AC Milan forwards need to be more selfish, says coach after Cagliari draw

MILAN – New AC Milan coach Sergio Conceicao wants his forwards to be more selfish in front of goal after his two-game winning streak since taking over was halted by a 1-1 home draw against lowly Cagliari in Serie A on Jan 11.

Cagliari shocked Milan with a quick-fire equaliser in the 55th minute through defender Nadir Zortea, four minutes after Alvaro Morata broke the deadlock for Milan from close range on the Portuguese manager’s Serie A debut.

“I expected much more at all levels,” Conceicao told Sky Sport.

“I’ve been a coach for 13 years, and comparing the quality of this group to what we did, it was the weakest first half since I’ve started coaching. We lacked rhythm, quality... and we weren’t that good and intelligent on this level.”

Milan created 24 chances, 11 of them on target, but could not convert until Morata scrambled home a rebound six minutes into the second half.

“My feeling is that (Milan forwards) are altruistic,” Conceicao, who replaced compatriot Paulo Fonseca on Dec 30, added. “That’s fine, I like a player like that. But there are moments when they have to be more simple.

“In front of goal you have to be selfish, a winger has to go one on one with the opponent. We look for a difficult (solution) sometimes and I don’t like that, football is simple.”

Asked whether the team needed more rules and discipline, he admitted he liked to have things well organised. “It’s my way of doing things for many years,” he said.

“It’s not that I come here and I have to do it by force. For me it’s the simple things – schedules, training, being involved in the work day by day.

“If I got here halfway through the season, it’s because something wasn’t right and we have to take full responsibility. If we are strict and demanding outside the game, then we will be strict and demanding in the game too.”

Milan, who stay eighth and eight points behind fourth-placed Lazio who sit in the final Champions League spot, travel to 16th-placed Como on Jan 14 before visiting Juventus four days later.

They then will look to extend their four-game winning run in the Champions League when they host Girona on Jan 22.

Meanwhile, Juventus’ spiky derby with Torino also ended 1-1.

Nikola Vlasic earned a point for Torino – who have not beaten their local rivals for a decade – with a superb strike which crashed in off the post in stoppage time at the end of a first half that started with Juve going ahead through Kenan Yildiz in the eighth minute.

Thiago Motta’s Juve side remain unbeaten in Italy’s top flight this season, but the draw was their 12th of the campaign and left them in fifth, three points away from the Champions League positions.

They have now drawn six of their last seven Serie A matches and have key clashes with Atalanta and Milan coming up.

“We need to be more aggressive. We didn’t do enough with our attacking moves to win the match,” lamented Motta. REUTERS, AFP