Ruben Amorim says Milan’s first-team squad is approaching 40 players and that changes are necessary to create opportunities for younger members of the group.
Speaking after Milan’s victory over Man United, Amorim said the club faced difficult decisions with only two weeks remaining before the transfer window closes. He singled out Christopher Nkunku, Youssouf Fofana, Fikayo Tomori and Odogu after their performances during pre-season.
“These four players (Nkunku, Fofana, Tomori, and Odogu) performed very well in pre-season preparations, but we have to make choices. We are changing, and I think changes are really needed now because we are at the beginning of a project. There are some young players in the team who will get opportunities, and I must create space for them. However, I want to emphasize that these four performed well in pre-season. But as I said last time when I returned from Jakarta, we need to prepare for the season. The first team has nearly 40 players, and it’s simply impossible to prepare normally. So I feel sorry for these players, but we have to do this.”
Amorim said the size of the squad was making normal preparation difficult as Milan began work on a new project. While stressing that the four players had impressed him, he indicated that the club would still need to reduce the number of first-team options before the window shuts.
The Milan manager also explained why Mike Maignan, Adrien Rabiot and Luka Modric were absent from the match. He said the trio had been given additional time to recover after featuring in more matches than some of their team-mates.
“Rabiot, Modric, and Maignan were given more rest days because they played more matches. This is important to me. Everyone always complains that there are too many games and that players can’t cope with so much fatigue, so I gave these players extra days off because I knew they shouldn’t have played today anyway. I gave them three more days. This won’t change anything. And I want to emphasize that this was my decision, not at the players’ request. They actually wanted to train. Tomorrow, they will return to the Milanello training ground to prepare for the first match. They have a complete training plan, they have followed it as planned, and we have evidence that they did. I hope this is very clear, because I think it’s important.”
Amorim made clear that the decision to rest the three experienced players had come from him rather than from the players themselves. He added that they had wanted to train, but had instead followed an agreed individual schedule while away from the group.
Maignan, Rabiot and Modric are due to return to Milanello the following day, where they will rejoin preparations for Milan’s first match. Amorim said the club had evidence that each player had completed the work set out in their training plan.
The comments were reported by TuttoMercatoWeb.
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