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Milan, Ruben Amorim speaks on Leao’s future: “He remains our player as long as he is with us.” On his football idea: “I want to take risks with young players and rebuild”

The AC Milan manager has laid out his plans ahead of the start of the season

Rubén Amorim has spoken from Australia, where AC Milan are on the first leg of their pre-season tour. In Perth, the Rossoneri boss discussed a number of current topics, from his footballing philosophy to the future of players whose situations are still uncertain or who are at the centre of transfer talk, such as Rafa Leao, who will rejoin the squad in the coming hours after his post-World Cup holiday.

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Leao? The same rules apply to everyone

“What we will do is not too complicated. For me, the team is the most important thing. I will speak with Rafael, with Gonçalo Ramos, with Saelemaekers, with all the players returning from the World Cup to explain what we are going to do. They already know what it means to play for a club like ours. I know there is a lot of talk about some of our players, but they remain ours until something changes. And again, the target is to prepare the team for the first match, and that is what we are concentrating on. Everyone will train and fight for a place in the team, that is certain. There is nothing new, nothing different. I treat players in a particular way because they are unique people, but the rules apply to everyone,” Amorim said at the press conference.

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Why they chose me

The Portuguese coach then returned to Milan’s decision to appoint him: “I think I was chosen because of a mix of things. They felt I was the right person, because of the way I want the team to play. They saw that they wanted to play in the same way. And I think they chose me not only for the successes I have achieved, but also because my experience at a big club like Manchester United helped them understand better who I am. And then all the reflections I shared during the meetings with Mr Cardinale made them understand that I was ready for this job, not only thanks to the successes of the past, but also thanks to my failures. I believe that weighed heavily during those talks. I am really happy and honoured to have been the manager of Manchester United in that period, but now I am at AC Milan.”

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Willingness to take risks

Speaking at the press conference in Perth, Amorim clearly set out his idea of football and of AC Milan: “We want to take some risks by focusing on certain young players and we want to rebuild. You could say it is also a risk for the manager, but I would rather take this risk and be excited by something new. And, once again, they chose me for a reason, and one of those is that I like taking on teams that are going through a difficult period. I know it is complicated, but we want to rebuild something.”

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The importance of Modric

Turning to individuals, the new AC Milan manager also had significant words for Luka Modric, who has just signed a renewal for another season: “Some players coming back from the World Cup will arrive here in Perth. It is difficult to say whether Modric will play: the idea is for him to play in the friendlies here, but you can never know. How many more years will he play? That depends on the player’s will. From what I saw last season, he can still play at a very high level. He did very well, not only during the season, but also at the World Cup. I think we need experience. As you can see, we are bringing many young players with us and, for a young player to succeed, we also need to place experienced players around him. It is really important and we made a great effort to continue having Luka in our squad. Sometimes it does not matter how fast you run, but how fast you think. And he is really very strong in that. He will help our boys, he will help our team. We want to base our game on possession of the ball. If there is one person in the world who can be truly useful in managing possession, that is Luka”.