Gattuso’s honest in-depth assessment of Milan’s defeat to Arsenal

Gennaro Gattuso has admitted that Arsenal fully deserved to beat AC Milan last night, and after the game he gave a full and frank assessment of the performance of both teams. It is certainly refreshing to hear a manager tell the truth without resorting to the well-known Wenger clichés, and it is definitely a good read…

“We knew this was going to be a very difficult match,” Gattuso was quoted as saying in the RossoneriBlog. “Arsenal were coming off a tough moment, but have enormous quality at their disposal, while we made too many mistakes. We never played like a compact team and Arsenal deserved the victory.

“We could’ve done more, but we didn’t play as a team, so every time they attacked, it was a danger. Playing at this level is new to many of these guys, but the too many errors remain. Now we look forward without losing confidence. It was an off day and Arsenal deserved it. We’ll learn from this.

“How difficult would qualifying be? Our minds now go to Genoa, then after that we’ll start to prepare for the second leg in London. You can never say never in football, so we’ll go there and give it our best. We are certainly not going to the Emirates on a day trip. We are Milan and have a jersey to respect. We could’ve scored on Thursday, it’s not over yet, but it’s difficult. We’ll give it our best shot.

“If Wenger surprised me? No, I expected him to approach the game this way and it was our mistake giving Arsenal too much space. We allowed them to burst through our lines too easily. We never managed to dribble and get out of a 1v1 were always a man short. But I was expecting such an Arsenal, with great quality and great players. This result owes a lot to Arsenal and a lot to our errors.

“Serie A is inferior [compared to the sides Milan have to face in this stage]? In Europe there are great players with speed and quality, for instance their fullbacks always cut us in two. And then you look at the money, every team in England earns triple from TV rights and this makes the difference.”

Milan could very easily have had a penalty early in the match, but the striker managed to stay on his feet in a moment that could have changed the game completely, and Gattuso was honest yet again. “Çalhanoğlu [who was fouled early on inside the box but did not fall to the ground, so no penalty was given]? I would’ve thrown myself, he touched him, and the contact was there… but that’s OK… how can you not throw yourself there?

“The match? We were struggling, we were wrong a lot and Arsenal were superior to us. They did well to block our play in the midfield. We must look forward, Arsenal were in great difficulty [they came to the match after 4 defeats], but they have quality, and this is not bought at the supermarket.

“Those who play football know that it’s difficult to play this type of game. To get experience you have to take this beating and go through these paths. Until we don’t play games like this, we will always talk about inexperience, it’s there and I also played as a youngster and played wrong balls.

“We had to dribble, we prepared like that, but we lost the ball so many times. The second leg? The head is on Sunday against Genoa, we are playing something important and then we will think about Arsenal. We have an important jersey and we cannot afford to go for a picnic.

“The athletic preparation for the match? These are sold-out matches, they are totally different games than in Serie A. The opponents are technically and physically strong. It’s true, however, that we were less than brilliant, we suffered. I don’t know if we were wrong [in the preparation], we did a workload simulating what we would do in the derby [which was cancelled due to Astori’s sudden death].”

Now that is what I call a proper assessment of the game, and one that we will never ever get from a manager like Wenger, who is too worried about giving too much away to be honest after a defeat. So what do Arsenal fans make of that?

Darren N

15 Comments

  1. they havent lost since 23rd december
    in that time have beaten inter lazio and roma

    all this negativity that ac milan are rubbish
    there not
    yes there not the team of kaka and pirlo-obviously ffs but amongst all this negativity can we not say well done lads?

    weird seeing gattuso getting old- wheres his nutty streak gone , he didnt attack anyone?!
    he even stopped to pick flowers up on the way home
    old gattuso would have attacked an old lady sacrificed a goat…and then got off the pitch

  2. Gattuso’s assessment is very good and honest, he could be a great manager in the future if he keeps learning and doesn’t give up

    Milan is still a big and illustrious football club, consists of talented players like Donnarumma, Cutrone, Suso, Calhanoglu, Kalinic, Bonaventura and Bonucci. Arsenal cannot underestimate an injured Milan in the second leg

  3. Gattuso spoke the truth and blamed themselves for giving Arsenal too much space and so on.. I wonder if Arsenal lost, what could be the excuses from Wenger.. hahaha! The ref, the pitch, out fans, cohesion, team spirit, and so many stu**d reasons to dodge from the real reason (average performance from evarage and overrated players, and clueless manager)

  4. how crazy it is that I want us to win the Europa so we get to the UCL but still want us to get kicked out of it so Wenger can leave…
    Life of an Arsenal Fan???

    1. What you want doesn’t matter about the manager’s job he is an employee of kreonke if he kreonke doesn’t want him he can say that himself he is not dumb.As a fan all you need to do is support the team and hope for the best not this arrogance of we can control everything

  5. Am beginning to imaging a young striker from youth team instead of Welbek. The so called good form of Welbek is a bad day of a good striker. Ronaldo is so poor this season yet he has scored 16 league goals and 12 UCL goals.

  6. To be honest, though the truth is refreshing, I personally don’t care a jot about ACMilan and since this is an Arsenal site will comment on us, not them. Wenger, as we have known for over two decades is afraid to face up to the truth and thus spouts little other than utter nonsense, claptrap and predictably boring lies, which we hear ALL the time and ridiculous cliches. Our corruptly run club , from top to bottom , is alien to the truth and only us fans – the only ones who truly love the club – ever speak the truth. If I were a young boy today , instead of the long in the tooth man I am – attending Arsenal matches from 1958 til last season, when the corrupt regime so sickened me , I stopped going – and about to choose a club for life, I would avoid supporting this corruptly run club like the plaque.

  7. It’s not late Jon, you can go and support City…..and call for Guardiola to be sacked in any given loss…and support thé oppenents to get rid of him …..

      1. In all honesty Pires, how do you expect Jon, who has followed the Arsenal since 1958 to change allegiance now?
        He has obviously followed the club through thick and thin and not someone who only knows the Wenger management regime. As has been pointed out Arsenal has a proud history (with naturally some downs) prior to Arsene Wenger.

  8. If Wenger was this honest, fans on just arsenal would have a field day, spouting all sort of garbage about him! You can’t have it both ways

  9. Happy to listen to most manager’s comments. The exceptions being Wenger who, win or lose, I just turn off, and Maureen who has always talked complete drivel but does it so slowly it gets mistaken for thoughtful comment.

    When it comes to honestly assessing a game they are both a waste of oxygen.

  10. Nevertheless, give credit to where it belongs. AW! If we had changed coach few days before the Milan game and played exactly the same payers, the same performance and the same scoreline…the new coach would have been an instant success and genius before some Arsenal fans (especailly doing that after 4 straight defeats and at an away ground with clean sheet). Let’s be realistic…the players and coach still can raise their game…the fans too need to be less negative.

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