Vincenzo Montella was “happy with the Milan performance, proportional to the anger I felt at losing when playing so well” against Napoli.
Lorenzo Insigne and Piotr Zielinski sealed the 2-1 result ahead of a late Alessio Romagnoli volley.
Vincenzo Montella was “happy with the Milan performance, proportional to the anger I felt at losing when playing so well” against Napoli.
Lorenzo Insigne and Piotr Zielinski sealed the 2-1 result ahead of a late Alessio Romagnoli volley.
“I keep the performance, as we showed great character and our passing moves were improving too. When you lose badly, it’s upsetting, and when you lose and deserved more, then that’s upsetting too,” the Coach told Mediaset Premium.
“We weren’t incisive enough in the final third, but we caused Napoli a lot of problems and I am happy with the performance, proportional to the anger I feel at losing when playing so well.
“Our last two defeats were against Juventus and Napoli, so of course they are ahead of us, but despite the results, we were in the games. We showed character, we are growing and it’s a growth process. As I said, I am proud of the performances against Napoli, Juve, Roma and Inter, because to get to their level we need patience.
“I thank the club for giving me this support and confidence. I struggle to look at the table, but from now on we’ll have a simpler fixture list and hopefully this type of performance will see us in good stead.”
The Rossoneri pegged Napoli back for long periods in the second half, but barely tested Pepe Reina.
“We play every three days, so there’s not much time to train. We need results straight away and there is work to be done. We must be more concrete in the final third and have the goalmouth in our minds.
“We need to improve in our interpretation of the various phases of the game and that too is a journey. We wanted to cause Napoli problems on the wing with a more attacking player like Fabio Borini.
“Napoli have so much quality in attack and so many options to combine that if you get pinned back, you do risk conceding a goal. I preferred to attack them, as five in defence would’ve been too negative. I took a gamble. We also lost Suso before half-time and that forced more changes.”
Milan have won six, drawn one and lost six games in Serie A this season, but Montella won’t lose hope of a top four finish.
“I am truly optimistic, I don’t know why. I feel we have already overcome the worst period of our season and I see those in front going at a pace they cannot possibly maintain. I remain convinced these players will improve and give us better results going forward.”