Brocchi: “If you are fragile and do not have pride you don’t come back from 3-1, Milan played well”

Cristian Brocchi doesn’t think Milan played a bad match against Frosinone and says that while it’s unacceptable to concede three goals at San Siro, ‘we played for the win right until the end.’

A win against Sampdoria, a draw against Carpi, a defeat to Hellas Verona and a draw against Frosinone. It’s fair to say that things haven’t gone as planned for coach Cristian Brocchi since replacing the sacked Sinisa Mihajlovic last month.

Luca Paganini shocked San Siro after a minute and a half and against the run of play Oliver Kragl doubled Frosinone’s lead in the 40′ minute. 17-year-old Gigio Donnarumma perhaps should’ve done better in both occasions while Francesco Bardi denied Milan from scoring in the first half a few times.

The Rossoneri tried hard in the second half to get back in the game but saw Balotelli having his penalty saved. They managed to find the net in the 50′ minute through Bacca took advantage of a Bardi mistake to pull one back. However, 5 minutes later Dionisi scored Frosinone’s third.

Luca Antonelli came on from the bench in the 73′ minute and 60 seconds later he was already on the scoresheet. Milan won another penalty in the 91′ minute which Jeremy Menez scored to make it 3-3 at the end of 90 minutes to give Milan a point but considering that Frosinone are in 19th, it’s definitely more like two points lost. And with Sassuolo’s win today, il Diavolo are currently 7th.

“When you start a game at a critical time like this and the opposition takes the lead with their first shot, there is a moment of despair and therefore, a time of difficulty,” Brocchi said. “In my 4 games on the bench, we’ve shown fragility, but today I saw a strong reaction and Milan didn’t disappear, we remained in the match throughout. If you are fragile and do not have pride, you don’t come back from 3-1 down.

“If you say this was a negative performance in defence when Frosinone scored three of their only four attempts, I cannot agree with that. We conceded three out of three goals due to individual errors, not tactical issues. Unfortunately we are here talking about a Milan side that conceded three at San Siro, but also hit the bar twice and saw a penalty saved. We didn’t want to let Frosinone play from the back.

“We dominated possession, but unfortunately we made mistakes. I saw a strong response from a team that wanted to get back into it at all costs and with great pride we risked winning it at the death. The fact that we abandoned the 4-3-1-2 mid-match? I took a step back because people continue to say Milan were settled with 4-4-2. The trequartista is a system we cannot use right now because we are missing Giacomo Bonaventura. For me, Juraj Kucka is more of a mezz’ala (sided midfielder) than a winger, like Bertolacci, Jose Mauri and Andrea Poli. Luiz Adriano, Balotelli and Menez are strikers while Boateng is trequartista.”

“This match leaves a bitter taste in the mouth and was completely different to the game with Verona last week,” Brocchi told the Milan Channel in another interview. “We found ourselves trailing despite giving away nothing and we didn’t lose heart despite missing a penalty. We attacked much more today.

“I have to focus on the performance of the team. We created a lot of chances, hit the cross-bar twice and missed a penalty. We played for the win right until the end. The performance today is there for everyone to see. We put in a good performance, we created chances, but we cannot concede three goals at home.

“We have to remain rational and evaluate the performance of the team. I didn’t see a fragile group of players today that were lacking in pride. The team reacted well and didn’t fall apart. If the players adopt the approach they have shown this week then that leaves me very optimistic for the coming matches.”

As Brocchi admitted in his post-match presser, the life of Milan is now more complicated. If they stay 7th, they’ll have to win the Coppa Italia to be in Europe. They face Bologna and Roma next.