Gattuso tells off Calhanoglu

By Football Italia staff

Gennaro Gattuso felt the 3-1 defeat to Juventus “doesn’t reflect the Milan performance, but nobody will remember that” and criticised Hakan Calhanoglu.

Leonardo Bonucci had cancelled out the Paulo Dybala opener, but after Calhanoglu rattled the crossbar, Sami Khedira set one up for Juan Cuadrado and scored the other himself.

“The performance remains, it felt a bit like the (Europa League defeat to Arsenal) in London. The result doesn’t reflect the performance, but we have to get back on our feet,” Gattuso told Mediaset Premium.

“I got angry with Calhanoglu at one point because when he loses the ball, he starts arguing. I don’t like to see that. He looks at the ground, starts shouting at his teammates. If he just lifted his butt off the ground and got running after the ball to win it back, we wouldn’t concede the second goal.

“We put in a good team performance and we didn’t win, which means we’ve got much to improve.”

The Rossoneri have an extremely tough test coming up on Wednesday with the rescheduled Derby della Madonnina against Inter.

“Up until three months ago, it was unthinkable that we could challenge for a Champions League spot, so we must recover our energy and keep taking it one game at a time.

“We have quality players, but in physical terms we cannot compete with Juventus. That is what made the difference today.

“It was a good performance, fine, but I can’t be satisfied with that when all that remains is the 3-1 result in the record books. Nobody will remember the performance.

“It burns, I can’t stand here and smile or pretend I’m happy with just playing well. It burns me and it has to burn everyone, otherwise nobody will become a champion if they’re content with this.”

Gattuso was asked why he opted to start Andre Silva, then replace him with Nikola Kalinic rather than Patrick Cutrone.

“I am satisfied with Andre Silva, he defended the ball well and got a couple of things wrong at the start, but then seemed sharp. Cutrone was on international duty, so Andre Silva and Kalinic seemed in better shape to me.”

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