AC Milan Boss Vincenzo Montella Happy With Sunday Away Win But Not With Team's Performance

Vincenzo Montella has declared to be satisfied with AC Milan's 2-0 victory against Sassuolo on Sunday night, yet he criticised the team's overall performance, which he believes has room for improvement. 

Speaking to cameras in the aftermath of the game, Montella looked like the type of person who had just managed to save his unstable job - happy but extremely tired. 

Indeed his place as Milan's manager seems now a bit more certain, but it came after speculation by Italian media suggested that Gennaro Gattuso was ready to take his place had the Rossoneri lost to Sassuolo. 

He commented (via  Ansa): "He (Gattuso) is a good loyal friend. He was caught in the middle of the media's rumours, but these situations are part of our job and need to be tackled with absolute calm. 

"In life, we all want to know who's our friend and who isn't and in the past few days I was lucky enough to figure it out."

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Despite the win, he knows that a lot needs to be done for his team to be fully back on track, as he said: "The game perfectly pictured our performances this year. We started out with great commitment, pressing high. Then, in a moment of difficulty, Sassuolo had a good chance and we lost our momentum and struggled."

His men scored one goal for each half, but were often caught off-guard and risked too much: "We need to improve our performances as well as our mental preparation to each game, but now that we have three more points we can relax for a moment."

A win was certainly crucial on Sunday night, but Milan still stand quite far away from the table leaders Napoli, Inter and Juventus, which are now his outfit's biggest competitors: 

"There isn't much of a difference between us and the big clubs, yet we lost to them in direct encounters. This means that we need to improve on many other aspects. And we will."