Ruben Amorim spoke to Sky Sport after Milan’s 2-0 defeat to Benfica. Here are his words.
Returning to Europe ended in disappointment. The decline and the difficulties in our play are somewhat disorienting.
“This conversation is about my ideas: sometimes we create more problems for ourselves when we have the ball than when the opposition has it. We are trying to build automatisms, but we are not creating enough. We keep possession, but we lack creativity around the penalty area. When we conceded the goal in the first half, we completely lost sight of what we had to do: we wanted to do everything quickly but without quality. We lose the ball at certain moments that are really dangerous.”
Milan are always struggling in the first halves. Was the approach wrong?
“I don’t know if it is mental. It is the second game in a row in which we have not been in the game in the first half. We cannot concede goals in those few moments when we have to defend our area. We already have difficulties scoring, so if we concede goals, we become nervous and everything becomes more difficult.”
Wouldn’t it be better to work on a defence that is conceding too much?
“Everything is connected. We are not very well organised. For the first goal, when the player is carrying the ball, we are already too deep. When we lose the ball, we are all too close together and too deep. We have to improve defensively, we have to score first and take the game onto a different footing: we are not creating many chances.”
I don’t understand why there is this negative attitude in the first half. Then, at Milan, nobody makes runs in behind, nobody looks to attack the space.
“It’s true, especially in the first half, nobody was attacking the space behind the defence. The attacking midfielders don’t have space because we are not attacking the space behind the defence. Then you have to look at the games as a whole. We have to make runs behind the defenders. We talked about it at half-time, but in the second half we still struggled, with them sitting on the edge of their own box.”
Why didn’t you continue with the starting XI from the second half in Rome?
“Simple. Because Rabiot played the first 90 minutes and we didn’t know whether he would be able to play for a long time in this game. It is the same with Pulisic. He played 45 minutes in Rome. You know Pulisic’s history, we have to be mindful of that. Moreira had a personal issue and did not train with the team for two days. It is not a matter of just a couple of players, we have to improve as a team. We get near the area many times but nobody attacks the box, even when Chukwueze is crossing. Before the second goal, we had the chance with De Winter, who was free. We have to be a better team.”
Are you ready to continue playing in a 3-4-2-1, or are you ready to change?
“But I am constantly changing. We have been working for two months, and we will certainly find solutions to adapt. We have to establish a way of playing, but we also have to win games. I am ready to adapt.”
