Amorim bemoans dropped points in dissection of Sassuolo draw: “A question of mentality”
Ruben Amorim has insisted that he and his AC Milan side cannot feel satisfied with any match that ends without a win.
Milan were held to a 1-1 draw against Sassuolo at the Mapei Stadium in Reggio Emilia. After taking the lead midway through the second half through Adrien Rabiot’s rocket of a strike, the Rossoneri were pegged back within minutes by Odenthal’s goal from a corner.
Given the amount of chances created it will feel like frustrating points dropped, especially given that Inter and Lazio – teams higher in the table – both managed to win, while Roma and Como played out a goalless draw earlier.
After the match, Amorim spoke to Sky to share his thoughts on the game, his third draw in the league out of six games since taking over. His words have been relayed by MilanNews.
It was a game divided into several parts: the middle bit was good, the beginning and the end less so..
“When we don’t win, we’re never satisfied. We still have a lot of things to improve on, but we’ve shown some improvement. We controlled most of the game, we wanted to push our opponents, score goals, and we had more responsibility on the pitch.
“We did a good job of containing and controlling many of their transitions well. We deserved the lead, but after the goal, it’s clear we should have managed the game better, kept more possession, and curbed the opponent’s reaction.
“We can’t afford to concede goals from corners. It’s clear we can’t be satisfied when we throw away two points like that.”
Does the team still need to find its identity?
“We need to keep doing what we were doing until the goal and then keep going, keep possession and not make the game about transitions. Clearly, as you saw, we wanted to control the game, push forward, find the right combinations, and play well.
“Sometimes it’s a question of mentality: you score a goal and you have to keep pushing, because it’s clear that the opponent wants to try to react, and so we should have had much more possession.”
How is Gabbia?
“I still don’t know the exact type or extent, nor how long his recovery will last. It’s clear that Gabbia is a key player for this group, regardless of whether he starts or not. An injury like that hurts, and I felt all the pain he was feeling at that moment.
Is the striker still missing help?
“We’re working on our build-up play now, and you can see it in some phases of the game. However, we need to work better on our combinations in the final third of the pitch.
“At times, they managed to close us down in midfield and block our path on the left flank, and in those situations, we should have started looking for players inside the pitch a bit more.
“We’re trying, and we’d say this is the last, or at least one of the last steps, to get to shooting on goal more often and with greater danger.”
Does anything change based on a three or four-man defence?
“Ultimately, they’re the same players, so you can rotate them and play with three or four. With four players, you’re more open in the build-up phase, and so the midfielders can push forward a little further. It’s up to the central defenders to play and build more.
“Today we needed to push even more, and that’s what we tried to do with the four defenders and the four attacking players, to try to press them more.”
