This afternoon, Massimiliano Allegri has spoken to the media ahead of AC Milan-Torino, where the Rossoneri hope to overturn their recent form.
It has been a difficult few weeks for Milan. In fact, 2026 generally hasn’t been kind to Allegri and his team. Indeed, a few positive results have been sprinkled throughout, but the general consensus is not a positive one.
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Ultimately, the Rossoneri have dropped away from the Scudetto race, and now, despite their strong first half of the season, they are now facing questions about their participation in the Champions League, which is worrying.
Allegri’s press conference
Putting it simply, the Diavolo need to get three points this weekend, if nothing else to start overturning the recent results. However, a bit of momentum at San Siro could do Allegri’s side a world of good.
Before the game, the Italian spoke to the press about the game, last weekend’s loss and the week between the games, as MilanNews relayed.
Luka Modric brought his 2018 Ballon d’Or to Casa Milan. Is it a symbol of his already strong bond with AC Milan?
“Luka arrived and brought quality not only on a technical level but above all on a human and professional level, especially for the younger players. Seeing a player, a man, with such passion and love for what he does is incredible. This creates enthusiasm and brings positivity to the environment.”
How’s Gimenez? How’s Leao after the Rome incident? How’s his mood?
“These things happen during a season where points count. The only thing we can do is stay calm. We have an important match tomorrow before the break. It’s difficult because Torino has been getting good results since D’Aversa arrived. Let’s forget about what happened; we need to focus on tomorrow. Gimenez is fine; he’ll be called up tomorrow.”
Is the Scudetto race over?
“It’s normal that the defeat against Lazio… Football is wonderful for this reason. Everyone thought Inter had dropped two points, but instead. They have their destiny in their hands for the Scudetto, we have it for the Champions League.
“We have to focus on one game at a time. Then, when the math says that Inter has won the Scudetto and that Milan is in the Champions League, then we won’t be able to win the Scudetto and we won’t be able to exit the Champions League.”
The Leao-Pulisic duo…
“As for the Leao-Pulisic duo, they’ve had a season with injuries. One missed pre-season, the other had a good pre-season and then was out for two months. Now it’s important to do well in the last two months.
“Pulisic is doing well; in terms of physical condition, he put in a good performance in Rome. He lacks accuracy in his shots, but he’ll find it again. Rafa has nine goals, he still has some games to go, and he can reach double figures.
“But now we have everyone available; to play, we need to wake up. Everyone.”
Modric’s future:
“The club will talk to us. It’s up to him. He has a World Cup to play in… In the meantime, let’s let him play, let him have fun.”
The rankings…
“You have to look ahead but also behind. Football is wonderful for this: balance is fundamental. Until you’ve achieved your goal, you have to stay focused on it. You have to get some points tomorrow to take a small step forward.
“Against Lazio, we could have been more precise, and we paid dearly for it. Tomorrow we have to play an orderly game, without overdoing it, and with the goal of taking home the three points.”
Pulisic’s missing passes to Leao. What’s missing to improve their affinity?
“Whoever has the ball has to see who’s unmarked. He didn’t pass that ball to him because he didn’t see it. But it’s happened other times too. The difference in football is the choice in the final pass. With Leao I said: ‘He didn’t see you, otherwise he would have passed it to you.’ It didn’t take much.”
How did you manage to score 60 points with the difficulties in attack?
“Because the team worked as a team. We had injury problems in the attacking department, but let’s not dwell on the past. I rewatched the match against Lazio, there were technical errors in the final 30 meters.
“We conceded a goal that we should have avoided, but that’s normal. Tomorrow we have a difficult match, we need all the players to be fit. We hope to recover Loftus-Cheek and Gabbia himself, and Gimenez will improve his condition.
“We need to focus on individual objectives for the group, otherwise, after eight months, we’ll be playing for a Champions League spot.”
Was the team under too much pressure in Rome? Are you worried about the psychological backlash?
“There mustn’t be a backlash, especially because we made some mistakes that we need to try to avoid, and we need to be more precise up front. We also had favorable situations, but we also handled two or three situations the same way.
“We’ve worked on it, and tomorrow we hope to play better defensively. In the first half, we conceded nine counterattacks, the most this year. But the Lazio game is a product of the Cremona game, which was already a broken game.
“The derby is different, you have a different focus. We need to calmly return to staying organized, which is our strength.”
Should we focus on Leao and Pulisic or give Fullkrug a chance, as he’s the only striker in the penalty area?
“There are post-match solutions when needed. Gimenez hasn’t been available so far and hasn’t got match rhythm. During the break, we’ll try to organise a friendly to get him some minutes. There are plenty of post-match solutions.
“Until today, when Gimenez hadn’t returned, we didn’t have anyone with those characteristics on the bench other than Fullkrug. Having five forwards available is very important.”
About Leao…
“He can easily play as a centre-forward, just look at his moves on Sunday against Inter and Cremona with those deep attacks. When he opens up, he feels a little more comfortable, but when he goes wide, if he doesn’t get the ball, he loses his grip on the game a bit…”
They want to close Open Var…
“I don’t know, they’ll decide. The less you do, the better. I think the referee is there, and they’re good at it. Let’s let them officiate. There must be balance in all situations. There’s a fine line between the VAR intervention and the referee, it could tip the balance.
“When they find the right understanding between them, the referee will also be more relaxed. But the referees are good, they’ve been doing better in recent matches. Guida refereed well, he let things go, he didn’t call half-fouls, and that’s right; football is a man’s game.
“There are many young referees, they need experience. The older referees have more experience and control of the situation.”
Are you talking to Tare about the future? How important is it to continue with this working group?
“Tare and I see each other every day, we have lunch together at Milanello, we’re in training camp together, we talk about team dynamics, where we can get to grips with the team. Furlani came to visit us after the derby and we had lunch together.
“When we talk about the future, and we haven’t yet, we’ll all do it together.”
On the halftime video of the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Dortmund: Ancelotti trusted his veterans. In the context of AC Milan, does the team need such charismatic players to aspire to the top?
“That was a Real Madrid where Modric and Kroos left. The only one left is Carvajal. We shouldn’t think about what happened 10 years ago. Now it’s a completely different generation.
“In Italy, especially, we don’t have the financial strength to compete with other European clubs. Just look at the revenues. At the end of the day, the teams that reach the semifinals are the strongest financially.
“When the margin for error is lower, you have to be good and lucky in building the team. If you make a turnover of 1 billion, you can spend more money even if you make a mistake of 200 million. AC Milan is working to be competitive and sustainable.
“Now the club is a business: that’s why both the sporting and commercial aspects are important. It must be a chain of events, from the first team to the grassroots: that way you build a solid foundation on which the club can rely, otherwise you’ll jump from one thing to another.
“If you don’t create these foundations, you’re always at sea.”
Maybe we need to improve all the other situations that don’t depend solely on the strikers?
“We need to improve the understanding between the players. Pulisic and Leao haven’t played together much in those positions, but so have the others. However, there have been some excellent combinations, like Fullkrug and Pulisic in Florence.
“On Sunday, however, Pulisic didn’t show any signs of being there; that can happen in football.”
Isn’t it a cliché that Italian teams struggle so much in Europe? Does the intensity depend on the players, the coach, the league?
“I’m just talking, not explaining, because I don’t explain anything and I don’t have the truth. We shouldn’t denigrate Italian football. We have those characteristics, it’s part of the history of the Italian people, from the Middle Ages and the defense of the forts. Now everyone’s talking.
“The speed of the passing is certainly different and depends on the players. Why are games faster in Europe? First of all, because you either win or lose. The English league is completely different, not better or worse. When they say that in Italy the game stagnates and there’s less space, let’s look at the positive: it’s harder to score goals.
“We were born and raised like this and we’ve evolved. We shouldn’t go imitating other countries with different cultures. The history varies from club to club. We need to fix the youth sectors, find different formulas. But don’t talk, we need to do! And make decisions. I’ll end now, otherwise I’ll become polemical. I think numbers should be shown for all the youth sectors.
“These numbers should be brought out. We need to worry because so many kids who play football stop early and go to play in tennis. To get to the Sinners, there’s a lot of work behind it. You have to be careful. Those who understand the youth sector, just need to make some reforms.”
The so called conservative coach has integrated a youth player (something that neither Pioli, nor the Portugese coaches attempted to do even when chances were there) in Bartesaghi into the first team and points out the structural flaws in Italy anytime media tries to drag him down into a clichee answer regarding the performances in European competitions, as if they are just some random hot topic and not a result of deeper issues within the Italian football.
Alex Jimenez played a lot last season at Milan under the Portuguese coaches.
The only reason why Bartesaghi plays is not because Allegri is so good in integrating youth players but because Theo was sold and Estupinian has been garbage. If Theo hernandez was still at Milan Bartesaghi would not be playing.
There’s basically zero difference between Estupinan and Theo when it comes to defending, so I’m not sure whether Allegri would have’be preferred Theo to Bartesaghi. Maybe a more frequent rotation between the two AT BEST. Also, Allegri wanted David in the team from day 1 and integrated him into the first team during the preseason games, before Estupinan’s bad performances.
As for Jimenez, hardly a home grown player, we got him from Real Madrid, he played a few games for the youth team and entered the first team.
If Theo was on the team Bartesaghi isn’t playing more than a few minutes here and there.
First you said integrate a youth player, than you change it to home grown. Alex Jimenez was a youth player. Doesn’t matter that he came to the Primavera from another club a year or 2 earlier or not.
And you are hyping up integrating 1 (one) player, like its some badge of honor. Not to mention that Bartesaghi has been responsible for quite a few goals Milan has conceded this season. Defensively he isn’t much better than Estupinian or Theo, if he is even better than them
If grandma had balls she’d be grandpa.
Quit with the “ifs”, that is completely meaningless. If Theo actually worked hard last year he’d still be on the team. But he got lazy and selfish and cocky, so he’s not. See what I did?
Bartesaghi is here. He’s the best LB we have currently so let’s hope he stays healthy and plays the rest of the games.
Given how crap Theo’s defending was in the last three seasons, Allegri would have benched him stat.
Max has no patience for a defender who doesn’t defend. Estupinan is the perfect example. The minute he made a mistake against Napoli and wasn’t serviceable enough, Max benched him for an 18 year old.
Theo would have seen the same fate.
21 goals conceded in the league all season doesn’t come with fielding trash defenders.
Lazy ,Selfish and Cocky …… Mmmmmm who does that sound like ?
Let me take a stab at it, could that be the traffic con, prima dona, luxury player Leao?