Atalanta head coach Raffaele Palladino has suggested that he knew his side could beat AC Milan because of the system they played.
There was no Mother’s Day from Milan as they were beaten 3-2 by Atalanta at San Siro. After the loss to Sassuolo, Massimiliano Allegri’s side could not react and were three goals down after less than an hour, as Éderson, Zappacosta and Raspadori scored.
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There was a late reaction as the Rossoneri scored through a Strahinja Pavlović header and an Christopher Nkunku penalty, but it was too little too late. Milan drop to fourth with Juventus leapfrogging, and they are now level on points with Roma as top four hangs by a thread.
Palladino spoke at a press conference after the final whistle to offer his thoughts after a very positive night for his side. MilanNews attended it and transcribed what he had to say.
Your boys managed to empty the stadium…
“The mental aspect of football is incredibly important. Today I can’t talk about AC Milan, but about my players: they arrived here very motivated, after a difficult week.
“They responded with unity, as a great group, as if we were all pulling together. We played against a strong team, scoring a lot and creating a lot. It was nice to suffer even at the end.”
What did your learn?
“You learn every day. A unique magic has been created in the dressing room. I hope I’ll have the opportunity to continue with this group next year because they’ve given me so much.”
How was Raspadori?
“He played an incredible game, extraordinary both technically and when he wasn’t in possession. He marked Ricci and then attacked in his favorite areas. I’m happy he scored.
“He’s an important player for us. But we all put in good performances. Even the last few were excellent from the team, but we weren’t very clinical and focused up front.”
Atalanta seemed to know how to hurt Milan…
“The boys did a good job of executing the game plan. We knew Milan would defend with a 3-5-2 and that we could create space in the attacking midfield, allowing us to penetrate them centrally after passing the ball out wide.”
There were chants of your name from the fans…
“I spoke to them and thanked them. I hope the lads, the fans, and the club appreciate the work I’ve done. I have no regrets. But my fate isn’t in my hands: it’s the club that decides.”
“We knew Milan would defend with a 3-5-2 and that we could create space in the attacking midfield, allowing us to penetrate them centrally after passing the ball out wide.”
So our wingbacks didn’t apply enough pressure out wide to stop passes from the flanks to the center.
It’s good to know that our competitors know how to break us down.
Yes, maybe someone should tell Allegri…
It depends on the instructions. If they’re setup in a way to funnel the play to the outside then that’s our strategy. It seems Palladino saw a weakness in how we defended and exploited (likely that we passive in letting the ball go centrally).
Allegri is a uni dimensional mind, outdated and untalented coach. His teams don’t have a gameplay style , you don’t see automatic passes , cursive flow play. He’s doesn’t know to make a tactical change , he don’t adapt tactics after his opponent. He knows just this defensive 3-5-2 and that’s all. Defend with bus in the own net and hope for an individual spark upfront
Every coach in Serie A have figure out Allegri’s one and only plan and are exploiting it. It’s not a coincidence that both Atalanta and Udinese had a goal fest at San Siro and we’ve barely won any matches this year.
Allegri had one plan and everyone knows how to beat it – even with far inferior players. It’s like the opponents don’t know Allegri has SIX scudetti like his fanbois keep reminding us here. 😀 😀 😀
Sack this your outdated Allegri, please
For the goals, Pavlovic was drawn out of position to do the work of the wingback and lost the duel with CDK, and the rest is history.
It was so easy to disorganize our team setup