Conceicao discusses captaincy, formations, January mercato ‘truth’ and reaction from stars | OneFootball

AC Milan head coach Sergio Conceicao has stressed that there is no room for prolonged celebrations after the Supercoppa Italiana win, with a job to do against Cagliari.

Something rather strange will happen at San Siro on Saturday night: the Milan fans will welcome a coach that has already won a trophy for the club despite not having managed a single home game yet.

Indeed, Conceicao-mania seems to have taken hold after the Portuguese arrived and won a trophy just over one week into his tenure. Not only that, but he beat the Rossoneri’s main rivals Juventus and Inter to secure the club’s 50th major trophy.

However, as the former Porto boss will have no doubt already stressed, there is a new task at hand against Cagliari. Milan know this all too well given that they drew 3-3 with the Sardinians immediately after the 3-1 win over Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Conceicao spoke to the reporters who gathered at Milanello for his press conference on the eve of the game, and his comments were relayed by MilanNews.

How important is it to keep your feet on the ground right now?

“Certainly. I think that those who are satisfied after a Supercoppa cannot work at Milan. We enjoyed it a lot and deserved it, we are 17 points from the top of the table.

“A club that has won 19 Serie A and 7 Champions Leagues cannot be satisfied with a Supercoppa. We must start winning and convincing starting tomorrow to get as high as possible. The Supercoppa is over.”

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What emotions will you feel tomorrow at San Siro?

“I apologise, but the emotions are not there. There is the normal adrenaline of a match with a historic club. But during the preparation I have too many things in my head, I don’t think about what I will experience.

“Of course before the referee’s whistle I will feel something, I am not a stone. But my main thought is to prepare the boys as much as possible.”

You have given the captain’s armband to Mike Maignan…

“All players must take their responsibilities, I am the ultimate leader. Everyone has their own responsibilities, you will not see me creating controversy about whether I am a captain or not.”

What did you do differently to get this reaction from Theo and Leao?

“Changing staff is already something different, I was a footballer for 25 years and I know how things are. They have to believe in your message.

“A nice thing I found here is this acceptance of everything we worked on. We made changes at an organisational level, this makes me happy. I found a very positive dressing room.”

Credit: AC Milan

What will the January window bring?

“I have to say one thing, the truth: the management tried to talk to me about this topic but the timing was wrong because we had important matches. Now is not the right timing, I know it is important and we have to talk about it.

“But right now the most important thing for me is the match against Cagliari, the day after maybe we will have time to talk about this issue too, which is certainly important.”

Will you work on those who played less under Fonseca, like Loftus-Cheek?

“Loftus-Cheek is not physically at his best. For me, everyone starts at the same level. Day by day I will see in training, it also depends on the strategy I have for each game, who can start and who can help from the bench. Nobody is an absolute starter, everyone has to fight for a place in the team.”

What is the injury situation?

“There’s a small problem with Ruben, he won’t be there for the match tomorrow. He had a relapse yesterday, I’m sorry because he was growing physically.”

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What is the best tactical setup for the team in your opinion?

“The important thing is to find a good balance for the team. Today a three-man midfield may seem a little safer to the team. When there is a little more knowledge of what we want, we can also play with a 4-4-2: we work.

“It takes time, it’s normal. But during the match I change, something different was needed and they pay me for this, to help the team with what I see. Different situations are worked on in training. The player today is intelligent, they have to know what work to do to then do their best.

“Rafa? He has to run. Winger, attacker, he has to put his quality at the service of the team even without the ball. We are talking about a collective process, not an individual one.”

After the Real Madrid win, Milan went to Cagliari and drew…

“The next day I spoke about this, I watched Real-Milan and Cagliari-Milan, I spoke about it with the players. It’s not good. The hardest thing is not getting up there, but staying there.

“You can understand not playing so well, but you still have to have a strong base. If you have this base, you win the match in the end because you have a quality team.”

What is the Conceicao method?

“Every coach has his own ideas and working methods. Afterwards, what is right or wrong is shown by the results. It’s not that I have the exact formula. I have lost matches and titles at Porto, but I have also won.

“Up until now I have been happy with my way of doing things. But afterwards, if the results don’t come, the one who pays is the coach, he always has his bags packed. I will try to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“The players are too pampered, but I am pampered too. For me, the work is enough. They let themselves go, before it was different. In ’96 I faced Milan with Porto, we won 3-2. Now it’s different, you have to concentrate the players, it’s not a hobby. It’s a job, not a hobby.”

How did you gain the consensus of the dressing room in such a short time?

“There was the pride of the players, I spoke about this. It’s a good group of players, they accept what we say even if the rules are different from those before. This humility to accept these rules that also go against their habits is fundamental for me.

“They gave a fantastic response, winning with a comeback against Juve and Inter. But that’s the past, now we have to improve. They have to improve a lot, a lot. There are moments of the match that I don’t like, what we did has already been done by others, even with much more weighty titles.

“We are trying to do something and get to the end of the season not very happy but still in the top four: we are working on this.”

Would Rashford improve Milan?

“You try in every way (laughs). In Portugal it’s even worse. Here we talk about football, then every now and then someone tries… Rashford is a good player like many others, let’s see what happens.”

Do you find any similarities between Milan and other teams you have coached?

“I find a great club and a country passionate about football, a fan base that lives the club in an incredible way. In Porto we hadn’t won for four years and it wasn’t normal.

“In this sense, yes, there is similarity. Then the teams are different, the football is different. Two great clubs. In Nantes, on the other hand, it was a bit different from Porto and Milan.”

How did you handle the victory? Against Inter there were the same defensive flaws as Fonseca’s Milan and Pioli’s last Milan…

“Without a doubt. One of the things that didn’t work is that we also made mistakes in pressing, with timing and the chosen area. There are things that we have to improve without a doubt.

“The way to live a success in my opinion is to immediately think that we have another one ahead of us, much more important than the one we had.

“I enjoyed it, I even danced, but on the plane I was already thinking about how to keep the boys calm and that the most important match is Cagliari tomorrow.”