Former midfielder Massimo Ambrosini has expressed concerns about the unity and chemistry of the current AC Milan side, based on what he has seen so far under Paulo Fonseca.
As we head towards the resumption of Serie A action on Saturday night when Milan take on Udinese at San Siro, there are more question marks than certainties surrounding Paulo Fonseca’s side given they have won just three of nine games across all competitions.
On top of that, there have been incidents already such as the cooling break saga in Rome and the penalty debacle in Florence that have led to suggestions the new coach doesn’t exactly have full control of the dressing room at present.
Ambrosini was interviewed by Luca Serafini for Milan Community TV, and he spoke at length about some of the adversity he faced in his career and how he views the current side.
What are the pressures of being a footballer?
“Behind every footballer there is a professionalism, a soul, a way of living the profession and life. I went through a period in which I was a bit stuck in thoughts and many things that went through my head and that did not free my body and my mind to do what I had to do. It was a complicated time to manage.
“But now I am seeing that from the point of view of communication it is becoming a bit accepted that footballers also have a soul and a sensitivity that leads them to have to deal with psychological issues that are not always simple, something that the whole world has but that in the collective imagination the footballer is always the one seen with an unbreakable armor when this is absolutely not the case.”
Now footballers have many more opportunities after their playing career…
“Yes, everyone chooses to tie themselves to certain initiatives. That is a life trajectory that everyone chooses to follow based on what their own experiences have been.”
What do you enjoy the most about what you do every day?
“Taking my little son to kindergarten (laughs).”
In football you can’t stand two things anymore: those who go down after the slightest touch and the rules, you can’t understand anything anymore. Your solution or advice?
“They are two things that are somewhat connected in my opinion. I have the intolerance that you complain about too. When you protect the ball, if you are grazed by a nail you fall to the ground as if you had been knocked out.
“We should agree on the fact that this thing can be limited if we give the referees the possibility to choose and decide by asking them to interpret a football sense. That they may not have since they were not footballers, but there are some football dynamics that if you know and interpret can prevent you from calling things that are now called.
“We will never find a solution to the fact that the rules of football tend to want to objectify any type of situation: they think that by setting fixed limits there will be fewer discussions. We have seen that this is not the case, the last round of the league is proof of this.
“We need that football interpretation that at this moment is not required of the referee. If Luperto’s penalty, in the last round of Serie A, happened a while back he would never call it. But that’s what’s written in the rules and so you get tangled up, but if they call a penalty like that against you you go crazy.
The same thing for two of the three penalties called in Fiorentina-Milan: from a footballing point of view they have nothing to do with footballing. If you reintroduce the possibility for the referee to interpret what happens on the pitch, it happens that there will be even more chaos.
If we decide that the referee can interpret and evaluate, even with the help of the VAR, a certain intervention at his discretion, at that point we have to take the fact that there could be even more subjective evaluations than there are now. It’s a complicated balance.
“From a sporting and footballing point of view, Theo’s penalty on Dodò is never a penalty, even if according to the rules it is. Just as for me the one on Reijnders is never a penalty either: it’s contact, it’s not a penalty. They’re not penalties. If I had gone to referee I would never have called them. With the rules written now you and I can referee too, there’s nothing to interpret.”
The age-old issue of the schedule. Ancelotti explains it since he does not need to cling to alibis. There is no occasion, like an annual congress, where managers, coaches and captains gather and talk with UEFA or FIFA to discuss these things. The calendar is becoming a big problem…
“UEFA and FIFA and the other clubs will never sit down. Everyone needs money, they are all perfectly aware that we have reached the limit. As long as you have indebted clubs that create a Super League because they need money…
“They cannot sit down and say that they should play less because they need money. Tournaments are still being created, the only way to create money is to create matches. Or the clubs will agree to lower costs such as wages, so that the players can play a little less. The players must also sit down at the table”.
Let’s talk about Milan. You were captain, I don’t know how to interpret this kind of armband raffle…
“I don’t like it. It is often said that in a team there are many captains, and it is true. But the armband must be worn by one. The others continue to be captains without the armband rotating; I like that the armband belongs to one person and that he is recognised, that there are precise hierarchies.”
The other day two guys stopped me on the street and asked me: ‘How do you get out of this situation?’. I’ll turn the question over to you: what happens on the field then fuels criticism of the team, the coach, the players, the management. It seems like everything is wrong, everything needs to be redone. How can you get out of this fluctuating performance?
“Of the things you told me, the one that convinces me the most is that the team is strong. I’ve been saying it since the beginning of the year, in my opinion it’s a team built with strong players. You come out of it with the perception that the market has brought you top-level players.
“They need to be put together better than they have been up to now and a key needs to be found to ensure that these players, who in my opinion remain strong, can have a different emotional attitude during the game and matches, that they can play a little more together, that they give a little more continuity to the idea of being a tough team, which has been the case too few times up to now.”
Are you more optimistic or perplexed?
“I’m a bit perplexed because based on what I told you, it took a bit too much effort to find a team unity. Milan’s games too often gave me the feeling of seeing a team that has strong players, but not of being a strong team.
“Leaving aside the derby which was a high-level match, they never gave me the feeling of being a team that goes onto the pitch and says ‘Today there’s no one left on their own because we’re strong’. Understood? It’s a team that can do that thing, the players are strong.
“But between having strong individuals and having a unity that makes you a team that goes onto the pitch and then says there’s no one left on their own… This year Milan has given me that feeling few times.”