Ismael Bennacer has lifted the lid on why he wanted to leave AC Milan in order to join Marseille, strongly hinting at tactical motivations.
Bennacer was one of the last minute farewells in the crazy winter transfer window that Milan had. Despite starting the derby against Inter the previous day, the Algerian pushed to join Marseille and eventually did, on loan with an option to buy.
Corriere della Sera (via Milan News) even reported that Bennacer had a ‘heated face-to-face’ with Sergio Conceicao at half-time in the derby, due to his decision to replace the midfielder with Alex Jimenez – a decision which he obviously did not agree with.
There was talk of Milan being irritated by Bennacer’s decision to try and force an exit right at the end of the window and also because of Marseille’s timing, having done the same thing in the summer by waiting until the final hours.
Nonetheless, Bennacer was satisfied and he spoke today in a press conference that unveiled him to the fans. His comments were relayed by MilanPress.
“I have been a Marseille fan since I was a kid. It is a really interesting project for me, we had already had some contact this summer and in these months I had the chance to think about it,” he said.
“I have always liked De Zerbi, and I would have liked to play for him sooner or later, being here at Marseille is even better. We want to fight for the title, I have already won and I can be of help.
“De Zerbi has a philosophy that I like, he wants to have possession of the ball to win. Different from Milan, where they didn’t focus too much on possession and the role of the midfielders.
“At the time of the first contacts I was returning from a serious injury, and at Milan there was a new coach who was counting on me, which is why we didn’t go into more detail.
“I’m not here because they wanted to sell me or because they pushed me to come, I was the one who told the management that I wanted to go to Marseille. My condition? I’m fine, I’m 100%.”
This guy lost most of the games for AC Milan because is made of glass and now is talking as if he played every game and was the big name of the club more then likely until june he gets injured again like every season!
Guy missed 100 matches during his time here, which is insane. Nearly 3 whole seasons
Dang that is crazy, nice stat
Yes very different, they haven’t been the same they robbed us of the Champions League title in 1993. Rubbish club.
Injuries are part of game. Player is not responsible for toughness during the game. As I remember when inter player injured him, didn’t even get the yellow card.. it was like that. Simon Inzaghi didn’t make any complaint back than.
Still Milan managed to make Bennacer decent midfielder. Back than no one know anything about him. They paid 17 million which is fair price. And after 5 or 6 years he established as good midfielder.
Milan now if manage to sell him in summer can capital gain at least 10 million and he is almost in 28 years old. If he goes from Milan, we should all thank him because of so many good games he had in team. So Milan did good job only because investing back than in young player…
👍
Its still funny as fk that De Zerbi ended up being forced to accept Marseille when everyone online was predicting that he’ll manage Bayern Barca Chelsea or United as if he’s some sort of revolutionary manager.
Still funny that you don’t understand football.
Guardiola was vocal about how good De Zerbi is and I think he knows a thing or 2 about coaching.
It’s a pity we didn’t get him. A rossonero
Whats really funny here is Boulden complaining about other people complaining and its basically the only thing he ever ever does on this website and still he doesn’t see the irony.
I saw De Zerbi in Milan as a potential candidate as well but you are absolutely right that Guardiola was praising the Italian but Boulden with his immense knowledge obviously knows better.
Yeah you were one of the geniuses predicting Bayern Barca for him, what happened? Why isnt a top club after him?
Literally no one was, even Liverpool was looking for a successor at that point and they decided to gamble on Arne Slot instead because they know a one-dimensional manager doesnt work
Pep also praised Sarri, where is he now?
😀 I didn’t predict anything I just saw him as one of the possibilites we could look into for us so stop making up bs.
So if a coach doesn’t have a coaching job he cant be a great coach or what ? last time i checked klopp is now working in some sort of capacity for redbull. Even sacchi who revolutionized modern day football was brought in from a serie b Parma team who had recently been promoted from serie c so whatever ridiculous points you have there isn’t really valid.
Comparing De Zerbi to Klopp and Sacchi
You’ve gone off the deep end for a manager no one wanted to hire in the summer
Klopp is taking a career break, he is burnt out, are you insane? Sacchi is a manager from 3 decades ago
No I’m not Sacchi was basically an unknown when we hired him from serie b and you used the argumentation yourself in regard of a coach who hasnt got a job. You cant pick and choose as you see fit.
Boulden is the new Giancarlo.
Where IS Giancarlo? Where is Bartholomeo for that matter?
Giancarlo actually had a more redeeming character.
Bartholomeo still posts from time to time but personally I’ve never had any issues with him.
yeah its a pity we didnt get the Italian Ange Postecoglu who only knows 1 way of playing football
Would’ve been brilliant losing to Inter 5-0 with him this season
What is he talking about? Just admit you were not good enough for a big team instead of talking crap.
Milan don’t focus on midfield roles? Is this a professional football player statement? The midfield has been out weakness for many months, Fofana was always left alone and running up and down the field as you never provided proper support, not mentioning the very long absences . Just go to Marseille and enjoy the sun, but don’t sell us this cr*ppy excuses
Maybe Milan didn’t focus on midfielders because they couldn’t do their job. Benny couldn’t help our leaky defense one bit and couldn’t help our attack either. So yeah, I wonder why Conceicao “didn’t focus on midfielders”. 😀 😀 😀
I now reason better than before. When your team wants you and then you decided to leave, fan call you name. Equally when the club want to cash on a player and the player refused, he still gets the insult. Players have so many reasons personal, tactical or emotional about leaving or joining a team
Well he got into an argument with Sergio, and then bolted for the door. He’s like a spoilt child missed 100 football matches and acts like he has the right to throw his toys out of the cot when he hasn’t played a full season in years.
THis.
Just stay healthy enough and play good enough so they can exercise their option to buy.
THIS. Otherwise he’s back at the club and we’re back to square one with him.
Pretty disrespectful from Benny, makes me feel better about us shipping him out. Looking forward to our next match against Marseille.
Shipping him out? Not the right phrase when the player insisted the club to sell him. He was let to leave.
So Benny’s comments clear up any doubt. The players have had major clashes with the manager.
That’s worrying no matter who’s side you are on
As posted by others Benny, Morata, Calabria and the likes of Pulisic are good pro’s who never cause trouble. It’s different if it was Theo/Leao who are known for their strops
I’m feeling positive we’ve been complaining about the mentality of this team for a while and now we have a coach who can hold players to account. Somehow Pioli got the team to row in one direction for one year since then several players are clearly out for themselves and don’t really want to sacrifice for the club. Good riddance and I’m glad fathers are ruffled
His last game the creator for Milan goal against inter. Then the 2nd half, inter almost dominated the game. Milan more stronger if Benny at the midfield and control the game. So sad he left Milan. He think milan won’t able to compete big four again. Milan these day was different. Thanks Benny. Forza Milan !!
Creator? LOL. It was Tammy who fought the ball, Theo who gave the splendid pass to Leao whose effort was deflected into the reach of Tij. Benny did the easiest task involved the attack.
He almost didn’t get that simple pass off. They talk about it on the podcast. Benny was poor and deserved to be subbed
👍
I hope you get well soon, oli
“I’m not here because they wanted to sell me or because they pushed me to come, I was the one who told the management that I wanted to go to Marseille. My condition? I’m fine, I’m 100%.
De Zerbi has a philosophy that I like, he wants to have possession of the ball to win. Different from Milan, where they didn’t focus too much on possession and the role of the midfielders”
This is really interesting. Normally we don’t get this much insight and reasoning for a transfer from a player. Seems like he didn’t like the way the style of play has been managed/coaching. And we do seem also to not be possession based as we used to be. We’re more defend and counter. All the best to him. We’ll miss what he brings to the team, that’s for sure.
How did possession based football work out for us under Fonseca? A lot of lateral passes and no vertical penetration …
We’re still a counterattacking team unless Conceicao beats a different system into this team …
Under fonseca we used to have over 60% possession in games with less than 5 shots on target. Nobody wants to see passes from side to side and back to the defence when your losing and tieng games. I’d rather have 20% possession and actually go towards net than to dominate it and do nothing with it
As I wrote below, I have no clue what we were doing under Fonseca. Alot of it was sterile and I agree with your assessment.
I actually don’t mind being a counter attacking team but does it fit our players? We’re not a muscle team like Sarge’s Porto so he’ll have to redefine the way that type of team would operate. We do have mids with ability to possess the ball (Benny would have been one of those too) but if we’re not into that then I can see Deers suffering especially . However we also have a very fast L winger, fast full back and an intelligent RW for a counter attack. I don’t know how it’s going to shake out but let’s hope for the best
Well i won’t read much into his statement. We had a possession based coach and Lost a lot of points even though he had full pre-season. Now we have a Coach who has different ideas.
Let’s not forget that Conceicao is fighting for his future as well, he has his targets to meet and working with players where he has had limited time to implement his ideas. I don’t know what kind of team we will be but i can’t say if conceicao was a defend and counter kind of coach after being at the helm of porto for so long which is a big team in it’s own respect and is expected to win most of their games as well. I think he is just a bit more Vertical.
Also thing about football is that you might feel you are a 100%, but those watching you might have different ideas.. As we all can see he is not as tenacious as he used to be.. so maybe 100% physically fine but not 100% match fitness fine. But would miss him.
All fair points. I do get the verticality aspect of our game currently but it’s a fine line between that and counter attacking football. We’ve ceded possession under Sarge more often than not esp against big or other possession based teams like Como. I don’t see us building from the back as we used to be for instance.
Under Fonseca, I had no clue what we were playing both formation-wise and with the ball. Plus he had issue with his star players and that didn’t seem to lend itself to getting his own message across to players (Sarge seem to have the same issues too). Both coaches seem to not be good man managers and to me that’s probably the most crucial thing as a coach.
In terms of what Benny is saying I just thought it was fascinating for him to even mention anything.. usually players stay muted but he wanted to say what he said for a reason.
So much as I like this guy but am totally disappointed in him. Can you imagine his comments? He is no different from Kessie and Calhanoglu. Non sense !
👍 ACM losing to Marseille all those years ago was a set-up.
Don’t believe me…. Look into it….🤔
This is becoming more concerning. Conceicao is gonna fall out with half the squad st this rate by summer. Many of these aren’t even known troublemakers, which is even more concerning. Guys like Puli especially are Vital to this team. Something needs to be examined here
Well, he actually has a point that Milan is not midfield oriented playing possession football since Pioli. I won’t put the fault entirely on Pioli. The management have been much of an accomplice. Since we lost Kessie and Calhalougu, the midfield has been in shambles with getting no replacement. Then came Tonali and we sold him 2 years later.
Reijnders and Fofana only just came in.
It always intrigued me then how the back line is always wasting time passing the ball side to side and Benacer was mostly the midfielder trying to get the ball through the midfield (sometimes successfully, other times not).
Fonseca ball must have appealed to him at first until the coach buckled under pressure when results were not coming (also he was injured then).
So yeah, the guy made a good move career wise. It is important to enjoy whatever you are doing.
And please, no one should compare his leaving with Donna, Kessie or Calhalogu.
Ha. Yes, those three have more faces than Big Ben.
Dez, totally agree about the slow play out of the back. Also, the backline, at least to my eyes misses passes to midfielders coming back and showing for the ball. This drives me crazy, especially when the midfielder’s body shape is positioned to drive forward.
Lol easy Benny, you’re only leaving on loan with OPTION to buy. Don’t bite the hands that feed ya.
Imo he didn’t really say anything bad. It could mean, Conceiçao’s football is more focused on counter attacks down the flanks where midfield only has job to press in numbers. De Zerbi plays possession football with passers.
So did Fonzi, obviously Benny likes a slow placed game, dude doesn’t want to or can’t run. The issue is he does a lot of standing especially in the defensive phase. But it’s fair for him to recognize that he’s not a fit for a system that demands energy and athleticism
Yes I believe most technical midfielders will prefer playing RDZs football than Conceicaos.