Milan, Sandro Tonali defends De Ketelaere: ‘Like me the first year’

Sandro Tonali with an open heart. De Ketelaere, Leao, Ibra, the arrival at Milan, the help of Pioli and a little letter to Santa Lucia. “I’m asking you for the Champions League final. Clearly to win it.”

CDK and Leao

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The Rossoneri midfielder thus spoke to Dazn, interviewed by Massimo Ambrosini. One of the first topics addressed was that relating to De Ketelaere, a Belgian talent who arrived in the summer but hasn’t really blossomed yet: “It’s normal to go like this, it’s the same thing that happened to me. He was paid a lot, he was hired to resolve matches and he’s paying for the pressure. He’s a great player who needs to find confidence again, we have to help him. One match has to go well and then we’ll see the real De Ketelaere.” Other nice words for Leao, however: “You need two men to mark him. When he lights up, we go on goal in a second. Maybe he’s not having the continuity he had last year, but he’s the strongest and must always put in field this quality”. Small parenthesis on Ibrahimovic: “In training I want to play against him. When I win practice matches I make fun of him, but if you lose he kills you”.

Difficulty

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Tonali spoke of the comparison with Pirlo, “who became a bit heavy at the time of Brescia”, and of his first idol: “Lampard from Chelsea! But then several Rossoneri shirts arrived”. Sandro arrived at Milan in 2020 and described the negotiation as follows: “I had spoken to my mother, my girlfriend and my agent. I dreamed of Milan. The first year was difficult: dividing being a fan and being a player it wasn’t easy, but after a period of adjustment I made it. At the beginning it was a burden to wear this shirt, I was in a place where I had to try not to disappoint anyone. I was scared, everything was different, but with Pioli’s help I overcame everything. I talked a lot with the coach. And now he’s doing the same with other players who are going through what I went through. I never thought I wouldn’t make it, playing with an empty stadium made me helped in the beginning”.

The new course

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Tonali also spoke about the current season, which started well and continued badly, with a bad drop in January: “The castle we had built collapsed in those 5 minutes of Milan-Roma. I haven’t been able to give myself an explanation. I think back to training of that period and I don’t understand how it’s possible. We were too fragile. The cure was to go back to winning and playing with courage. We haven’t forgotten that month. It was madness to have those 7-8 games, two or three can happen, but seven is too much.” Champions League chapter: “Last year we were dominating against Atletico, then the red card came. We failed because we are Milan and we can’t get out in the group stage. We haven’t set ourselves a goal, but we are ambitious and we want to play freely” .