Alessio Romagnoli compares Milan Coach Vincenzo Montella with Sinisa Mihajlovic and discusses his own qualities as a player.
The 21-year-old defender followed the Serbian to the Diavolo after playing under him at Sampdoria, and he is now focused on the mission of bringing the club back into Europe.
Alessio Romagnoli compares Milan Coach Vincenzo Montella with Sinisa Mihajlovic and discusses his own qualities as a player.
The 21-year-old defender followed the Serbian to the Diavolo after playing under him at Sampdoria, and he is now focused on the mission of bringing the club back into Europe.
“This must be the starting point, whatever Europe we are talking about, as long as it's Europe,” said Romagnoli at a Nike promotional event, as reported by the Gazzetta dello Sport. “It's not possible to see Milan out of it for three years in a row. It makes me angry, just like losing the Coppa Italia.
“But football is made of cycles, and it takes time to return to the top. You can't start winning from one day to the next. I'd like to ask the fans to put their faith in us. These have been bad years, but we must emerge, and this will be the right year for that.”
Romagnoli then went on to compare Montella and Mihajlovic.
“Mihajlovic was fundamental, he wanted me at Sampdoria and he made me play at the age of 19. I reallly developed in that context. Nobody expected him to be sacked, but these are decisions that come down to the club.
“Sinisa yells more and is more crude, but don't think for a minute that Montella is soft. They are both balanced trainers. One tactical difference is that Montella wants play to start necessarily from the back.
“Starting from there, with the ball between my feet, is what I like the most. Last year we weren't able to do that, perhaps we lacked courage.”
Finally, the player was asked to discuss himself as a defender.
“Thankfully I'm still only 21, so I have a lot of space to develop. I think I must improve in keeping my focus over 90', and in man-marking, which needs to be tighter. My qualities are tactical intuition and my calm personality.
“I'm proud that [president Silvio] Berlusconi signed me. He made a serious investment for me, but I don't consider myself untouchable. Here we are all under scrutiny.
“Anyway, if this group remained largely the same after the market, it means we're strong and the club is counting on us. And we've been giving many players to the national teams, so we must have been doing something right.”