Massimiliano Allegri spoke to Sky Sport after Leeds–Milan ended 1–1. Here are his statements:
“We kept up good energy. I wanted to see the players’ condition and have them complete the full 90 minutes.”
Did this squad surprise you?
“I’ve always been taught that you have to coach players before passing judgment on them. For now, we’ve worked well, but we mustn’t get carried away with too much enthusiasm. We need to keep working with great balance, that will have to be our strength. The league isn’t won or lost in a single match.”
On Ardon Jashari and Luka Modric:
“I’ve had very few great players who lacked intelligence and humility, practically none. To play at the highest level, you need to be humble and intelligent. Modric, it’s not for me to say, is an extraordinary player. Jashari surprised me with what he did because he’s had little work with the ball and has mostly trained alone. There’s still room to improve and work; we need to build up both physical condition and mental belief. We mustn’t get overexcited, winning matches should be the norm for Milan.”
On Malick Thiaw and the transfer market:
“All the players I have are very good, and Thiaw is one of them. The club is making its evaluations together with me, and we’ll see.”
On Santiago Gimenez and Pervis Estupiñán, Allegri said:
“Estupiñán has grown a lot. When you change country and league… He played a good match; he’s developing, we had no doubts. As for a striker, more than just playing well, he has to score goals, and today Gimenez scored, so I’m happy.”
