Ancelotti boost Milan confident

Ancelotti boosts Milan confidence
17.12 || webmaster

Source: Football Italia

Milan may be struggling, but Carlo Ancelotti remains confident they can kick-start their campaign against Messina and assures Bayern Munich should be worried.

“We still want to have our say this season,” said the Coach after falling 11 points adrift of leaders Juventus. “We can still challenge for all the trophies and make up some of that lost ground in the Scudetto race.”

The Rossoneri have suffered three defeats in their last four Serie A games and slumped to fourth place, but Ancelotti insists the results haven’t reflected their performance.

“We may have hit a few hurdles along the way, but in my view Milan have played the best football in Italy this term. There are another two games before the Christmas break and we want to pick up victories in both although, clearly, to keep our Scudetto hopes alive we can only pray for a Juventus slip.”

Their biggest problem has been at the back, specifically when defending from set-pieces, as all three of Inter’s goals in the derby came from dead-ball situations.

“On Sunday we will adopt a new tactic when defending from free kicks,” he revealed after letting in 18 goals in 15 games. “It’s true we have been penalised by this sort of thing, as we have only conceded eight goals from open play. Only Juve have done better with five, so our defence is reliable. The responsibility on set-pieces belongs to everyone in the team and I doubt anyone devotes as much time to this as we do.”

There were also question marks over Dida after he spilled an Adriano free kick to gift Obafemi Martins a goal in the 3-2 derby defeat.

“Dida will continue to be our Number 1, as he is very reliable and we all have total and utter faith in his abilities. Messina will come here looking to hit us on the counter-attack, so above all we need to really desire this result. I want to see the kind of commitment that can get us back into the title race. Don’t forget, last year we closed an eight-point gap in the space of a week.”

Nonetheless, with the Scudetto drifting away, Milan look set to focus on their Champions League clash with Bayern Munich in February.

“The Germans are a stimulating opponent in a wonderful stadium,” concluded Ancelotti. “This is a very unlucky draw – but only as far as Bayern are concerned.”

Massimo Ambrosini returns to the squad after a long injury lay-off, but Marcos Cafu, Paolo Maldini and the suspended Alessandro Nesta will force him to extensively reshuffle the defence.

Milan squad: Dida, Kalac; Costacurta, Kaladze, Jankulovski, Simic, Stam; Ambrosini, Gattuso, Kakà, Pirlo, Rui Costa, Seedorf, Serginho, Vogel; Gilardino, Inzaghi, Shevchenko, Vieri