Milan Coach Gennaro Gattuso defends Gianluigi Donnarumma – “anyone who plays football can make mistakes”.
The young goalkeeper has come in for increasing criticism this season, which reached a head when he came out for a Matias Vecino cross against Inter on Sunday, failing to reach it before Mauro Icardi headed home a late winner.
“There were mistakes on the goal, not just Donnarumma,” Gattuso said in his Press conference ahead of the Real Betis game.
Milan Coach Gennaro Gattuso defends Gianluigi Donnarumma – “anyone who plays football can make mistakes”.
The young goalkeeper has come in for increasing criticism this season, which reached a head when he came out for a Matias Vecino cross against Inter on Sunday, failing to reach it before Mauro Icardi headed home a late winner.
“There were mistakes on the goal, not just Donnarumma,” Gattuso said in his Press conference ahead of the Real Betis game.
“We need to improve in that regard, we have to work at Milanello to improve. There’s a lot of pressure on us.
“I’ve been here for almost a year and we’ve lost six league matches. I think all the matches we lost were due to my management, so I hope the players will be left alone.
“I’m responsible and I’ll take the criticism, but we have to make as few errors as possible.
“If someone criticises me it won’t change my life, I’m a young Coach with ups-and-downs and I’ll keep doing my work.
“As for the people who want Donnarumma to be benched, he’s a growing goalkeeper and you all said it.
“I make the choices, I don’t take guidance from the fans, despite the respect I have for them. He had a bereavement in his family the day before yesterday, his grandmother passed away.
“I didn’t have the chance to talk to him yesterday, he just has to keep working professionally. Anyone who plays football can make mistakes.”
Gattuso also reflected on the derby itself, with the Rossoneri drawing criticism for their negative approach.
“We need to start again, though the bitterness remains. I’ll say again what I said at the Press conference, we didn’t prepare to play for a draw.
“In terms of character I liked our team a lot, where we were lacking was our strong point, the use of the ball.
“We didn’t spend all that time preparing the match to draw it. I need to be good and balanced in evaluating the team, we can’t throw away all the good work we’ve done up to now.
“We failed on the ball, we couldn’t build from the goalkeeper and when we don’t build from the back our play is a lot less effective, we can’t play the football we know we can.
“If the game had ended 0-0 there’d be a different judgement, but I don’t prepare matches to draw them.
“I’m not going to talk about pub discussions, we could have done more in possession, but I liked the team very much without the ball, it’s been months since I’ve seen such an attentive team in that regard.
“I’m proud to train a squad like this, and it offends me when I hear people say that the team wasn’t committed and played for the draw.
“I saw a team that couldn’t express itself on the ball, but I saw a character in the team that I hadn’t seen for a long time.
“When you’re playing for a 0-0 you go 4-5-1 and park the bus. Did you see lines of five and barricades? Then why did you say I played for a draw?
“You can say that Milan didn’t play well enough technically, but not that we played for a draw.”