Gennaro Gattuso admits Milan took ‘a step back’ during their 1-0 win against Barcelona but praised match-winner Andre Silva. “He works too hard!”
Silva’s injury-time finish earned Milan their first win at the International Champions Cup on Sunday morning, and Gattuso was encouraged by the ‘burning spirit’ his side showed to come away with the victory.
“We suffered, but we knew we had to play like this,” the Coach said after the match.
Gennaro Gattuso admits Milan took ‘a step back’ during their 1-0 win against Barcelona but praised match-winner Andre Silva. “He works too hard!”
Silva’s injury-time finish earned Milan their first win at the International Champions Cup on Sunday morning, and Gattuso was encouraged by the ‘burning spirit’ his side showed to come away with the victory.
“We suffered, but we knew we had to play like this,” the Coach said after the match.
“It was definitely a step back in terms of quality compared to the games against Manchester United and Tottenham.
“I said I wanted to see something interesting on a tactical level. At times I saw it: we were lucky, we could’ve conceded, but we also played well.
“When we were able to play, we did so with more quality, but the fact is that we struggled with their movement
“All in all, we’ll enjoy this victory. But in terms of quality, it’s a step backwards compared to the two previous games.
“I’m very satisfied with how we defended, but in general it’s been 26 days since we got back to work.
“Here we were playing against Barca. I heard that they started their kids, but they were still a team worth 200m if I’m not mistaken.
“It was a difficult game, but we prepared for it. We wanted to create many lines of passage and were organised, but when we had the ball we could’ve done things differently.
“Fouls are useless. You need a competitive streak, not fouls. You have to get to the ball first. Both Hakan Çalhanoglu and Franck Kessie lost the ball needlessly in the second half, when the kids got there and took it away from them.
“Still, I liked our spirit: it must keep burning. Also the other day, against Tottenham, we lost and I didn’t see that burning spirit. I saw it here.
“I think Silva’s an important player: last year he had a lot of difficulties, but he’s a player with great room for improvement.
“He’s young and I can’t say he has to work because he works too hard. He does even more than what he needs to do.
“He can make the breakthrough by scoring with more consistency, but he’s an interesting player because he works very well.”