Gattuso: 'Bakayoko my fault'

By Football Italia staff

Gennaro Gattuso wants to keep Milan’s new attitude going against Chievo, but has advice for Patrick Cutrone and Tiemoue Bakayoko.

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The Rossoneri certainly seem to have rediscovered their form and confidence after some difficult weeks, beating Sassuolo 4-1 and coming back to defeat Olympiacos in the Europa League.

“Every game has a different story,” said Gattuso in his Press conference. “We had started well against Olympiacos and that goal knocked the wind out of our sails, but we did well to react. This type of attitude is what I want to see, as over the last two months we’ve been missing that. We focused on passing, but were missing something.

“The last two games have broken the ice psychologically. We’ve shown this season that we have some defects and are working to correct them, but it’ll take time. We’re not far off the top teams and must continue believing in our work.”

Cutrone has earned a senior Italy call-up for games against Ukraine and Poland, but Gattuso doesn’t suggest more playing time is in the works.

“I don’t enjoy putting Cutrone on the bench and I was distraught when he was injured. He is someone who changes games with his enthusiasm and dynamism. Patrick can change a match when he comes off the bench. He has also done well when starting, but always makes an impact as a substitute.

“Cutrone should be proud of the call-up, as it must give him incredible joy. We’ll see if he actually goes, because his ankle still hurts, but I’m proud he got the nod.”

However, Tiemoue Bakayoko continues to seem lost in the Milan midfield after his move from Chelsea.

“Bakayoko needs to be helped, as he is struggling,” confirmed Gattuso. “The tactics haven’t been drilled into his head yet and evidently it’s my fault, we need to do more work with him in training.

“He has been here for two months and we haven’t yet been able to get him to understand the movements. It is our duty to improve him as a player, because he does have a lot of quality and we’re not finding that yet.”

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