Bennacer: “Injury? I’m on time. Milan is a truly top club.”

The Milan, currently on break, is training at Milanello in view of Sunday’s match against Juventus. After a long time, Ismael Bennacer has returned to the Rossoneri sports field. The Devil’s midfielder gave a long interview to the YouTube channel “Le Club des 5“. Here are his words translated by MilanPress.

About how he is: “It’s going very well, I’m on schedule. It’s a somewhat particular injury in football because the cartilage is involved. It’s a bit of a long stop and honestly we don’t have an exact date for the return. We have a period, between 6 and the 8 months, but then it depends on the reaction of the knee. Champions derby? It was a special match for me, everyone was waiting for it: a derby in the semi-final of the Champions League. It was one of the most important matches of my career. I was frustrated, it’s part of the job: everyone has risks, you have to accept it. I didn’t have too many holidays after that, I was focused on re-education. A long injury in which I found something good: when you face something so hard in life, you have to see both the glass half empty and half full. I took advantage of it to optimize time in my life, spend time with my family. I miss the field a lot.”

On the support of Milan: “The club was very close to me. The fact that a club lets you leave follows you as happened with me. She made everything available to me. She made me choose the surgeon for the operation and where to do the re-education: they understood that the mental aspect of all this is fundamental. They didn’t impose anything on me. I talk a lot with the Milan doctors.”

On his path to Milan: “When I arrived in 2019, the management’s goal was to bring Milan back to the Champions League. Rebuild a Champions League team after complicated years. I arrived in the same year with Rafa and Theo. I signed a 5-year contract and this meant that in 5 years we had to bring Milan back to the Champions League. I arrived at one of the biggest clubs in the world, with an incredible history, everything incredible. It’s really top, you feel it in every aspect, it’s like a family, it’s close to you. The level of organization is very high. In such a reality, goals are set and you must achieve them. We found the Champions League again, we won a championship and reached a Champions League semi-final. Winning the scudetto with Sassuolo? We enjoyed it, but the following season it was all forgotten. When we returned from holidays everything was even more difficult: you were the team to beat, you have the tricolor on your chest, you have to double your strength.”

On his path: “I arrived from Empoli, I entered through a small door, even though I won the Africa Cup of Nations. Many said: ‘Who is Bennacer? Does he come from relegated Empoli?’ I really like all this, because you end up surprising people. It’s an honor to be part of the reconstruction of a team like Milan, to be there from the beginning. It’s season 5, I haven’t even seen the time go by. Status in the locker room? You earn respect on the pitch, you prove your qualities on the pitch over and over again and you earn respect. I did it like this. I love football, but this is also a job that helps my family and I want to excel in my job. I’ve never seen a player that people respect and he’s nothing on the pitch.”

On the group at Milan: “Having 7.8 Frenchmen I think is a positive thing, we don’t create problems in the locker room. We have a real, good group. We are young, we try to learn. We are like a family, really. If someone is ill, go and talk to him. There’s no need for the coach to go and punish any bad behavior such as arriving late, we ourselves say things to each other’s faces: if someone arrives late, we say to ourselves: ‘Please, make sure it doesn’t happen again for the good of the team’. Or we say to ourselves: ‘Today you didn’t do well brother, pay more attention’. Usually it’s the coach who says things like this, but with us it works like this. There’s no ego. PI think we all do the good of the team. I have a lot of affinity with Rafa. He spent 6 months at Lille and speaks French too well. But I also have affinities with all the other players. With Yacine also him doing very well now, I’m very happy to see him like that.”

On his role: “We understood each other very well with Kessie and Calhanoglu. At the beginning of last year he put me on the right midfield and I also scored against Atalanta. It wasn’t going badly, he left me free. He told me he was giving me tasks, but I was freer. Then I went back to point guard because someone was missing there. I’m not saying I don’t like that position, but I think the best time was with Kessie. As a playmaker (number 6) it all depends on the context, on the coach’s mentality. If I have a coach who is obsessed with ball possession, taking risks, I really like the play position. As a midfielder (number 8), I really like it when the coach gives me tasks, but he leaves me freedom. However, I can play in both positions. The position against Napoli on Lobotka? It was the first match I played as an attacking midfielder, it was something new for me. Without the ball I had to focus on Lobotka.” Milan, Reijnders sets goals: “We want the Scudetto and Champions League” >>>

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