AC Milan head coach Sergio Conceicao could not hide his disappointment after suffering his first defeat since taking over, and against Juventus.
Juventus came into the game looking for revenge after the Supercoppa Italiana semi-final defeat a couple of weeks ago, and they deservedly got it after a dominant performance at the Allianz Stadium.
After a scoreless first half where both teams missed big chances, it was just a matter of time until the home side took the lead, and it came when Samuel Mbangula’s shot deflected in off the bar after touches from Emerson Royal and Mike Maignan.
Not too long after that they struck again through the substitute Tim Weah. He dribbled in isolation with Fikayo Tomori, cutting inside and firing under Maignan to double the advantage, which was all they needed.
Conceicao spoke to DAZN after the full-time whistle to share his thoughts on what was not the side he or his team wanted, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
Is it a matter of having few spare parts in certain areas? The reaction in the second half never game this time…
“In the first half it was a balanced game, we had more chances. Then in the second half Juve had more desire to win, more hunger. We could have conceded another goal at the start of the second half because we want to play out of the area with the opponent pressing.
“These are things I don’t understand. But I’m the one responsible, the coach. The first step to winning a game is wanting to win.”
So Milan didn’t want to win?
“That’s what I say. But what tiredness, what fuel, come on. The players have everything they need to recover from previous matches, we need to have an empty fridge at home to be hungrier.”
How concerned or stimulated are you by the characteristic of this team that has difficulty in putting that little bit extra into it?
“That’s exactly it. I had small teams when I started coaching 13 years ago, I had teams that weren’t that great on a technical level but had incredible hunger and desire. That’s how life is, we need to have goals to grow.
“Once we get to Milan we need to want even more because we need to continue the success, hunger, desire with personal goals to get to the end of our career and be proud of what we’ve done. What I see isn’t new, I felt it before because I followed practically all of Milan’s matches.
“I’m the one who has to change the players’ attitude and mentality. I’m the one responsible, I’m the coach and I take responsibility for this defeat because I wasn’t good at half-time and then this drop in level in the second half.
“OK, if we miss a goal and the opponent was good, that’s fine. But when we’re missing other things for me it’s difficult, it’s me as a coach who has to change the situation.”

In difficult moments, with so many absences, aren’t the most representative players the ones who have to give something more like Theo and Leao?
“Yes, but in my opinion we can’t always rely on the more experienced players. The others have their responsibilities, it’s not like we can put all the weight on the shoulders of Theo, Leao and Mike, it’s not right.
“There are also the others and they can’t hide. It’s football and it’s life. I played for 25 years and I know how it is, that in these difficult moments those who have more experience and more maturity emerge. But no one should hide. We have to look each other in the eye and see how we can do more, me first, and how to change this situation.
“It’s not a situation that we are a team that is technically not at the level of the other big teams in Italy, or that on a physical level we can’t get to an important moment with everyone at the top, on an organisational level it’s not that we can’t get to high levels.
“Then there’s another part that for me is the most important thing. If you don’t have the foundation, the desire, the hunger, the desire to win the match and every duel, as if every duel were decisive: this is what’s missing here. And as a coach I take this responsibility to change this situation.”
I feel sorry for the guy, he underestimated the RedBird circus he’ll find and now probably desperately wants to leave. There are much better opportunities for his career, he should chase them. Not a single ambitious coach would take the Milan job right now.
He thought Fonseca was a bad coach and he was better, now he will realize Fonseca really tried to manage raw material at his disposal
When did Conceicao say he was better than Fonseca?
“If you don’t have the foundation, the desire, the hunger, the desire to win the match and every duel, as if every duel were decisive: this is what’s missing here. And as a coach I take this responsibility to change this situation.”
“The first step to winning a game is wanting to win.”
“we need to have an empty fridge at home to be hungrier.”
All on point. Too many full bellies in this squad.
Surrey a supercopa is merely an amuse bouche?
Leao and Theo🧳🧳
“It’s not a situation that we are a team that is technically not at the level of the other big teams in Italy,”
Well I have to disagree. From today’s match, the quality gap was obvious. How much have Juve spent and how much have us spent during the summer window.
And it doesn’t always work to buy cheap options. The market is still somewhat efficient.
Agreed, they had more quality on the pitch and far more off the bench
Zach- exactly, Juve has more quality. WTF is not working on tactics. Juve dominated the game with better positioning, a coordinated press, and knowing where the other players are on the field. ACM lacks any strategy to attack. Even Como was more pleasant to watch as they had a plan.
Well Como management and owner are richer and better than redbird clown. I search about their owner and group, and they have a big experience in term of sport industry. Not just investor who only want to make profit like redbird clown
“Well I have to disagree. From today’s match, the quality gap was obvious. How much have Juve spent and how much have us spent during the summer window. ”
But… Dump Emerson who single-handedly decided the match, add Pulisic & Morata to the squad and we’d probably would have won it. 😛
Perhaps the management does not understand that players like Royal and Fofana are not at the Milan level and no manager can improve the team. The problem with both Fonseca and Conceicao is that they insist on using them despite the fact that they cost us a lot of points. Honestly, is Fofana better than Pobega? Is Royal better than Calabria? I don’t think. So, we deserve the place we are now and our game quality is even worse than that. Please Conceicao use our talents who have more spirit.
IMO, Fofana is better than Pobega, any day at any time.
Pls don’t mention Pobega and Fofana in thesame breath
Elliott should stop being greedy and sell to Arabs
And I say Elliott because this club is getting repossessed by them at the end of the season
Wish they had sold to InvestCorp
Majority of the team needs to be replaced including Leao, Theo, Maignan etc.
I would rather Get relegated 100 times than let that culture into Milan
Not really a big difference. Both are war mongering, innocent slaughtering, money hoarding savages. Expect yanks tend to sugarcoat and play on “freedom” card✌️
Yes
Totally agree.
You know if they sell to Arabs that nothing changes because the club can only spend what they earn? You also know that over €200 million has been spent in 18 months? Don’t you pay attention to anything? Money isn’t the issue. How it has been spent is.
New owners can spend bigger for a mercato or two, wise guy
And Arabs always work through loopholes funding the club through sponsors
The money is definitely a problem, you are delusional if you don’t think it is
We cannot compete with other clubs for the best players, so we buy some crappier ones and give them inflated wages and promote them as our superstars
“These are things I don’t understand. But I’m the one responsible, the coach. The first step to winning a game is wanting to win.”
Every day I’m starting to like this guy more and more.
That’s nice, but it won’t keep him on the bench. All of this also says that all coaches that are hired for this squad are going to find the same thing. Pioli, Fonseca and now Conceicao have all had to deal with the same group of players. What we need is a transfer revolution, not of “bad players” but player with poor attitudes. If that means both Leao and Theo, and whoever else, are moved on, so be it. You could bring Conte or Klopp or whomever, and the same attitude problems will persist and they will end up saying the same thing Fonseca and Conceicao have said, and probably the same fate.
True… Sad but true. 🙁
Mr Vero- Bingo!!!!!
The body language on the pitch of both Theo and Leao clearly shows that they don’t want to be at Milan so it’s time for both of them to realize their dreams and sit on the bench at Real or Barcelona or wherever they think they should be playing at because clearly IMO they don’t want to be at Milan.
Forza Milan sempre
Well, Pioli created this problem to begin with
He built a provincial team and Maldini helped him do it
Ah yes the same provincial side that won the scudetto?
Man that Pioli sucks. Only one the league with a bunch of bums and that Maldini guy had no idea how to build a squad with a limited budget.
You sound ridiculous.
I concur, and let’s give Conceçao some slack. He has just begun.
What a mess at Milan. First thing is Cardinale and his 3 stooges have to go. I don’t know if that means selling the club or Redbird shareholders removing Cardinale, Furlani, Ibra, and Moncada for a proper sporting management staff with Serie A experience.
But these clowns have to go. After that an experienced Sporting Director and CEO needs to rebuild the team and that means replacing a lot of the players similar to what Juventus did last summer.
Get rid of the deadweight players who are not good enough at this level. Musah, Emerson, RLC, Chukwueze, Calabria, Florenzi, Terraciano, Abraham, Okafor, Bennacer and Tomori.
Then sell Theo and Leao and reinvest in rebuilding the squad. These players are not difficult to replace.
Lookman is miles ahead of Leao. Hein is way better than Tomori. Tavares is doing better than Theo.
But these players also have to go including Leao and Theo. It’s time to move on.
We are NOT a serious club under Redbird. PERIOD.
A serious club does not rely on strikers such as Abraham, Morata, Jovic and Camrada – all BACKUP players at this stages in their respective careers.
A serious club does not PASS on FREE players such as Rabiot or Thuram (just to name a few)
A serious club (that is profitable) does not always have to sell players to buy players and as a result misses out on a player like Manu Koné for example.
A serious club doesn’t sell its Talent (Kalulu) to a direct rival (Juve) for peanuts and buys a WORSE player in Emerson and then has to buy another player who is another backup at this stage in his career in an aging Walker
A serious club doesn’t hire a coach nobody wanted and had no track record of success in Fonseca.
A serious club doesn’t hire all INEXPERIENCED management team and expect them to out fox veterans like Marotta and Giuntoli
Like is said we are NOT A SERIOUS CLUB
First, this team is not very good. So many simple passes are missed. The players don’t seem to anticipate where their teammates are going to be. There have been no observable tactics with the new manager. A great/good play here and there has won games or at least tied them. So, Pioli got fired for a second place finish against a great Inter team that year and not winning big games. The year before ACM was really 5th, but as Juve had points deducted were able to secure a CL spot. This year the team has been awful. Let’s admit that this team is not constructed very well. That second place finish is looking pretty good right now.
Cardinal will never get this club to be among the best in the world. When Maldini was at the club, he got Milan up because he had ambitions and really wanted the team to be among the best in the world. Of course he made some mistakes but he also did something right when we won the scudetto. The team was missing up to 3 players to take the step to becoming world class. But Cardinal wants something different. He will focus on buying cheap players and hope to sell them for a good profit. The problem is that they have bought so many players who are talentless and cannot improve. The quality of the team is getting worse. Management knows that they need to strengthen the team if they are going to play in European tournaments next year, but they are waiting and as usual wait until the last minute when they buy leftovers impulsively without any idea if it is the type of player we need.
Sure, Maldini the guy who signed Origi, everything was great while he was director. Did you forget losing players for nothing happened on his watch?
LOL. Did you forget we won a Scudetto, Made semi-finals of UCL, purchased and developed tons of young talent that turned into great players like Mike, Leao, Theo, Thiaw, Tonali, etc….
Ya for one Origi (who was FREE) we have the BUST that is Chukuweze that also makes 4M season but guess what cost us 28M!! Or what about Jovic who makes 2.5M and is outcast. Or Emerson who cost 15M and makes 4M season; or Pavlovic who cost 20M and makes 2M season and sits the bench; Pelligrino another bust; Romero another bust; we pay Tammy 4M season to miss sitters and Morata 4.5M to run around (god bless he tries at least): 21M for Musah (backup) ….ya so let’s talk about Origi LOL. Fkn Yank
Once again with your nonsense Maldini tripe.
Maldini has done more good than your management will ever accomplish.
The origi you complain of is even a free transfer. Your beloved Cardinale put people who wasted more than Maldini ever had at his disposal.
At least Maldini had vision and goals, and wanted what was best for the club all round. How is Cardinale, oh wait investor’s come first.
Theo and Leao are still among our best, but, as the coach said, we can’t rely on them to get the job done all the time. They will have their bad days every now and then. Fofana and Reijnders are just not stepping up. Reijnders, in my opinion, seems to be hiding. We need a proper DM. Fofana is already showing signs of tiredness, and is costing us. This is serie a, not Ligue 1. With today’s showing, the management should cover their faces in shame. Like Milan, Juventus had so many players injured, but, see the quality they have on display. Ibra and others have to start working overtime to prune this squad. We are really deficient. There’s no way we can beat even Como with the players that played today. Something needs to be done fast.
Sérgio Conceição might be starting to regret accepting to coach THIS version of AC Milan.
Milan’s greatest problem is their lack of a 15/18/20 goal striker. The bugger who lost Thuram to Inter a couple of seasons ago should be kicked away from milan.
The ref intentionally missed the penalty against Juve with that tackle on Theo. When you have the ref working against you, it can be discouraging to put any effort in.
The one against TJ was worse
It wasn’t a penalty cause Theo fell before the contact and he was waiting for it. He was faking it.
Hey Conceciao, have you thought about giving Pavlovic a chance? Your center backs are very fragile, one on one they are very easy to penetrate.
Stop playing Emerson Royal and then show ur anger…
You mean stop playing Leao
Sudah saatnya Milan di reformasi semuanya. Dari Pemilik sampai pemain yg TDK berkualitas di ganti semuanya. Percuma ganti pelatih, kalau pemilik si Amerika masih memiliki Milan dan ganti semua jajarannya. Kembalikan Maldini cs ke Milan.
The club appears to be the Man Utd of Serie A. Players not worthy of the shirt, incompetent directors and run by a delusional American(s) who has/have no idea or connection with the European game.
I would much prefer Arab ownership. At least Arabs can be honest with themselves.
The best thing that concecao did was signing that contract for only 6 months. Whoever coaches milan under red bird and the three clowns is destined to fail.