• last week
Transcript
00:00Good afternoon, welcome along to the pre-match press conference ahead of Milan Cagliari.
00:06We'll start with Milan TV. Thanks Nicola. Gaffa, on the eve of Milan Cagliari, how important
00:12is it for you and for the team, for Milan as a whole, to keep your feet on the ground
00:18at this moment in time? Because your league position means that you have to start from
00:25scratch, you have to work your way up the table, don't you?
00:28Good afternoon, everyone. Absolutely. But I think you can't work at Milan if you think
00:40that just by winning a Super Cup, yes, we deserve to win the trophy, but what we need
00:47to think is that we're 17 points off the top of the table. This is a club that's won 19
00:56domestic titles, seven Champions Leagues. It's not good if we're suddenly satisfied
01:03having won the Super Cup. So we need to focus on tomorrow's game and we need to start tomorrow
01:10by winning matches. We need to win in convincing fashion to get as high up the table as possible.
01:16That's one of our aims. The Super Cup has been and gone.
01:20Sky. Hello, coach. Once again, we're talking about the team. It'll be your first league
01:31match in charge. This is almost your second home after Portugal. Have you thought about
01:38the emotions that you're going to experience tomorrow and will you be emotional tomorrow?
01:44I'd like to apologise to those who I will disappoint. There won't be any emotion, I
01:49won't be emotional. It's the only natural excitement and adrenaline of a league match
01:56where I can figure out where I am in a historical club. But there's too much going on in my
02:04mind when it comes to preparing the game in terms of all the details. There's so many
02:09things running through my head that I'm not even thinking about what I'll experience before.
02:14No, not at all. Of course, there will be a moment before the referee blows the starting
02:20whistle. I'm not a rock. I will experience some emotion. But the most important thing
02:26for me is to prepare the lads as best I can to produce a big performance and ideally to
02:31win the game. That's my main concern. Hello, coach. Good afternoon. I wanted to ask you
02:38about giving the captain's armband to Mike Maignan when Davide Calabria has been out
02:44of the side, even though Theo Hernandez has typically worn it this season. Is it because
02:48of the leadership that Maignan possesses or is it so that Theo can focus on his game?
02:56Every single player in the team needs to take responsibility. I'm the main leader in the
03:00dressing room. I take responsibility in front of you. But it's different amongst us. So
03:06whoever wears the captain's armband or those that don't wear it, everyone has their own job
03:11to do and their own responsibility. And that's what matters to me. It's not a case of you guys
03:17seeing me creating controversy with the captain. It doesn't matter a great deal to me, quite
03:22honestly. Good afternoon, coach. Good afternoon. Almost all of the players have changed since
03:31you've come in, but two in particular, Theo Hernandez and Rafael Liao. Yes, Liao had already
03:36shown signs that he was on the up before you came in, but it's obvious to everyone what
03:41a turning point it's been for them. Can you explain to us what's happened? What did you
03:44say to them? First and foremost, coming in and a change in staff, that does not mean
03:52that Paolo Fonseca and his staff, you know, the fact that we've changed is already something
03:58new for the players. That's the truth. I was a player for 25 years. I know how things work
04:03in dressing rooms. But after that, you then need to actually show that you've got your
04:07message, your way of working. And the players need to buy into that, need to believe in
04:12it. Otherwise it becomes that much harder to work. And I think what has been good here
04:18inside the dressing room is the fact that they have accepted that in terms of everything
04:24that we've worked on, the way we prepared for the game, all of the changes. We made
04:30some changes from an organisational perspective when it comes to the team. And I am very pleased
04:37about that. Because the dressing room environment has seemed very good to me.
04:45Good afternoon, coach. Good afternoon. You've only just arrived at the club. And even though
04:53you got going immediately with the first piece of silverware and the overseas trip, but because
04:59it's January and January is when the window opens, have you already spoken to the senior
05:07management? Because you mentioned to us that first and foremost, you wanted to coach the
05:11squad to have a look at your group of players to see whether you might actually need to
05:15bring someone in or not. And whether the departure of Noah Okafor, if and when it becomes official,
05:23you then think about possible needs in order to strengthen the squad, given that it's lost
05:31or will lose a winger.
05:36That's true. But I need to say one thing. What's the truth here? The senior management
05:44has tried to speak to me once or twice about this subject matter. But I think it was the
05:50wrong time because we had travelled to Saudi Arabia. Tomorrow we have an important league
05:55match and I'd prefer to talk about it at the right time. It's not the most important thing
06:03at this moment in time for us. I know that we have to talk about it at some stage. But
06:13I think the most important thing in this period is actually the game against Cagliari. Maybe
06:19the day after that, we might have time to talk about the January transfer window, which
06:23is an important thing, of course, without a doubt.
06:27Il Giornale. Hello, Gaffer. I wanted to ask you, what was the... The first important thing
06:35that you did was actually getting Tomori back in the side. It felt like he had fallen out
06:44of favour in the previous regime. Given there are other players like Davide Calabria, Ruben
06:52Loftus-Cheek, who have also started to come back a bit. You're saying Loftus-Cheek is
06:57not 100%... Yeah, he's not 100% in terms of his fitness levels. Will you continue to do
07:05so? Will you try and recover those players that look like they're out of the club's plans
07:10under Paolo Fonseca, the previous coach? No, I think everyone starts on an equal footing.
07:17And then day in, day out, I'll start to see in training, and it depends on my game plan
07:24for every single match, I'll start to see which players seem to be those that could
07:32start, whereas those that are on the bench and can give us a helping hand, depending
07:37on how I need to manage the game. No one has been excluded, and no one is one of the
07:42first names on the team sheet, because day in, day out, you have to work hard to get
07:46into the team. What's the mood like, in terms of since you've come back from Saudi Arabia,
07:54have you recovered any injured players? No, I don't think so. I think there's a little
07:58bit of an issue with Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and I don't think he'll be available for selection
08:02tomorrow, and I'm disappointed about that, because he was getting better, including physically,
08:09but he had a relapse yesterday. But the doctors will speak to you about that later on. When
08:21you were unveiled, you said, I don't come in with a formation, I'm all about attitude.
08:28So we've seen your attitude, now let's talk about formation. You often play with a 4-4-2,
08:32whereas in the first two matches, you played with a 4-3-3, but in your mind, what's the
08:37best shape for this Milan side, with two up front, and if it was a two-man strike force,
08:44would you see Rafael Llewell more as a striker, or more as a left wing? That's an interesting
08:48question. Either way, I've spoken about this, 4-4-2, 4-3-3, it's all about striking the
08:56right balance, having the right shape in the team when you're in and out of position, that's
09:00what matters. I think at this moment in time, as of today, a three-man midfield gives a
09:10bit more security to the side. Either way, once we've got a bit more of an understanding
09:18of what we want to do, I do like to play with two strikers, you have to work a little bit
09:23differently with the two strikers, with the two wingers and the two central midfielders,
09:27and that's what we'll work on. It takes a bit more time, that's only natural, but during
09:32matches I also change the way I play. I've already changed things in the first two matches
09:36without too much work, but I did have to mix things up, because we needed to shake things
09:41up during the game, that's what I'm there for, that's literally what I'm paid to do,
09:45to try and help the team. Sometimes I'm not able to succeed on that, it's actually the
09:50opposite, it's counterproductive. I'm not always necessarily able to enact what I see,
09:56but even substitutions, different situations, those are all things that we work on on the
10:01training ground, and that's important. It's not like it just comes to mind in the technical
10:07area, no, the players are intelligent these days, they understand that they need to understand
10:12the job to do, so they can then carry it out to the best of their ability on the pitch.
10:16As for Rafa, Rafa needs to run, whether he's a winger, a striker, he needs to run. He needs
10:25to harness the quality he's got on the ball for the good of the team, and out of possession
10:31he needs to learn to also work very hard, because when we're talking about a collective
10:36process, it is collective, it's not an individual work ethic. I'm sure you've watched a number
10:42of Milan matches, and I'm sure you saw the reverse fixture against Cagliari. One of the
10:46issues that this team has had is they often perform well in the big matches, and they
10:50drop off against small clubs, like against Cagliari, that followed the win at Real Madrid.
10:58Do you think matches like these could be the real issue, the stumbling block for this team?
11:04I've spoken about this, and so I watched Real Madrid-Milan, and I watched Cagliari-Milan,
11:10I've spoken to the players about this, and something did change, particularly what we've
11:14been talking about since the start, which is the attitude, and that's not good. The
11:19hardest thing is not to get up there, it's actually to remain at the top. And when you
11:26produce good things, you need to kick on from those, you mustn't drop off, because you
11:30can't be up there one day and then drop off the next day. At times you don't always succeed
11:37in showcasing all of your tactical and technical ability, and even physically, but you still
11:44need to have important foundations, that's what we're talking about here. If you have
11:48those foundations, ultimately your win match is when the going gets tough, because we've
11:52got quality players on the side.
11:55Hi Gaffer, the fans really like the new tempo that you've brought to the working environment,
12:04a bit like saying that Milan really are at the heart of this project, they're the most
12:09important thing. Where did this need come from? Why did you decide you needed to have
12:18this retreat the day before, double training sessions, looking at every last detail?
12:26I think every head coach has their own methods and their own ideas in terms of the way they
12:32work. Ultimately results dictate what is right and what is wrong, it's not like I've
12:39got the magic potion, no, I've lost matches in the past, I lost a lot of silverware with
12:45Porto, I even won plenty of trophies with Porto, I've got my way of doing things and
12:51thinking and so far things have worked well for me. But looking at all of the details,
12:59having the retreat, if you don't get results, ultimately my bosses, you know, my suitcase
13:04is always packed and ready to go, because that's the part and parcel of being a head
13:09coach, ultimately I'll try and make sure that that doesn't happen to me, because I've got
13:13my ideas, I've got my convictions when it comes to the way I work, which I believe is
13:18the best for the team, but it's very important. It's all so easy at this moment in time, it's
13:24fabulous, look at the stadium we've got, the facilities we've got at Milanello, the
13:32players, you know, go down and three people dash over and see what's up, you know, you've
13:37got people waving to them like that, no, they don't need anything, just give them a bit
13:43of a breathe, you know, we're all being a little bit mollycoddled, I'm mollycoddled
13:48as well, you know, I only need a small room in which to work and get down to work, you
13:54know, occasionally the players let go, because it used to be different. I came up against
14:03Milan in 1996 with Porto, that's 30 years ago, Porto 1-3-2, 30 years ago, things used
14:10to be very different, but things have changed now. You need to get the players focused,
14:17you need to make sure that they are concentrated on what the most important thing is, the priority,
14:21the work on the training ground, this is not a hobby, this has to be a job and not a hobby.
14:27Hello coach, I'd like to ask you, you said, I didn't come to Milan to make friends but
14:36to win things, you've already won your first trophy and that's great, but how did you succeed
14:42to get that consensus in the dressing room in such a short space of time? What did you
14:48focus on, how did you transform that team to make sure that they played with great conviction
14:53in the two Super Cup matches? It's also the players' pride as well, I spoke about that
14:59a great deal, they're a good group of players, they accept what we say, even if the rules
15:06have changed slightly and they're different, I don't know whether they're better or worse,
15:10the rules are different to what they were previously, the fact that they've accepted
15:15those rules, the humility to accept that occasionally things go against the players' habits, that's
15:22been absolutely crucial to my mind. They produced a terrific response, in both matches when
15:31we fell behind we were able to come back and win up against two top class teams in the
15:36shape of Juventus and Inter, so it was important but that's in the past, we need to kick on
15:41and I think we need to improve, I think we need to improve a great deal and I told them
15:46there are a number of things that aren't working in the team, there are a number of areas that
15:52I really don't like, so we need to keep working on those areas as opposed to thinking we've
15:58achieved something significant. What we achieved, other teams have already achieved, they've
16:03achieved a lot more significant trophies than we have, we're only at the start, we're
16:09trying to get to the end of the season not delighted but we would be delighted because
16:16I think it would be very difficult to actually get to what our priority is, which is winning
16:22the title but we do want to make sure we finish in the top four and that's what we're focused
16:26on. You spoke about improving, it is the January transfer window, I know that you said you
16:32haven't yet spoken to the senior management, do you think Marcus Ratchford would improve
16:36this Milan squad? You try every which way, don't you? It's the same in Portugal, it's
16:48even worse, it's even worse. No, here we're talking about football and I like that, you
16:58know, there's a question or two that might go slightly off topic but I'm here to answer
17:03or not. Marcus Ratchford is an excellent player just as a number of other players of other
17:10teams and so on and so forth, we'll see what happens. Last two questions. Hello coach,
17:21you've had two very unusual scenarios with Nantes when you came back and made up a lot
17:27of ground and then you had that winning run with Porto, do you see any similarities in
17:31this Milan side, in this environment, in the ambition that you have now? I'm at a top-class
17:41club, I'm at a very passionate footballing country, the fan base have incredible passion
17:48for the team and that is very similar to Porto and indeed the environment that I discovered
17:57at Porto where they hadn't won anything for four years and that isn't normal in Porto.
18:02Yes, there are similarities on that score but ultimately the teams are different, the
18:09environment is different, the brand of football is different, two top teams, it was a little
18:15bit different in Nantes, we did a good job there as well, that's also a historic club
18:22in France but it's different to Porto and Milan. Good afternoon, I once read that Triumph
18:34is an imposter, a liar which ultimately leads to ruin so you need to manage Triumph well,
18:41how have you managed this Triumph well? And because you don't want to get above your station,
18:49I'll give you a criticism, I saw the same defects against Inter in terms of space being
18:55stretched defensively compared with the previous Milan side under Paolo Fonseca and even the
19:01final days of Stefano Pioli, as you know Milan are not yet perfect because Inter had six
19:06or seven goalscoring chances just like Milan did, just like us. I've got the same doubt
19:12Carlo, I think you've said the right thing. One of the things I don't think went particularly
19:19well that we need to work on and where we keep committing mistakes is in terms of pressing,
19:26it wasn't the right timing, the area where we wanted to trigger those presses on the
19:32opposition, Inter, it didn't go particularly well, there are a number of areas that we
19:37undoubtedly need to improve upon. In terms of how you experience success and how you
19:44take it, I think you need to immediately switch to the next target which is much more significant
19:52than what we've already achieved. Yeah, I saved it then and there, I even had a dance
20:01By the time I was on the team bus heading to the airport at 4am to get the plane back,
20:07I was already thinking about what I needed to do with the lads to make sure that we remain
20:11calm and focus on the priority, namely this game against Cagliari tomorrow. Thanks very
20:16much everyone.

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