AC Milan defeated Lecce 3-0 at home in the 5th round of Serie A, and head coach Amorim attended the post-match press conference.

This victory echoes AC Milan's excellent performances at the start of the season. Is it the team's current goal to maintain this level of play and control consistently in upcoming matches against stronger, higher-ranked teams?

Yes, absolutely. We want to play with dominant control in all circumstances. I want to emphasize again: we only had difficulty establishing dominance against Juventus and in the first half against Lazio. In the second half against Lazio, a team that has been in excellent form recently, we showed very clear dominance.

Of course, we need to demonstrate greater stability and consistency in controlling the tempo of the game in the future. We knew exactly what type of match awaited us today—the opponent was a team patiently waiting for us to make mistakes—but our play fluidity was noticeably better today, and our runs behind their defense also helped the team greatly.

Good evening, Coach Amorim. This is our first question for you. I'd like to ask: in building AC Milan according to your tactical philosophy, what percentage of your ideal state do you think the team has currently achieved—particularly regarding ball possession, high pressing, transition speed, and quick counters? Is it 50%? 60%? 40%? Or 70%? Are we close to your optimal vision?

You're focusing too much on our current position (laughs). We're really only at the beginning here. I fully understand the immense pressure that comes with such a prestigious club as AC Milan, and I understand the rumors about supposed promises I made—though I never promised things like high results in every match or a complete overhaul immediately after my arrival. These rumors are not true. This entire project needs time.

After the international break, we face a packed fixture list with barely any time to prepare properly for matches, and I'm very aware that any small setbacks that occur will likely be amplified by the outside world into major talking points and public storms.

Coach, good evening. There's now a general perception that almost all players, or at least many in the squad, can play multiple positions and fulfill various tactical roles. For example, we saw Pavlovic frequently push forward to participate in attacks, and Saelemaekers also covered different areas of the field. Of course, each player operates based on his own technical qualities. Is this the tactical effect you want from everyone? What kind of feedback have you received from them?

I believe we're still searching for the ideal squad composition and the best starting eleven. We deepen our understanding of this group of players every day. The pre-season friendlies were too short, and it's difficult to see everything clearly at the start of the official season, especially for players who were in the later stages of the World Cup and returned late.

Today's match was very effective because we used different methods of building play from the back, which helped us greatly in creating breakthroughs—this tactical adjustment allowed us to use the opponent's relatively rigid defensive structure as reference and effectively create space. However, it's foreseeable that opponents will gradually understand our building methods and organization, and at that point we must be able to make changes and adjustments at any time. I'm firmly convinced that players don't need to rigidly memorize a specific tactical system, but rather deeply understand the fundamental principles of football itself and work to implement that understanding on the field with their teammates.

Coach, good evening. I want to ask: at the beginning of this new chapter as AC Milan coach, if someone had offered you an advance performance record showing an unbeaten run in the first five matches—including three wins and two draws, with both draws being a late away draw against Juventus and an away draw against current league leaders Lazio—would you have signed up for that record in advance?

I don't think this record is bad, but at the same time I feel some frustration and regret, because if you look closely at the specifics of these matches, we actually had every chance to take more points. However, if you observed the public reaction last week, it seemed as though we'd had five consecutive defeats rather than five consecutive unbeaten matches.

I'm doing my best, and I believe the players are continuously improving. I also believe that our tactical intentions and fighting spirit are clearly present in every match. Sometimes we play exceptionally well, sometimes not quite as ideal, but I want to emphasize again: this is only the early phase of the season, and we must look ahead to the next phase. After the international break, we face an intense fixture list with almost no time to prepare properly for matches, and I'm very aware that any small setbacks that occur will likely be amplified into major headlines by the outside world.

Coach Amorim, I have a brief question. I know you normally prefer not to talk too much about rigid formation systems, but I hope you can personally explain the 4-4-2 formation deployed tonight, which included players like Pulisic. Why did you make this decision? What specific additional advantages did this formation bring to the team? Sometimes it's very interesting to hear the story behind tactical formations...

I want to emphasize again that coaches in the Italian league are very, very intelligent. They understand the tactical aspects of football extraordinarily well. I know they sometimes wait and anticipate that our playing patterns and our build-up play from the back become rigid and predictable. To achieve maximum performance within a specific tactical system, your squad must have players whose technical qualities fit perfectly with that system. A profound lesson I learned from my time as Manchester United manager is that you can never mechanically repeat the same actions while blindly expecting different results. Tonight's more offensive tactical setup worked very well. We successfully controlled the rhythm of the entire match and deserved this victory.

Übersetzt von KI.

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