Milan captain Riccardo Montolivo says he ‘believes in third place’, but his team will need a ‘worker's spirit’ to achieve it.
The midfielder has cast his eye on the Rossoneri’s current League situation of joint-sixth, and refused to be drawn on comparisons with the era under previous Coach Clarence Seedorf.
“It's hard to draw comparisons, but we're talking about two teams searching for an identity,” said Montolivo to the Corriere della Sera.
Milan captain Riccardo Montolivo says he ‘believes in third place’, but his team will need a ‘worker's spirit’ to achieve it.
The midfielder has cast his eye on the Rossoneri’s current League situation of joint-sixth, and refused to be drawn on comparisons with the era under previous Coach Clarence Seedorf.
“It's hard to draw comparisons, but we're talking about two teams searching for an identity,” said Montolivo to the Corriere della Sera.
“Now let's look at the future, we've got a Milan team that's aiming for Europe.
“We're doing a great job. But it's time for this Milan team to look itself in the mirror and ask what it wants to become. The challenge is against ourselves.”
The ex-Fiorentina man claimed that his team's rebirth depended above all else on a matter of mentality.
“I think this team cannot make do without a worker's spirit made of intensity, sacrifice, determination.
“It's a different Milan team than it used to be, there's no point denying that.
“There's quality, but it does not emerge if the team does not bring that worker's spirit to the field.
“I agree with the President [Silvio Berlusconi] when he says that this squad can compete for the top positions, but only if it keeps that worker's spirit, or it becomes unlikely.
“I'm hoping to be fit, it's one of those things you take for granted, but when it isn't there you realise how badly you miss them.
“I'm wishing, for Milan, to see us assault the second half of the League season the way we did two years ago. I believe in it.”