Massimiliano Allegri told off Mario Balotelli for his “hysteria,” but insists Milan had “the best performance of the season.”
Massimiliano Allegri told off Mario Balotelli for his “hysteria,” but insists Milan had “the best performance of the season.”
Balotelli saw his penalty saved by Pepe Reina and was sent off at the final whistle for dissent in a 2-1 defeat to Napoli.
“I didn’t speak to Mario, but I’m told he received another booking. He received a fair few kicks, including many from behind, though he overall had a good game,” the Coach told Sky Sport Italia.
“When games are over it’s better to stay quiet and I am against hysteria. It’s best to just shut up and leave rather than stay there arguing with the referee, as it’s not going to change anything. Balotelli needs to improve that.
“Tonight the team put in a decent performance in technical terms, though we were naive in the first 10 minutes and conceded that avoidable goal. It was in a way our best performance of the Serie A season so far. We were lucky to get back the 2-2 draw at Torino, so we paid for that good fortune this time around.
“If we were going to play badly and earn a result, I preferred to play well and lose, even if this was a head-to-head. We could’ve done better in the box, but apart from the opening 10 minutes it was our best performance of the season.”
Milan conceded their third header of the campaign and were caught ball-watching on Miguel Angel Britos’ early goal.
“We defended badly and in the wrong way, as we should’ve realised straight away they were going to do that. We need to improve our defending in the box, but that doesn’t take away from the fact I think the team played well.
“People said Milan were lucky at Torino, so tonight we were unlucky, as Balotelli didn’t convert a penalty and we hit the bar too. If we had converted that penalty, then perhaps we had time to get the match back on level terms. We have to improve at the back, as we can’t think of winning games when we concede an average of two per match.”
Milan are now in 11th place with only four points from as many Serie A matches.
“We must try to pick up as many points as possible now. Napoli are one of the candidates for the Scudetto and we played on a par with them overall despite missing many key players.
“I already have ideas on how to fix things, but I need some of the players to recover from injuries first.”