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MILAN – The result was one that Walter Mazzarri certainly could not feel good about. “I got a few decisions wrong regarding squad rotation and didn’t look at how much energy we would expend, which is crucial in the modern game. It’s a way to avoid injury. I also fielded players like Palacio, who needed minutes. When things go badly like that it all contributes to everything else going worse.
“A more experienced team that goes down to 10 men becomes compact and waits for the things to blow over. Oh well, we’ll all learn from this lesson. We don’t need to discuss it too much. We have to start again and be strong for the Europa League clash on Thursday – something we managed to do against Atalanta. We’re sorry for the fans, who are suffering as we are.”
It was also a difficult afternoon for Nemanja Vidic: “I perhaps also made a mistake with Vidic by playing him too much. I take responsibility for it. There are players that can’t take three consecutive matches in this period. Is it physical or mental? A combination of the two. It never just comes down to physical conditioning at this level. You only need to look at Ibarbo for the third goal. Two of our players were sluggish and didn’t use their bodies.
“We played the whole game with 10 men and in the second half did a bit better than we did in the first. The red card? When you lose 4-1 it’s difficult to comment, but not if there are two borderline fouls. Perhaps one of the two yellow cards could have been avoided. At any rate, we need to turn the page and move on as soon as possible.”
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