MILAN – The Milan Primavera youth team coach Cristian Brocchi, spoke to the Milan Channel. The Italian started by analysing the Viarregio Cup and the difficulties that his team came up against. He finished by wishing best of luck to the club’s other youth sector team, the Allievi, who are in Doha Qatar for the Al Kass Cup:

“There is a lot of talk about forming young players and investing in youth, but then unfortunately these players don’t get the chance to show their qualities out on the pitch. For me, we shouldn’t be comparing the results from each season. We have to talk about football in general. The Viareggio Cup is the most important tournament at youth level and no side can play football in conditions like this and on those pitches. We didn’t react in the heat of the moment, but rather after other considerations that came prior and assurances over the playing surface. We try and propose a formative form of football. This is based on playing football and having the ball on the deck. We weren’t able to do this fully because of pitches like the ones at the Viareggio Cup and it was very complicated. At the start of the season though no one thought we would be having such a successful season. No one thought there would be such a big improvement from these players. I work with some incredible players who all have an immense commitment to the jersey. It’s true that the playing surface and some match incidents penalised us, but it’s also right to admit that there were some individual errors that influenced the result. This experience will help us in the future. The second part of the season is now set to begin and we have to reach the final-8. I wish the best of luck to the Allievi youth team at the Al Kass. We’re all a big family.”