Giampaolo: 'I can't change Milan players'

By Football Italia staff

After one competitive game, a 1-0 defeat to Udinese, Marco Giampaolo concedes Milan need a complete tactical overhaul. “We need them in their natural roles.”

The 1-0 loss at the Dacia Arena highlighted a toothless display without a single Rossoneri shot on target.

“Aside from the result, because losing is never good, clearly the game didn’t give me many positive indications,” Giampaolo told Sky Sport Italia.

“You can usually read what the team does well or less well. I go beyond the result and will try to analyse deeper on how the match progressed, our interpretation of certain tactics and different characteristics.

“There are many things here that I need to reflect on. Possession needs to develop into attacking moves more, but it probably wasn’t our fault as such, but rather because Udinese have certain characteristics when defending that make it difficult to play against.

“I reflect on the game, on the ability of the three upfront to develop what I want to see, or if perhaps I am trying to get them to do something that just isn’t in their nature.”

Giampaolo moved Suso to the trequartista role and tried to fit the players into his traditional 4-3-1-2 formation, but one official match in, he seems to have scrapped an entire pre-season of preparation.

“My vision of Milan is very different. It’s not just Suso and Castillejo, but Piatek too. He has the movements of a centre-forward.

“Suso is an extraordinary player, but he probably has different characteristics and we need to get them to play in their natural roles. We’ll have to work on it and certainly in a different way, probably 4-3-3.

“It’s not their fault, they have tried really hard, but I mustn’t try to transform their very nature. That is not my job. I have to make the most of these players and their qualities.

“Until today, we didn’t see that so clearly. I thought at the start that it was just Suso becoming a trequartista, but we have to look beyond that, take some principles and try to completely reorganise everything upfront.

“Even if we had won the game, that would be the case. We are sterile, I don’t like the movements in attack, this team is not suited to this football.

“I am not throwing anything out, it’s just that I have to focus on some other details from now on.”

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