MILAN – Youth team coach Cristian Brocchi gave an exclusive interview to the Milan Channel on Tuesday. The Italian spoke about a range of themes to the club’s in-house TV station, starting with the pre-season tour to South Africa. For Brocchi it was the perfect way to prepare for the new league season which starts next month:
“It was our choice to go to South Africa and to play tough matches against teams that had already been doing pre-season training for a month and so it was normal to struggle. However, it was what we wanted in order to test the players right away and to come through it all. We trained and prepared well and now we are back into the full swing of things in Milan and the hope is to arrive on the 12th of September in excellent shape.”
Brocchi continued: “Football is constantly evolving, you can never keep repeating the same things and you need to always teach new things to the players. The hope is that the players develop with each year, but also with each training session. I am not worried, I may tend to play down the enthusiasm that is surrounding the players born in 1998, but not to downplay their qualities, which they have in abundance, and this group is made up of several good players all of the same level, while in other groups there is perhaps more of a gap between the players within the squad. The players born in 1998 are all of an excellent standard and for them it will be a transition season towards the one that will lead them to the Primavera (U-19).”
The coach has been impressed by one player in particular: “Mastour has demonstrated a different attitude compared to last season where he was a bit agitated. He was one of the best players overall in South Africa, especially in terms of the attitude shown. To become a great player you need talent and a great work ethic. I saw a very purposeful attitude from the whole of the squad today and the intensity was good. These things leave me feeling confident.”
Mihajlovic and his staff have also caught Brocchi’s eye: “I have seen the commitment from Mihajlovic’s staff and I have to say that they are in line with what the Milan Model aims to achieve. Both the coach (Sinisa Mihajlovic, editor’s note) and his staff have made a very good impression on me. When you have a professional and organised staff that have similar concepts to you it can only make you happy. Today was a chance for us (the youth team, editor’s note) to grow, to measure up against the First Team, while it was also useful for the First Team to train at a good level and this satisfies me because it means we’re doing a good job.”