AC Milan welcome Feyenoord to San Siro tomorrow evening hoping for a Champions League comeback, and Sergio Conceicao once again faces a dilemma.
As Corriere della Sera (via MilanNews) points out this morning, Milan will have to win by two goals to qualify for the Champions League round of 16 without needing extra time, having lost the first leg 1-0. There is no margin for error, especially because €11m in revenues are at stake too.
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It will certainly require a different version of Milan compared the one seen a week ago in Rotterdam. There is a need to raise the level of performance also compared to the league match two days ago against Hellas Verona, a match in which they toiled and didn’t score until minute 75.
Against Verona, the winner came from Santiago Gimenez who has now scored two goals in his first two appearances in Serie A. Now, a spark is expected in Europe too, especially against a team that he knows so well.
One week ago Conceiçao fielded the ‘Fab 4’ from the start for the first time: Christian Pulisic, Joao Felix, Rafael Leao and Gimenez. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as hoped and the Feyenoord defence managed to frustrate them.
Will we see them again tomorrow night at San Siro, given the need to win? The coach will only make a decision today when he returns from Portugal, where he flew yesterday to attend the funeral this morning of Pinto da Costa, the historic president of Porto who passed away at the age of 87.
There’s Ruben amori doing a terrible job at Manchester united and no one seems to be criticizing him. All blames has been going to the player for now meeting up the standard of the coach. Rashord was one of the many who paid for not giving the coach what he demands and amori was applauded for it.
But here is Sergio concesao who help Milan to their first trophy beating their best rival, and is 5 poil off too 4
Yet they say he’s not good, his tactics are not fit for Milan. How can you fault a man that knows how to win, and has proven it for over a decade.
This man is doing a wonderful job, inheriting a confused team mid season in a terrible position in the League and mentally too. Without proper training time to implement his style.
Anyone who faults Sergio clearly don’t understand football Sergio is the perfect coach for Milan. And I can’t wait to see what he can do next season with enough time to training the resources given to him.
I guess people who complain are those who haven’t supported Milan in the time of montella as head coach and montolivo suso and Honda as our key players then you’ll thank God for the current state Milan is now under this man.
Like some experts pointed out about Amorim. The Portuguese league is very uneven in quality. Its one thing to win with Porto, Benfica and Sporting and a whole other thing to win things in England, Italy, Spain unless you take over a ready team or get to spend billions anywhere. Mourinho is really the only one to really succeede.
Well said. Conceicao inherited a team rife with bad habits Fonseca built. A team not used to digging deep and fighting till the last second, who played not to lose, not to win.
Whatever happens this season, Conceicao has shown the players are willing to dig deep for him. Consistency is hard to build at a stage in the season where Milan are quite literally chasing their tail, and any hint or idea of firing Conceicao at the end of the season will mean we become another Man U or Chelsea, who cycle through coaches far too quickly to build any continuity.
The prospect of a team with Jimenez, Bondo in the UCL squad (assuming we make it), without the dead weight of Chukwueze, Loftus Cheek and Terraciano is exciting.
well said. I also said on another article. Since Conceicao joined, we’ve had a game every 3 days pretty much. Every game has been crucial because we were in a hole. We got 4 new players a few weeks ago. The coach and players are in a reactive mode, just trying to survive and get a result. Let things settle, let the man and the team sit down and study tactics and practice. THEN we will see playing style.
Well that is how it is at Milan and the “fans”. Conceicao bad coach, Leao the worst player on the planet. Sell Theo as soon as possible, he should have been sold to Como and so on…
Sergio conceicao is the out best coach he knows and understands tactics.
But we gave Verona a goal when all four were on the field. Thiaw try on DM, to get balance and that’s it.
I think he would be really bad there. Realistically from defenders only Pavlovic can pass a long ball. Maybe him. But he looks like he will get a red card every start so maybe not.