Torino 1-2 Milan: Amorim happy with 75 minutes of debut win, seeks more physicality | OneFootball

Amorim's Milan got an opening-day victory [Getty Images]

Ruben Amorim got off to a winning start as new AC Milan manager in Serie A, as the Rossoneri secured a deserved victory at Torino on Sunday evening.

Amorim’s side largely controlled proceedings at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, but had to wait until the second half for the decisive breakthrough. Teenage attacker Alphadjo Cissè, whom Amorim had praised highly in the build-up, repaid his manager’s faith on his first Serie A start by scoring a wonderfully-taken opener on 64 minutes.

The decision to start 19-year-old Cissè was not the only strong call made by Amorim. The opener was assisted by French midfielder Adrien Rabiot, who had been introduced as timely substitute early in the second period. Rabiot then went on to score himself, doubling Milan’s lead at the back post in the 66th minute to make it two goals in quick succession.

Torino pushed in the latter stages and scored a consolation through Che Adams with almost the final kick of the game. Milan’s dominance on the evening was reflected in the stats, with 59% possession and 19 shots to Torino’s 8 on the night. Given some inconsistent form during pre-season, Amorim was clearly delighted to get off to a winning start.

“I think we saw one team for the first 75 minutes, then another at the end, we struggled physically,” said Amorim, who deployed Milan in his trusted 3-4-2-1 formation. “To press the way we want to for 90 minutes, we’d have needed more games in pre-season.

“We are improving some players, we have a lot of players who are doing pre-season now, but we will do more work during the week.

“In the first half, the concern of my players was control the game, don’t lose the game, don’t lose it in transition, but we lacked aggression in the final third.

“We talked about that in the dressing room, they understood that this is not how you win the game. It’s not drawing, it’s not waiting for the game. We need to win the game. We put a lot more pace into the first 20 minutes of the second half, because again I think we lack physicality in this moment.

“We started the second half really well, we scored two goals, then after 75 minutes you could see that our legs were gone. The physicality was not there. And our team, when we cannot press and get the ball, we have difficulties in games.

“You look at our players and we didn’t have many pre-season games where players played 90 minutes. I think we are paying the price of that. After 75 minutes it was a different game.”

Ramos debut, Leão absent 

There is plenty of Portuguese interest beyond the dugout at Milan, with record-signing Gonçalo Ramos making his Italian league debut against Torino, which lasted the full 90 minutes. Rafael Leão was not involved as he reportedly nurses a minor injury, while new signing Diego Moreira, formerly of Benfica and who played for Portugal at youth level before converting to Belgium, was an unused substitute.

“The most important thing is to win,” Amorim admitted.

“We talk about ways of playing, but there is one goal in football, winning. It’s not enough, it cannot be enough for Milan, but we showed some of what we worked on in training and in pre-season, even under stress, and that is a good feeling.”