Massimiliano Allegri
Here’s what the coach had to say at the press conference this afternoon ahead of the Rossoneri’s Italian Cup quarter final against Lazio at 20.45 on Thursday evening:
“I don’t have a set line-up for tomorrow’s match. Seedorf will start. After a period of inactivity, he’s back in the right shape and needs some match practice. Mesbah might start as well. Bonera will play at centre back. Ibrahimovic is available but I don’t think he’ll start the game.
It’s not true that some games count and some games don’t. There all important because a loss pulls us all down. Italian, Cup, Champions League or the league, we can’t slip up because if we do, we take away the chance to get back into things. Juventus, after two shaky years, are doing great things in the league. There’s a lot of enthusiasm and the new stadium is definitely an advantage for them.
“Lazio are competitive and that shows in their results. It won’t be an easy game and I’ll have to put out the best side I can.”
I think the club is looking good, we still have room for improvement. We dropped points in the derby but we got some against Novara where we played good game technically and with high intensity. Seedorf is important for the team because he’s a real champion. He started the season well and then his knee forced him to skip a few training session but now he’s fine. He’s offers us a guarantee and he’ll definitely be useful for the second half of the season.”
“We have a cup quarter final to play and we have the duty to get through to the next round because the Italian cup is one of the season’s objectives.”
“The transfer window doesn’t really effect me because most of it is just for TV, although the Tevez story I for real, but I’m calm nonetheless and focused on what it is I have to do. The club knows exactly what it’s doing, that’s why I’m calm and I’m also lucky because of this. In the last year and a half, the club has given me some great players. If Tevez came, I’d consider myself lucky because the club would have made an extra effort.”
“Flamini will be back with the team within a couple of weeks, Aquilani is on his way back and I’m happy with the players I have in midfield.”
“Tomorrow we’ll have different motivation. It’s a quarter final and we want to get into the semis. It’ll be a different game tomorrow. Lazio are a big team and for our part, it’s important for us to get through to the next round.”
“Maxi Lopez is a player that we’ve looked over but we have to wait and see what happens this week. He’s an important player. If he wasn’t he never would have been considered.”
“Experiments have not been done because I don’t do experiments. As a playmaker, Emanuelson has just missed that single bit of magic that would make that position his own.”
“El Shaarawy has become a completely different player to what he was two months ago. He’s grown a lot and more than we expected. It’s strange to watch a player grow so quickly. He’s important for the club but he has to stay calm because he’s very young and there’s no need to give him so much responsibility.”
“In the middle we can play with Merkel and one of Seedorf and Robinho behind the forwards, even if I played Seedorf on the wing last year.”
If a team creates seven goal scoring chances in a single half, that’s a lot. Getting to a semi final is an important target for us.”
“Lazio are in good form and will put out their best side. We’ll have to play well to get through to the next round.”
“Aquilani had a medical visit this morning. They’re doing evaluations on Cassano to see when he can get the all clear to return. Pato is out for the moment. He’ll be back at Milanello on Saturday but these cases have to checked no day by day.”
“Ibra is fine. He’s calm and physically he has no problems but he’s not a robot and every so often he has to rest. He’s available for tomorrow but that doesn’t mean he’ll start.”/acmilan.com/
Pingback: cafelearn72