Massimiliano Allegri addressed the rest of the AC Milan squad in the dressing room after the 1-0 win over Lazio on Saturday night.
Just like the derby win over Inter in the game prior, Milan had to ride out some pressure from their opponents before striking with their first real attack in the second half. Rafael Leao was the one who got the match-winner this time, firing in a Fikayo Tomori cross from close range in a 1-0 victory.
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Allegri’s speech
Before speaking, Allegri waited for Fikayo Tomori and Rafael Leao to finish their pitchside interviews. When they arrived in the dressing room, he gathered his men in a circle in the centre of the room.
The coach shares some thoughts with the team after every match, but Saturday’s words were particularly significant, and he delivered them with satisfaction. “You’re a great group, and I’m proud of you,” was the gist of his words.
Max feared that after the joy of the derby, there might be a subconscious decline, both in the intensity of training and in energy levels during key moments of the match. The team, however, didn’t betray him: they fought as if they were in a final, remaining organised and striking when the moment came.
Furthermore, they scored from a move they had practiced at Milanello. Tomori’s run from the three-man defence wasn’t picked up, and his cross found Leao’s striker-like movement to a central area.
Getting a response like this from a Milan side that finished eighth last season wasn’t a given, even for a winner like Allegri. And even though Max urged everyone to keep their feet on the ground and keep working hard, he was happy on Saturday night. And he didn’t want to hide it.
Forza Allegri
I hate to be party pooper, but I’m afraid our football is still not convincing enough. Lazio could score a goal in the dying minutes and it would be completely different mood right now. We must to learn how to kill games like this. We can’t rely on 1:0
Kill a game like this? With what? We didn’t exactly dominate or even create remote chances. Hard to make it 2-0 when you only get one chance of scoring.
1-0s are Allegri’s bread and butter. Though i agree we have not been convincing lately, we are winning. At the start of the season we were a lot more fluid but keep in mind, we havent had a full healthy squad in a while. Rafa, or Puli, or Rabiot etc. The fact that we are winning despite these factors is telling.
1. Our arguably top signing (Jashari) hasnt played a minute due to injuries
2. We barely have seen our top 2 forwards (Puli and Rafa) together
3. Our only true CF in Santi has been on a terrible run. (He’s not THIS bad)
4. Allegri is still in his first season, incorporating many new players.
Yet despite all this, we are top of the table and winning.
Gimenez might not be lethal in from of goal, but we need to attack more to help whoever is the striker, Allegri style is counter attacking style but its not really showing now because Leao is too deep defending, nothing wrong in helping the team defend, but he need to be at the middle of our own half at worst edge of the box to pounce on the loose ball, not sitting deep inside the 6yard box defending like all the “keyboard warriors” wanted. I guess he is no more Lazy now is he?
Still Lazy !!
Allegri won how many titles like that? Why do you people keep writing the same comments? In 3 years you’ll do the same comment about Allegri. Do you ever learn?
We’re a team. That’s the difference now with Allegri..
when the can scores only one gol not too good they advance centre if not they cannot win champion Italia
We have a manager and not that joke we had last year. Fonseca the coward mute was probably the worst attempt of a Milan manager in 20 years. And then Conceicao the opposite of the mute they had for half a season. He only knew how to yell, 0 tactics or ideas. Compared to Allegri it is like night and day.
With Conceicao, this team beat Inter and Juventus to lift the Supercoppa.
I kept on saying that nothing was wrong with the tactics, it was his man management that made the players set him up for the sack.
Imagine fighting publicly with Calabria, the club captain who controls a section of bigwigs in the dressing room, since then, his allies like Leao, Theo and Morata made sure they frustrated him.
Although, I never expected Allegri to do this well in his first season, but I knew absolutely nothing was drastically wrong with Milan other than the stated man management style, so I was convinced that any good manager who comes in and manages the players well was definitely bound to succeed.
We never forgot how to win games, the players deliberately made those losses happen.