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Nesta furious after controversial decision in Monza-Milan: “Football is being ruined”

Alessandro Nesta made it clear that he was furious about the officiating during Monza’s 1-0 defeat to AC Milan at the U-Power Stadium last night.

Milan got a much needed three points from their Lombardy neighbours on Saturday night, but it was far from a vintage performance. The only goal of the game came late in the first half as Tijjani Reijnders pounced on a blocked Alvaro Morata header to put the Rossoneri 1-0 up.

Monza had their chances in truth and they thought that they had got themselves the lead in the eighth minute when a knockdown from Djuric was buried via a deflection from Dany Mota. However, the referee disallowed the goal for a foul in the build-up on Theo Hernandez.

Nesta spoke to Sky straight after the full-time whistle and was asked for his thoughts on what was a game that his side certainly deserved something from. His comments were relayed by MilanNews.

Do you leave the stadium with more anger or more pride?

“With anger, certainly, but proud of my boys. We played great games against Milan and Atalanta, we could have scored four goals. We scored one but they disallowed it.

“Football is being ruined, there are crazy rules. We need to go back to refereeing like we used to. People don’t like games broken up by a thousand fouls.

“In Bergamo the referees apologised to us, what kind of foul is that in midfield today? We’re complicating football.”

 

How did the referee explain the incident to you? Why did he blow the whistle right away?

“There is VAR, you can go and review it and then say if it is a foul or not. Football used to be simpler, even with contact. In the first ten minutes you understood the yardstick, then you adapted.

“I have too much to do to keep up with all these things. The rules must adapt to football, not vice versa. Today it seems that there is a rule to adapt to. The rules must adapt to football, not the other way around.”

You conceded a goal on the counter-attack…

“We committed too many players, we went with the left, the full-backs and the midfielder. Then they countered strongly. They have ability in these spaces, they were also lucky, it fell precisely to his head. A shame.

“I think that for Monza’s path we have to win against teams within our reach. Then when you clash with these armies they can also risk losing when they come here. But we have to get points against the small ones.”

Daniel Maldini had a bright game…

“Daniel is a very strong player, he has to find a mental balance. He has to understand how strong he is, he has to understand that he can have an important career. God gave him qualities, it’s a responsibility. He has to try to reach a high level, he went to the national team and he has to stay there.”

Tags AC Milan Alessandro Nesta Monza Milan

5 Comments

  1. Of course he is right but if things was reversed and lets say that Monza on the last day of the league is fighting for survival then I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t complain if there was a VAR decision that went in their favor meaning the difference between staying in Serie A or not.

    I think one of the big issues in modern football is when there is minimal contact to the head and the match is stopped as it has become a tool to interrupt the flow of games. Then the fact that VAR should become more standardized so the decisions doesn’t varies from league to league.

  2. Oh deary me Nesta. I get what he’s saying and it’s true. There’s some beauty in the organic game. But you gotta adapt to the rules too. I think the biggest rule change that has drastically changed the game is the opponents cannot be in the penalty box during a goal kick off. While it has allowed teams to maintain possession, it becomes a game of tit for tat and pressing logic…and a very boring version at that. It also forces teams to press high and as a result the entire midfield is barren for lack of a better word. Next time y’all should check out what the midfield (near the circle) looks during a short goal kick. It’s just sparse due to more players being upfield (to prevent the inevitable advantage of possession) but failing that it means a lack of press further downfield. It also means (and this is where Pioli was actually right) that 1v1 defenders are a prime commodity because often the width generated means they’re left with 1v1 situations. It occurs all over Europe. We see the same setup…two CBs on either side of goalie, the cdm/regista further upfield initially until the triangles are played out. You can sort of predict with almost certainty what’s going to happen. Few coaches, exceptional ones like Ancelotti have an antidote for these things but that’s for another time. But I have to agree with him on the robotic aspects of the game which the rules have created.

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