After the defeat against Napoli, Sergio Conceicao spoke to the media and shared his thoughts on AC Milan’s performance, as well as the unusual events leading up to the game.
As seen so many times this season, Milan got most things wrong at the start of the game and only came close to a point thanks to a late push. Conceicao made strange changes to the starting XI, which were heavily criticised by the fans, and it proved to make a difference.
After the game, as transcribed by MilanNews, Conceicao was asked by DAZN about the starting eleven and he revealed that most of the changes were forced. Rafael Leao, for example, had a discomfort and was only able to come off the bench for the second half.
A Milan that created so much in the second half, but in everyone’s eyes, those first 20 minutes were horrendous. Why such a difference?
“Since I’ve been here, more or less three months, I’ve never found excuses for the lack of time to work. Today, everything went wrong. I woke up at 7:30 am, Loftus-Cheek was sick and went to the hospital for surgery. After that, they told me that Thiaw couldn’t play because he vomited, he had a stomach bug.
“Shortly after that, they told me that Leao was experiencing discomfort in his thigh. Then again, they are not excuses, we could have done much more. The first ball they put forward, they scored. We didn’t play the first 20 minutes as we had prepared.
“These things happen, I don’t want to cling to bad luck because we could have done more, but today, everything really happened. Then in the second half, the team reacted very well, it was needed. In the second half, we created so many chances, the right result would have been a draw in my opinion.”
On the many missed penalties… Who should have taken them?
“We have three main takers. Pulisic wanted to give confidence to his teammate who hasn’t scored for a few weeks… We know how things are. It’s not up to me to say something to the players, it’s the three of them who decide based on how they feel.
“But this is a good sign, it’s the sign of a united dressing room. There’s the awareness that we had to do more in the first 25 minutes, there’s great frustration because we didn’t deserve this defeat.”
This team here, with a different attitude, with limited errors, what value does it have objectively? What potential does it have?
“We had already prepared the match without Leao, I’m not saying he didn’t play because the doctor told me something. After the national team, like Santi, he trained twice. Actually, Santi only trained once, because he came back with a very very swollen ankle.
“However, all these things happen at Milanello, people don’t know it. The team has potential, quality. We always talk about this balance, it’s true. If we have to press higher up then we have to stay one-on-one in our defensive line.
“They managed to get out of our pressing too easily in the first half. Then we rectified it and had a different attitude. In football, you need technique and quality, but also courage, desire, and the right attitude to be present. The team has quality, I have a lot of confidence. I have a healthy environment in the group.”
Milan will now have to give their all in the Coppa Italia to secure European football for next season. The Champions League train has definitely left the station, which perhaps can be a weight of the players’ shoulders (as bad as that sounds).
We’ve literally seen this play out under fonseca. When you mess with penalty takers something always goes wrong. In such an important game I can’t comprehend the logic of risking a different penalty taker. Not that it matters – this season is a write off anyway
Does Tomori suddenly turn back player overnight. He is the only fast defender we have.
He’s also a bird brain who forgets to mark once per 10 minutes
Ah yes because Pavlovic done such a great job marking Lakuku and being on the right side of Politano!
Yes remember first game against Napoli when Pavlovic strong manned Lukaku and made him fly like a glove also. Oh wait, it was the other way around…
defender is not only about fast and Tomori, except that, propose nothing
So he is suggesting that Pulisic gave up the PK chance this his horribly out of form striker who had already missed one good chance after coming on?
I really hope that is not the case. Pulisic should have just stood up and buried it. He’s clearly our best PK taker and at 2 nil down you can’t be giving charity to an out of form striker.
There is little to gain here. Maybe Gimenez feels a little better by doing what is expected of him if he can score it. But there is big pressure and if he gets it wrong (as he did) then the whole situation for him is dramatically worse.
Leao seemed to be asking Pulisic in an animated way why Pulisic wasn’t taking the penalty – I got the idea Leao thought Pulisic should be taking it. Pulisic responded with a shrug. That makes it seem to me like Gimenez asked to take it and Pulisic didn’t put up a fight.
Unfortunately the coverage I was watching didn’t show any of the interactions during the game. They were showing replays of the penalty incident while all this happening and never gave any additional footage after the miss occurred.
Business like usual!
We lost again!
It is so frustrating to watch this Milan
Now Inter…
I won’t watch the game.
Fans calling for an interim coach.
Wonder what the record is for number of managers in a season for Serie A. Well in reach for the Rossoneri. We got that going for us…
I can remember there was a year Palermo had like 8 coaches… somewhere in the 10s. so I don’t think we gonna break that record:
You must be new to serie a if you think three coaches is close to a record. Napoli had three coaches last year I believe
“Everything went wrong” Thank you Captain Obvious.
With all your abilities as a coach, you will never bring Milan to a good place, because YOU ARE AN INTERNIST…!!!!
So was pioli
Conceicao should list the hierarchy of penalty taker from now.
Why in other games, we see Pulisic, than in another games Abraham, now Gimenez.
Who is exactly the no. 1 penalty taker in our team??? If Pulisic, than let him be the no. 1 penalty taker.
And this season this team, is always weak in the first half, even if we put our best team from the first half. That have to be been analyzed from the coaching staff.
Always, more of all in the Conceicao’s era, at the second half we always can be better. But why not in the first half, we can play good.
Okay, lets say the management from the top to the bottom all is bad. But we got good players, not all of them are crap players. And Conceicao himself is a winner in FC Porto, who we saw they plays good in CL.
What is went wrong from our team right now? Are the players not trained well, or coaching staffs are bad???
Leadership, culture, identity,credibility and mental serenity my friend. What these owners lack and disregarded. Maldini walks into a locker room, he has energy, aura, know how, experience at doing everything he will ask his players to do on the field. Furliani walks in..tries to motivate when he tells players something about the club’s history, or identity….well..
Conceicao deserves a long term contract. It is not fair to expect a coach to perform under the stress of not knowing if he will have a job next season. He is clearly an amazing coach.
You are being sarcastic, right?
Conceciao is actually worse then Fonseca but both of them have no business being in charge of the team.
Whatever he has achieved in Porto it’s clear to all that he doesn’t understand Italian football or the Milan squad.
That first goal conceded against Napoli in the first minute sums up everything.
Get out Conceciao.
It was not only Thiaw who vomited. I also vomited after watching our first half performance.
Pulisic have only missed one penalty at a senior level and that was a few months ago for Milan. Screw giving Gimenez confidence, hes a lost cause this season anyway. Step up, do your job and score the penalty instead.
Also interesting that Buongiorno could run 2 meters into the box long before the penalty was struck but VAR did not intervene. They do it in the other leagues but apparently not in Italy.
How long is this going to be allowed to go on do redbird want to sort it out . .my friends tell me to go and support another team as milan will never be like
The old ac milan . I used to get angry if I missed a game now it doesn’t bother me.i will give it to end of the season . Please god help us on wed night .
Yes go fly to whatever team is winning. Being a fan isn’t about sticking with the club through good and bad times. You are weak like the squad, frail and ready to bail at first turbulence. The banter era gave those of us who stuck it through callouses and a new appreciation for success. With loyalty you get the truest satisfaction in victory and can tolerate the humility of defeat. Without loyalty you’re just a follower despite to maintain your artificial high. Milan and most importantly its supporters must remember winning is not guaranteed. Napoli went from 1st to 10th in one season with basically the same squad. God doesn’t reward fickle followers but rather those with faith. If you’re a fan show faith in your club and support them through the bad times, don’t give up on them.