Conceicao’s decision to play Joao Felix over Leao from minute one against Napoli continues to draw scrutiny from the Italian media. Journalist Luca Bianchin even called it ‘the least understandable choice of the year’.
The coach sent the No.10 to warm up after 20 minutes showing he was already thinking about changing his mind, and then at half-time he came on for Warren Bondo. It was the 11th time this season that Leao has started a game on the bench.
Tomorrow against Inter it feels a certainty that the Portuguese winger will be back in from minute one against a team that he knows so well, and in a hugely important game to try save the season.
Conceiçao gave an interview to SportMediaset on the eve of the first leg of the Coppa Italia derby in addition to his pre-match press conference, and MilanNews relayed his comments.
How much do you believe in this trophy?
“We have believed in it since the first moment, at the beginning of the season there are goals to reach and this is a goal of the team and we believe in this trophy.
There has been a lot of criticism about the choice not to use Leao from the first minute. What do you feel like responding with?
“Nothing. I don’t see the glass half empty or half full. Either I’m good at changing it during the game or I should have made other choices initially. It’s easy to talk after the game.
Loftus-Cheek is not on our side, there are other absences. And then Inter’s squad is large and of quality. We have to look at the dynamics of this team, think about what to do to play a positive match and win it.”
At the Maradona you asked yourself the reason for such slow starts. What was your answer?
“We talked among ourselves. We shouldn’t talk too much, we need to demonstrate and enter in a different way. It’s not easy to concede a goal after a minute.
“We were the ones who weren’t good at that moment. We had 15-20 minutes of difficulty, without justifications, now we have to find the justifications, me with the group. We talked about these things.
But we are fine. Physically we are fine, you could see it in Naples. And we are here to give an answer from the first to the last minute.”
