Marco Giampaolo saw improvements in the game of Milan against Manchester United and also complimented Suso, Çalhanoğlu, Biglia and Jack.
The Rossoneri have not won a single game in pre-season, as they have one 1-1 draw against Novara, two 1-0 defeats to Bayern Munich and Benfica, and one defeat in penalties to Manchester United after 2-2 in regular time.
However, there are still many reasons to be optimistic ahead of the new season, as the boys of Giampaolo have been playing quality and enjoyable football for most of this pre-season.
“After the friendly match against Benfica, I said that we had played with faith, attachment, ideas of play and collective participation, and everyone is in that line of thinking,” Giampaolo said in a post-match presser and to MilanTV, according to Milannews.it and acmilan.com.
“Attention to detail is part of the job, but the players have got the bulk of the music I’m trying to play. They’re playing with the right mentality and the thing that pleases me most is they’ve all bought in, they’re on board with the project. That means they’re doing things they believe in. We still need to build on our fitness, and our cohesion and the fine details. That’s a normal part of the job. But the guys have taken on board most of the ideas.
“Milan has strong, quality players and if we all start playing from the same music sheet then we’ll be even stronger. Over time we’ll improve more and more. These are games that reveal errors and we have committed them. Playing together as a team makes each individual better. There will be periods in which we improve less, which is normal when you’re working to develop. But I’m happy to see the guys playing with belief in what they’re doing, I am happy with how involved they are. We must play the game and not let others play on us.
“I’ve seen things even better than against Benfica. There was an even more important commitment. I think my players had fun playing this game, it’s definitely another step forward and we will always have to do it. We have to get to Udinese in the right way. The biggest thought I have is regarding the integration of the new players, I still have at least 5-6 players out… it’s about bringing those six to think how the other twenty think. They will adapt as they go along.
“Suso? He is a great player, in a league of his own. Without a doubt. I’ve told him, and I’ve told the club, he is not a problem, we must keep hold of our strong players. I’m in love, he drives me nuts and he is one who can decide things.
“Çalhanoğlu? He is an incredibly versatile player, he can cover any position in midfield. I shifted him to the center because Biglia had a physical issue and I didn’t want to risk him. However, I was very happy with how Biglia performed too, as I have been since we started working together, he’s a great professional and knows how to play a match. Çalhanoğlu can cover every role in midfield, but you need to give him specific instructions. We adapted him to the position for a quarter of an hour but when you know how to play you can adapt.
“Daniel Maldini? It’s OK, it was right that he kicked the penalty as he was designated as fifth. Unfortunately he got it wrong but it’s a useful path for him. Guys like him need matches to grow and if they don’t get them, they don’t grow.
“Bonaventura? He appears reborn. He’s been out for about eight months, and finally got a taste of the field again for 15 minutes. He was in better shape than he’s been in training, where he holds back a bit more.”
Les midtables: its not the coaches fault, its the players fault milan played horribly last season. 4-3-3 is the way to go. Gattuso should stay. and for god’s sake suso was born as rw thus he shouldnt play as am/ss even though we also said milan should sell laxalt AND ricrod so we can play lord borivaldo out of position as lb.
giampaolo: yeah well, thats cute but thank god i am actually a milan10ista as i should be
If u don’t mind, i have a question for a scientific research purpose. How does ur brain work ?
Like a scudetto winning milan team: sharp, beautiful, has “droit au but” vibe, and or course, winning
Tbh, I don’t know what point you’re trying to get across. You just insulted a lot of people and probably that’s why you received your minus points. Last season Milan played better then in the last 6-7 seasons. They played well but we had a lot of injuries as well so we had to improvise. I don’t blame Gattuso! He did a wonderful job with the experience he had but he felt like Milan can do better without him and that’s why he stepped aside. I’m hoping this season we get at least Top 4
Forza Milan
“Last season Milan played better then in the last 6-7 seasons.” well, thats like saying “dog shit is a bit tastier than horse shit”.
Dude…You can’t go from 0 to 100… Improvement is the key. Sure there were moments when Milan was shit last season but you can’t get better if you don’t fail 50 times before
Improvements are juve 2008 –> 2012, milan 2000 –> 2003, man utd 2004 –> 2007, barca 2001 –> 2004, bayern 2010 –> 2013, etc. Milan 2013 –> 2019 is dogshit covered in catshit, started as ucl regular and then ended up as europa league reject. Started with boateng (which was ok in his day) to borivaldo
I feel what you’re saying. But unless you sugarcoat everything here, people don’t even want to consider criticism. Facts are facts. Milan team has reached a new low. Forget about signing good quality players, we don’t even get to hear any high profile rumors anymore. (not considering Modric)
You know if you put a monkey in a horse race, it’s not really the monkey’s fault that it didn’t win. Now i am not saying anyone is a monkey here but Gattuso was not a coach material. Our last good coach was Allegri (after that Montella who btw got screwed because of shitty transfer plans of fassobelli). Again and again we try to hire our legends as coaches thinking that it might turn out to be a fairy tale with a happy ending but that’s not really happening. Other than the past legends like Seedorf, Gattu, even Maldini our… Read more »
Morontela was the biggest shit ever !
Gatutso did a fairly decent job, he was just one point away from ucl. I swear I dont know what team you were watching last season because from I point of view its not milan. Calling Rino a monkey is a disrespect, and also putting montella over him shows you are inept in understanding football.
“Gatutso did a fairly decent job” say massimo moratti and erick thohir
Before putting my point, I must say that you are inept in understanding English mate. I clearly said that nobody is being compared to monkey. If you think last season’s play was good then you should quit watching football and I think I speak for every rational person here on this blog.
Milan lacked pace, creativity and finishing. Now comparing Montella to Gattuso, Montella was the one who improved Fiorentina to the point that they qualified for CL 2 or 3 times in a row. Something at which Gattuso failed which a fairly decent squad at hand.
Morontela was about to relegate Fiorentina last year with a pretty decent/good team ! Morontela has won a 6th place with Milan with a pretty better team than the one he had at Fiorentina and next year he was sacked when he put Milan on the eleven place. He prepared the preseason and started the season with 4-3-3 and then he had the genuine idea to switch to 3-5-2. He refused Aubameyang for Bonucci and then he insisted for Kalinic ! When Andre Silva scored a hattrick or a brace in Europe, the next game he benched him for Kalinic…… Read more »
“Morontela has won a 6th place with Milan with a pretty better team” – you fail to add a very crucial point that the whole starting 11 was new and Montella only speaks Italian. It was the fault of Fassobelli where we missed good transfers and got mediocre players like Calhanoglu (it would be a whole new debate if you say that he’s world class). As for Aubameyang, Bonucci was signed a year before this linkup talk if you don’t know. And his transfer fee and wages were out of Milan budget. He stuck to what seemed reliable – he… Read more »
Totally agree. Gattuso did better than Montella and Mihajlovic. There’s no doubt about that. He must be credited for his work. Our team had no mental strength and Milan would always lose games especially after going a goal behind. So we must acknowledge Gattuso for the work that he has done to build a team with mental strength and grit to fight for a rest. However, tactically Gattuso was lacking and his use of subs were bizarre to say the least. He often deployed multiple formations with his substitutions which caused the team to look clueless and confused. Gattuso also… Read more »
“Last season Milan played better then in the last 6-7 seasons…” Yes, I remember the fantastic one-touch football too, those great victories over Inter, Napoli, Juventus, etc. our amazing qualification for the Champions League. Oh wait…
Dont forget that beautiful larry bird-esque assist from rino to lazio player in dying minutes mate
Milan10 you ought to learn about football. You who said that Silva was world class I said he was overrated when he was bought. You ridiculed me when I said Cutrone was better. That same season Cutrone outshined Silva. You also said that Conti was better than Calabria. I said he had no chance Against Calabria whose qualities are world class. Remember my argument? Both players have seen their fair share with injuries. But Calabria has finally removed all doubts he is one of the best right backs in Serie A. Sadly Italy still hasn’t realized it yet and they… Read more »
Silva WAS world class when he was in porto and portugal. Thats why even now he’s rated 30-35m while cutrone is worth 20m. Regarding calabria, people bitched about musa for rashford goal but it was actually calabria’s mistake, like many goals milan conceded playing calabria as rb, for not containing him. A good rb should know right footed winger will almost always cut inside but calabria let him cut inside just like that. I mean, what the hell was musa supposed to do to stop a winger running at full speed like that? Calabria has heart but conti, at least… Read more »
everyone get hypnotize suso… look at last 10 milan games last season where is he when milan need victory… he get lazy and never gave good spirit for team…
i told yoy just sell suso and kessie…. please calabria, stop act like messi and stop moving too far from your area defense…
Our dear coach please don’t be fooled by Suso”s performance right now. If we need to buy good and trusted players let us buy now. Don’t be surprised that after few serie games, Suzy may fade off..But I would be happy if his performances right now is sustained
“Suso? He is a great player, in a league of his own. Without a doubt. I’ve told him, and I’ve told the club, he is not a problem, we must keep hold of our strong players. I’m in love, he drives me nuts and he is one who can decide things.
Gattuso like those before him said the same thing about Suso. Unfortunately they got fired by building their system around that lazy cat.
yeah he great now but when look at milan last season… when milan need victory he becomes lazy and get stuck… just sell him… we need player who can give 80% onsistent every games…
I think Milan should not keep players over 30, at that age they can still be sold, Bona is 30 and unless he has a great season he should be sold in order to get more playtime to the youth. Its a shame, that injury came at the peak of his career, it will definitely slow him down.
It seems like Kessie might be sold too. Wanna hear your opinions
His pros and cons are balanced, he adds so much strength to our midfield but he slows up our play way too much. I’m OK with him being sold in favor to someone with great technical skills.
Considering Calhanoglu is way too inconsistent to rely on him on the right and Bona it’s not ready yet we need a proper replacement.
Ever since Kessie’s arrival, he hasn’t played under a coach that knows his Sh*t. I want to see how things turn up for Kessie under Giampaolo’s Tutelage. I have a feeling it’s Kessie that would be the star of our team with proper guidance. He has it all, strength, passing, shooting, pace, tackling.. he can control the midfield all on his own on his day. All Kessie needs to fix is his timing, if someone teaches him when to hold the ball and when to move it forward, things might be different, our attacks would be flawless. So, I think… Read more »
Kessie those nt have all the quality u listed here bro,I agree with the strength nd tackling bt he lack everything technical
It would be foolish to sell Kessie who apart from Bakayoko was one of our most consistent players since he arrived from Atalanta.
Kessié is still very young and he can improve on last season with a good tactical coach like Giampaolo.
I also doubt Calhanoglu will leave as it seems that Giampaolo will not consider the departure of Suso, Calhanoglu and Biglia.
I totally agree with the coach on his perspective on these players. They are key to Milan success including Kessie, Paquetá, Romagnoli and Piatek.
The players Milan should offload are Castellijo, Laxalt and Musacchio.
Those of you blaming Gattuso are not serious at all. Yes I prefer Giampaolo’s style of play by far but at the end of the day, what counts is the results. Pep Guardiola with all his beautiful play haven’t won ucl outside of his Barcelona days. Gattuso got us 66points last season despite injuries, form drop and his inexperience as a manager, that (66points) is normally enough to qualify for ucl in Seria A, except for last season. It’s like blaming klopp for not winning the epl last season despite getting 97 points. 97 points on a good day will… Read more »
Big thumbs up
No one is acting like that against Gattuso. No one is saying that he didn’t do anything good. You are reading it all wrong. Despite his contributions, Gattuso had some major flaws. If it wasn’t for those flaws, we would’ve played much better as a team. That’s the regret we have is all. Everyone is this blog respects Gattuso no matter what and understands what his true contribution really was in the team, and that is instilling grit in the team. No denying that.