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.”
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.
“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.”
True talk from Amorim and this is where the quality of a coach comes to play. We got the first half wrong as the new player was supposed to come in the second half instead of starting meanwhile the guy tried but that was a wrong decision from the coach. Then after we scored the rest was like Italian seria c players. A lot needs to be done and am so sorry we are not there and the irony of this is that every season will start from beginning building instead of consolidating what we have before with 3 or 4 new players. Seria A is not a league you come and blend immediately like epl
Honestly I like these honest answers from Amorim.
Tonight we was playing just like under Allegri.No pressing,no creativity.Juve was playing,and we.I dont know what was we playing.Sorry.I dont wont to whatch that Ac Milan all season.I tired whatch that
Juve was equally trash, what are you talking about? Sure, they were more aggressive, but they were also playing on home ground.
What an amazing coach!
I think our attacking players, those behind Ramos failed greatly and made Ramos go under pressure. Especially in 1st every Milan attacker want to enter into the penalty box or pass to Ramos. It’s not helping. Instead rabiot and sale could have given some open shots with power testing the juve keeper. We could have lost by 2 goals even in the 1st half. Juve , in 1st half were using the planes-wing- formation especially on the Wing pressing with counter especially on setup. side (once again our weakness) changing how we play.
Milan coach needs to work on the last 10mins of the game with good chargers. He must kill the game if he’s leading by 80th mins bcos the players get tired by then and loose control by that time. We should have won by luck (but through it away) by 85th minutes. Rabiot should hv been withdrawn by then to play 6 or 8 just to deal with height and shoulders, bring in a central defender for musah and bring camarda for Ramos ( just to put pressure on juv defense) as a floating striker after cisses goal . U know Mourinho and Anceloti will close the game by then knowing very well juve created more chances and deserved win comparatively.
But Milan will score more goals than last season and win more. I want to see the test against inter, roma, como. We’ll go far but needs time
What am I missing? One shot on goal and it probably should’ve been stopped. The play of the entire team was horrific.
You know what you miss the “simple things in football “? Because you insist on RLc, Musah, Estupinan etc. There is a reason these are not quality players and all coaches saw them. They simply don’t know the basics. No need to experiment with these.
This is why we will miss next World Cup again!!! We need change ASAP!!!Our league is a joke
If in football the teams that win are only the ones who deserved to win, it’ll be just a math. Not a sport. Football matches were built on the moments. Don’t get me wrong, I like what I’ve been seeing with Amorim’s Milan. But in this match and interview, he’s simply too naive.
If we got 3 points on away’s turf against our ‘direct’ rival, it’ll be massive. Both on result and mentality. It’s okay to go fulll defensive on our only goal lead once in a while. Moreover if the opposing team subbing in all attacking force. As an away team, I think we have no other choice than to put more defensive players.
Hopefully he’ll learn.
why does he not see how bad RLC and Estupinian are…
and Alexis, he is LWB not left CAM
Yes,we needed cisse and chukweze but a huge mistake to substitute Modrich at that crucial period,I told myself after the substitute that no Modrich,no Rabiot,Jashari and RLC in the midfield,a draw will be good for Milan.The moment he substitute Modrich they forget to play and Juventus take advantage
Too soon to judge his progress. Despite what is said, the mercato lacked some vital pieces and he doesn’t have his optimal 11 in their optimal positions yet. They all need more time together.
Beating lower placed teams while tying stronger opposition gets you CL football. We couldn’t even do that last season.