Sassuolo 1- Milan 1: after the final whistle, the AC Milan head coach, Ruben Amorim, spoke to the media in a press conference.
How do you explain those five minutes after taking the lead?
“There are many reasons. The important thing is that after scoring, we should have managed the ball better, but instead we tried to press as we had been doing, and we often found ourselves in one-on-one situations. There were no clear-cut chances. These things are difficult to understand, but they happen. We conceded a corner, but we cannot concede a goal like that. In the second half, we turned the game into a series of transitions. There are many things we need to improve.”
Towards the end, the team did not give the impression that it had the hunger and desire to win.
“Because I don't believe you attack more just because you have more forwards. Sometimes, having more midfielders helps you attack more. Why didn't I bring on another forward after they equalised? I wanted to play in the same way we had been playing. It doesn't matter who creates the chances. It's a matter of timing. We need to understand how the game changes after a goal. We tried to do that, but in the three minutes before their goal, we made the wrong decisions.”
Today, it seemed as though there was nobody willing to take responsibility for shooting. Rabiot was the only one...
“It depends. We need to understand that 95% of goals are scored from inside the penalty area. Sometimes we can score from outside the box too, but we need to understand where we are capable of scoring from. We need to improve our crossing, which we should have done better today. In terms of shooting, I don't think my players are afraid to shoot from outside the box; they simply didn't think it was the right moment.”
Is there a problem with the team's mentality?
“I don't know if it's a question of mentality, because I'm not sure the thinking is, ‘I've scored, so now I'll defend.’ I think it's a question of experience, but we need to see games out, kill them off and take our time when we need to. There will be things we improve during the season, but there are things we should have done better at this early stage.”
The impression is that Milan sometimes switch off...
“Sometimes, yes, but not in this match. I've seen it more in other games than today, but I also think we are a team that sometimes loses intensity and then gets back into the game. We're trying to play in different ways, and we will improve.”
You are still unbeaten, unlike in the Europa League. Do you consider Salzburg a decisive match?
“Every match here is important. In my previous job, I struggled in the league but won in Europe. Being unbeaten means nothing to me. I'm not interested in that. For me, I lost today. I don't want to be unbeaten but still dropping points, because three draws are three points, so it's as if I'd won one match and lost two. We need to win, and we will. And we're not unbeaten in the sense that we've still thrown points away.”
Amorim, we haven't seen the Milan side from Wrocław again. When will we see that Milan?
“It depends. I look at the team and I know we're improving. There are things that will need tweaking, but we're trying to be dominant at all times, even though that's sometimes difficult. I don't think the match against Torino was our best performance. I think we played better today than we did against Torino. I understand and accept all opinions, but I think we were better today.”
Why?
“Because we had more rotations and understood the different phases of the game better. And if you remember the first half against Torino, we were very static. Today, we defended one-on-one throughout. We struggled with some transitions, but we played better today than we did against Torino," concluded Amorim.
