Gennaro Gattuso believes Milan have ‘huge room for improvement’ going into their Champions League tussle with Lazio in Serie A on Saturday.
Three defeats and no wins in four games have left Milan hanging on to fourth place by a thread, and they host a Lazio side who can move level on points with a game in hand.
“Getting the fans back on side tomorrow is a must,” Gattuso said at a Press conference.
“San Siro has pulled in incredible numbers. We must be able to make them happy.
Gennaro Gattuso believes Milan have ‘huge room for improvement’ going into their Champions League tussle with Lazio in Serie A on Saturday.
Three defeats and no wins in four games have left Milan hanging on to fourth place by a thread, and they host a Lazio side who can move level on points with a game in hand.
“Getting the fans back on side tomorrow is a must,” Gattuso said at a Press conference.
“San Siro has pulled in incredible numbers. We must be able to make them happy.
“The fact that there will be 60,000 must be a responsibility for us to get them fired up with a good performance and a great mentality.
“Lazio look a lot like Juve, they fill the box and have physicality. We’ll need to be ruthless, strong and have desire, but while trying to play football in the best possible way.
“However we’ve always struggled against them, so we’ll have to give as good as we’ve got.
“I’d like to see the same performance we offered against Juventus, but while making less mistakes, believing in what we do and playing with mentality and desire.
“It’s necessary to play with consistency. This is a crucial match for the table. Against Lazio we have to play to win.
“I would like to see the Suso of the first half of the season. He can give us a great hand if he does that. We’ll have news about our defence tomorrow.”
Michael Fabbri will not officiate this weekend, reportedly because of his controversial performance during the Rossoneri’s 2-1 defeat to Juventus last weekend…
“Refereeing situations mustn’t be an excuse. They’ve been discussed enough as it is,” he insisted.
“When a player makes a mistake, they don’t go anywhere and the same goes for the referee. You have to think about the pitch.
“It would be too easy to use them as excuses… There were mistakes in the two goals we conceded against Juve. If you just focus on the refereeing decisions, only excuses come out.
“Rocchi offers guarantees. Only in Italy do we talk about these things. We mustn’t be afraid of bad faith. They are professionals, we must respect them.”
The 44-year-old was then forced to brush off more questions about his future.
“It’s absurd, you heard Maldini what said,” he argued.
“I’m happy, I have two years left on my contract and our objective is to return to the Champions League. The rest is just pub talk.
“I haven't heard from Totti for five months, when I called him on his birthday. I’m a member of this club and I can’t speak to other clubs.
“I owe so much to Milan, it would be disrespectful.”
The former Italy midfielder then gave updates on the fitness of trio Gianluigi Donnarumma, Lucas Paqueta and Andrea Conti.
“I think Donnarumma will be back in the squad next week.
“Paqueta will be running on sand by Sunday and is improving. We’ll see him next week if he doesn’t pull up and recovers
“We’ll try to call up Andrea [Conti]. He looked very good yesterday, while before that he trained separately. We hope he can come along because it’ll make us more comfortable.”
Finally, Gattuso was asked about the side who had impressed him most, as well as Milan’s FFP investigation and his attitude to work.
“Atalanta currently combine physical strength with great technique. They don’t seem to struggle when they play.
“They have a great mentality, they’re a unique team for their style of play and I really like them.
“I feel very calm about FFP. We have people who are well prepared at the club. I feel a bit more responsible because I’ve been here for many years, but when things don’t go well I feel better than when we win. I can give my best when the chips are down.
“It’s easy to say we lack character during the bad times, but we’re all on a journey and we’re a young group. We have huge room for improvement.”