Allegri blames mistakes and inability to ‘perceive danger’ for Milan’s defeat vs. Cremonese

After the disappointing defeat to Cremonese, AC Milan manager Max Allegri spoke to the media and shared his thoughts on what went wrong underneath the San Siro floodlights. 

It was an incredibly poor performance from the Rossoneri, more or less from start to finish, and a lot of work will have to be done on the training ground next week. Rafael Leao’s absence isn’t a good excuse either, considering the quality of the opponents.

Speaking to DAZN in his post-match interview, as transcribed by MilanNews, Allegri discussed what went wrong for Milan, how they can improve and what the next steps are. He made it clear that the season is long and that they can’t just give up now.

What are your takeaways?

“If you look at the performance, we had a lot of shots on goal. The difference is made by our aggressive attacking and our defence: we could have been more careful, but fortunately we’re just starting out and we can work on it.”

Is Milan incomplete numerically?

“It makes no sense to evaluate the squad now. We’ve worked well so far and will continue to do so. In Serie A, you’ll find tough teams like Cremonese, who won without stealing anything. We made these two mistakes that led to the defeat. We need to be more aggressive when we don’t have the ball.”

How concerned are you about this lack of determination?

“It’s never easy, the first game is always tough, we’re not in top form. These are games where you can’t concede goals, and unfortunately, we did. We got back on track, then in the second half, we had potential chances where we could have scored.

“We didn’t, and we conceded this goal knowing they’re good crossers and would close down well in the box. We need to work on these situations; as I always say, we can’t concede two goals in a game.”

What didn’t you expect this evening?

“Given the goals we’ve conceded, where we need to improve, and haven’t yet, is the phase when… We don’t perceive the danger. We’re five against three in the box, and he can’t jump alone. Just as Pezzella can’t get the ball, he’s running at 300 miles an hour from a deep position. You have to perceive the danger; if you don’t perceive it, you can still concede.”

On Santiago Gimenez…

“He’s a bit behind in terms of fitness, but he worked hard, he did the best he could, then at the end he had a header that didn’t go his way. But it’s not a matter of Santiago, it’s a matter of all of us who must be responsible for when we play and prepare for matches in a certain way: we absolutely can’t concede goals like that.”

Napoli also lost their first match last year…

“Regardless of what happened last year, we have to see the positives among all the negatives. When we resume on Monday, we need to prepare well because we have Lecce, which is a difficult away game.

“We have to prepare to play dirty games too, because otherwise, if we play all our games cleanly, we can lose, win, and draw against anyone. That way, we won’t be solid. We had improved, but unfortunately, tonight we made these two mistakes.”

Lecce will be up next for Milan and that’s certainly a tough away clash. Kick-off is scheduled for Friday evening and the Rossoneru loanee Francesco Camarda could be playing from start, as he did against Genoa earlier today.