Hellas Verona boss Ivan Juric has claimed that young defender Matteo Lovato has been distracted by transfer talk amid links with a move to AC Milan.
Milan’s priority for the January window is to sign a new centre-back, something which has been confirmed by Simon Kjaer’s recent injury and by the lack of assurances offered by Leo Duarte and Mateo Musacchio.
A young defender will arrive to bolster the rearguard, and the links with Hellas Verona’s Matteo Lovato have been intense over the past few weeks with the 20-year-old seemingly a concrete target.
Lovato was tasked with keeping Sergej Milinkovic-Savic quiet during Saturday night’s 2-1 win over Lazio, and although most would say he did a good job of that, his coach seems to disagree.
Juriv admitted to the DAZN microphones that he was rather angry with Lovato, who he believes is losing focus due to reports in the media.
“Lovato did really badly in the first 10 minutes, I wanted to substitute him. I had spoken to him in recent days, he must stay focused and work, despite the rumours of the market,” he said (via MilanLive).
“He is young and they can influence him, but so far he has only played three 90-minute games in Serie A. However, in the remaining eighty minutes he improved and played a good game.”
