left wing and then opening up his body and finding the far corner with a lovely curling shot.
However, there would be VAR controversy before the break as an Atalanta corner was whipped in to the near post and a man went down holding his face, with VAR adjudging that Oliver Giroud had caught him with a high boot.
The call looked harsh at the time and looks even worse with replays, but Teun Koopmeiners got his third goal of the season against Milan to draw his side level and earn a point
Adli spoke to DAZN after the game to try and pick apart what was a frustrating night for the team after a pretty dominant display, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
Does it feel like two points dropped?
“I think we played the right game, we did many things, we put in a lot of intensity. We gave everything, we haven’t dropped the two points today, we dropped them before in games where we could have put more soul into.”
How do you judge your own performance?
“It’s difficult to play against Atalanta, they’re always man on man. We tried to do a lot of movement. I was disappointed because I had a terrible match in Monza, I wanted to show that I am Milan-worthy and that I can play here.”
It feels like a negative week for Milan…
“We have to keep moving forward, there are moments like this in the season. I don’t know if there was a penalty today, I think so if you go and look at it at VAR. We pay for every mistake but we have to push and move forward.”
“I was disappointed because I had a terrible match in Monza, I wanted to show that I am Milan-worthy and that I can play here.”
A lot of players on the team ( the coach included) can learn from this kid’s humility, character, self awareness to acknowledge when he played bad instead of looking for excuses or mouthing out to fans or media for rightfully criticizing them for playing bad. 👏
Yeah. That’s strength actually
Adli has the mentality from previous generations of footballers. He is a gem on and off the field
I can only imagine how good Leão would be if he had Adli’s mentality
This. 100%.
If he can maintain and improve the level he showed in this match, then ….. I think his intelligence is helping with his reading of the game, positioning, tracking and interception, even before there’s any need to go for hard tackles and tougher ways of winning the ball back.
But to continue playing this position, I think in the off season to next season, he needs some strength, muscle and balance work. Same for Gabbia I think. But so far we got two gems on our hand if we handle them right.