Spalletti: Has Milan Become Stronger or Weaker? Their Starters and Bench Options Are Both Excellent

At 02:45 Beijing time on September 7, Juventus will host Milan in the third round of Serie A. Ahead of the match, Juventus head coach Spalletti attended a press conference. This article is the third part of the press conference.

Good afternoon, coach. Considering Milan's many transfer moves this summer, do you think this season's Milan are stronger or weaker compared with last season? Also, during the long Serie A race for the top four, where would you place this Rossoneri side among the competitors?

You ask whether the current Milan are stronger or weaker? If we look at their series of excellent operations in this summer window, along with the coaching change you just highlighted, in my view, based on my understanding of the individual abilities of their current players, they have an extremely powerful top-level team. I also think Amorim's public comments at the end of the window praising the club's excellent work in the transfer market strongly confirmed this point. Their starting lineup and substitutes are both extremely impressive.

In tomorrow's match, and even in the previous few games, players in their squad such as Pulisic, Saelemaekers, Rabiot, Modric, Hutchinson—I think that is how everyone calls him—have not truly played or have not started. Moreira, who has just joined, is also among them. Each of these players is a talented young addition, showing that Milan have highly targeted and capable tactical alternatives in both attack and defense and across all areas. They are a top-level super team, just like several other traditional Serie A powers. Of course, Juventus are also a very strong team.

The only test and point of interest going forward is whether, as the season progresses, we can perform better and become more mature than high-level competitors such as Inter, Napoli, Roma, Como—which is also a team that cannot be underestimated—Milan, Atalanta, Fiorentina and Lazio. Every Serie A team deserves respect. In the end, the team that proves itself to be the biggest winner of the transfer market, handles unexpected situations better and quickly captures tactical opportunities during crises will have the last laugh.

Our decisive and rapid actions in the final days and hours of the summer window, as I mentioned earlier, greatly expanded our options under different tactical requirements. Of course, the immediate priority is to integrate these new players with our existing squad as quickly as possible. Although we suffered unexpected and significant injury problems in the first two weeks of the league season, I always believe that every issue will eventually be properly resolved through development.

Good evening, coach Spalletti. You have repeatedly emphasized publicly that there is no such thing as a 100% perfect transfer market in the world. All deals can only be the most reasonable and practical choices made under specific circumstances and financial conditions. So, in the summer window that has just closed, how close was this so-called 'most reasonable and pragmatic' transfer operation to the blueprint you planned for the team at the beginning of the summer? Also, to complete such a pragmatic and reasonable transfer window, how much did the strong harmony and consensus between the coach, management and the entire decision-making team in terms of vision, detailed planning and project direction provide long-term confidence for your current work and future coaching? Given your rich coaching experience, do you think the ultimate guarantee for a major club to win honors is the perfect alignment between behind-the-scenes management operations and the head coach's technical vision?

That is indeed the case. This is also the deeper reason why people often describe me as a so-called 'system coach' or a 'corporate-style head coach with a strong overall perspective.' Throughout my career, I have almost never used provocative, attacking or inappropriate words toward club executives or management, because I believe that to survive in the demanding environment of modern football and achieve something, the head coach and management must work closely together. We must share, understand and explore the difficult and practical issues behind every club and the entire modern football industry. On this basis, we can find better solutions than the current situation, continue to improve the team's overall strength and regain the confidence to compete with strong opponents in a high-intensity league.

At present, we have indeed encountered some unavoidable practical difficulties during recruitment and team building. As I previously told everyone, because the club had faced relevant penalties and strict regulatory rules, the things we could do in this summer window were limited. Sometimes we could achieve our planned recruitment strategies, but in many other situations the policies did not allow it. During the transfer window, some highly desired plans and deals ultimately did not receive approval. Many factors in the market cannot be easily controlled by just one or two parties.

However, as I said before, every newcomer who arrives here brings unprecedented and very different styles and elements to our tactical options. Therefore, compared with the previous version of Juventus, our current competitive strength has improved significantly in terms of depth. In future matches, the key will be whether we can truly implement and apply this tactical variety into actual formations and rotations. At the same time, I sincerely hope every player is always mentally prepared to step onto the pitch and give everything, because considering multiple competitions and a long league campaign, our overall squad depth is not abundant enough to be used without limits.

In our team, certain players play crucial foundational roles because of their extremely distinctive and irreplaceable tactical characteristics. They are difficult to replace easily. Yildiz and McKennie are examples of this. With their tactical importance and individual quality, finding backup options of the same level on the market is almost impossible.

However, we remain firmly confident about the future because, as shown by our excellent performances and competitive momentum in the first two league rounds, we strongly believe in this team's potential. Although we had some flaws in defensive details or attacking choices in those two matches, the team clearly showed the qualities of a strong side: compactness, unity and a collective mentality in every detail. We still need to prove this momentum in tougher and more intense challenges.

Tomorrow's major clash will be a full test of this rebuilding young team's future potential, the tactical understanding our players currently possess and how effectively they can use these new weapons against top opponents. We added a wide range of new tactical routes during this summer window. The next tactical challenge is to see what answer we can provide when facing a strong team like Milan. We will leave all the answers to tomorrow's pitch and discuss them here again after the match.