Fabio Capello has some worries about the way that AC Milan are playing under Ruben Amorim, and about some individuals within the squad.
There has been a lot of criticism levelled at Amorim and the Milan squad after their 2-0 loss to Benfica on Wednesday night. Not only did they lose their first Europa League game, but they were beaten rather comfortably by a team that made nine changes.
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It was an alarming display of how far off the levels the Rossoneri are currently, all while the head coach continues to come under fire for his selections and his comments in the media that have raised some eyebrows.
Capello spoke to La Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview published this morning and he offered his take on current events at Milan, from the first defeat to Amorim’s work so far.
If you wanted to rank the horrors, was the attacking phase worse or the defensive one?
“Both. The defence was flawed in the last ten games of last season and hasn’t improved at all this year. The midfield never gets through sufficiently after losing the ball, and there’s a lot of slackness both in open play and on set pieces.
“As for the attack, there are many players trying to carry the ball in a slow game, with few crosses. They try to get inside centrally with through balls that don’t land properly and end up benefiting the opponents.
“And then they always end up blaming the centre-forward, who, poor thing, can’t receive a decent ball. By playing like this, you can’t find any space against organised opponents like Benfica.”
If we had to isolate one, what is the worst factor right now?
“Not having found the core team yet. Those 12-13 key players on which to build the rest. And yet, it’s clear that this squad has some players capable of making a difference. Instead, I’ve seen too many different line-ups.”
And when someone carries the ball, he only sees immobile team-mates…
“No one’s looking for depth. Maybe they know the ball isn’t coming to them… They see the ball moving, but in a way that puts them to sleep. That’s why Milan is preaching so much about quick ball recovery in attack, but so far we’ve only seen it against Torino on matchday one.”
The ‘style’ is also completely missing…
“There’s never anyone looking for a one-on-one to cross, or a run in deep. And then there’s another problem: even when they get the ball into the middle, there’s never anyone to fill the box. Ramos receives the ball surrounded by opponents and is not helped by his teammates.”
How much is courage lacking, and how much is the idea of the game?
“I’d say 50 percent of players are afraid to try a move, and the other 50 percent still haven’t figured out the tactical plan. The players know and understand each other by playing together: if you keep changing, you won’t achieve this goal.”
What about Modric?
“It’s obvious to everyone that he’s not in great shape, but I’d be very careful about shelving a player of this calibre, especially given how the team is playing now. I’m all for quality. I’d keep in mind that he’s one of the few players who brings verticality to the game.”
Meanwhile, Amorim has just said that the squad isn’t entirely suited to his idea of football: a heavy sentence…
“On the one hand, it means the club hasn’t done everything he asked for. On the other, a coach can’t always be completely satisfied. The problem is that this shouldn’t be stated publicly. These are issues that need to be discussed within the club.”
The starting XI fielded against Benfica raised more than a few doubts…
“I haven’t really figured it out yet. I’m starting from the assumption that the coach fields the team he thinks is best for winning. But Amorim is still searching for that.”
The Portuguese coach is not at risk, but it still seems like Milan are obliged – for a thousand reasons – to continue with him…
“There’s no point in continuing to change. He needs to be given the opportunity to continue with his project. And it’s not a contractual issue. He needs support because he’s looking for a solution and we need to wait for it to be found.”
Is the figure of the sporting director missing alongside Amorim?
“The sporting director has always been important, but he or she needs to bring added value. It’s not enough to just fill a desk.”
Let’s go back to the partially unsuitable squad mentioned by the coach: who do you think the Portuguese was speaking about?
“No, that’s not the point. The point is that you have to know how to make wine with the grapes you have. There’s no single game system, you have to put the players in the position where they perform best.”
Is Amorim too outspoken in speaking publicly?
“Basically, I find him very polite, he says a lot. But we need to be careful: the squad issue, I repeat, wasn’t a good thing for the club.”
Some consider him a presumptuous coach, even in his playing style…
“No, not yet. I’d wait a little longer before calling it that.”
Capello should shut up
He was blaming Pep for ruining Italian Football
You shut up, fu*king mo*on.
Capello is a genius. He knows exactly what he’s talking about, and he’s right about everything he says. Just a couple of weeks ago, Amorim said he had the best squad. Now he’s saying he doesn’t have the players suited to his style of play.
He’s simply not a good enough coach. He can’t adapt and get the best out of the players he actually has. The simplest thing is not to leave your best players on the bench while playing useless players, only to then complain that you don’t have the right players to play your preferred style.
A good manager adapts to his squad and finds a way to get the best out of the players available to him. Amorim seems to be making things unnecessarily difficult for himself.
LOL!!! A random kid in internet tells Capello to shut up. OK, I’ll play along… What trophies have you won as a professional football coach? How much of coaching experience do you have? On what level?
“The point is that you have to know how to make wine with the grapes you have. There’s no single game system, you have to put the players in the position where they perform best.”
Amorim did not know how to get the best out of his squad at Man United, he chooses to play one system exclusively, and in my opinion this is Capello telling us he is seeing the same problems at Milan. I completely agree.
Most probably, Amorim wasn’t allowed to do what he wanted back at United. If you listen carefully to various managers that were called for the job and look at the managers that stayed (Carrick for instance), it really is safe to say that MU currently is interested in a coach, rather than a “father figure” like SAF. The managerial stuff is actually controlled by the board (including transfers), not by Carrick (or Amorim for that matter). Not only that, but right now the biggest issue is a potential mutiny from the players who refuse to adapt to new tactics. Honestly, saying that Amorim’s issue with his system is a VERY lazy way of looking at things. This might have been true at MU, however Milan did play with 3 CBs with Allegri. So why are they sloppy now? The only difference is that Amorim prefers a more offensive approach to the game, with high pressing. I also suspect that the current players are pretty lazy, out of focus and unfit. The issue isn’t that Amorim hasn’t figure out a core (he probably did), but rather how is he able to deal with 3 competitions at the same time? Allegri had 2 and he flopped HARD. Amorim bought some players, but it simply isn’t enough. There were not enough transfers.
I think Amorim’s refusal to adapt is a bigger issue than the players refusing to adapt. I take your point that we played 3 at the back last season but did we ever really look good doing it? I’m not sure.
The club knew Amorim plays this way, as did Man Utd, but he refuses to adapt to the squad he has. How many transfer windows until he has the 25 players he wants? He will be long gone by then and I think the players can smell that.
Amorim rejected player’s that he don’t like or not listening to him. He himself admitted all the training sessions are going well and everyone is listening to him.
I see if there is problems with player’s, then these statements are not true.
I don’t see he explains anything tactically also.
Only option is to give him some more time and see after 6months if anything is improving.
Regardless of system or squad deficiencies he needs to figure out his best 11 and run them out as often as possible when they’re healthy.
We’re never gonna see consistency and cohesion and chemistry when there are 5 changes every game.
Hope he can get there with the the long break coming up.
Criticism is fine. We’ll get a lot of it while we build something. We are an impatient bunch, i hope we can stick it out long enough to let Amorim work.
Milan is Under Construction.
Milan is construction but we are not in construction like in 2020 at least.
We cannot wait to qualify for champions league for 2 or 3years. We should able to win at least against decent teams.