Ruben Amorim’s 3-0 win over Lecce gave Milan more than three points: it suggested that a coach long associated with rigid principles is prepared to make room for the players in front of him.
The change was visible in Milan’s performance and explicit in Amorim’s post-match assessment. After recent difficulties, he said the team had been too fixed in its positional structure and benefited from granting individuals greater freedom.
Quick facts
- Milan beat Lecce 3-0 after a run in which Amorim had identified structural problems.
- Amorim said Milan started with a back four to push Samuel Chukwueze into a more attacking role.
- The Portuguese coach admitted a squad may not always possess the qualities required for a preferred system.
- Manchester United have taken five points from five matches, prompting some supporters to look back at Amorim’s spell there.
- United supporters had also noted Amorim’s 4-2 victory over Michael Carrick in an August 15 friendly.
“In the last matches we had some problems because the positions were too rigid,” Amorim said. “Today the players had a little more freedom and, with that freedom, they play better.”
He connected the lesson directly to his difficult experience at Manchester United. “I had felt the same thing at Manchester United, so I cannot make the same mistake again,” he said. “At times we do not have the ideal characteristics to play in a certain way. If that is the case, we have to adapt a little.”
That is a notable evolution for a manager whose reputation was built on unwavering conviction. A year earlier, following a 3-0 defeat to Manchester City, Amorim had insisted that nobody—not even the Pope—would make him alter his tactical approach.
At Milanello, those old certainties had already been tested. Amorim had acknowledged in the preceding days that his new squad was not completely suited to his football, while adding that no coach arriving at a new club can expect every profile to fit perfectly from the outset.
Against Lecce, the adjustment was practical rather than theoretical. Amorim confirmed that Milan began with four defenders, an alteration designed to give Chukwueze a higher and more dangerous starting position.
The result was a Milan side carrying more variety and unpredictability in attack. The performance did not require Amorim to abandon his ideas; it showed that his ideas can be applied with less rigidity when the squad demands it.
Manchester remains part of the background to this new chapter. United’s stuttering start, with five points from five games, has led a section of the support to revisit Amorim’s time there with a degree of regret, particularly after Milan’s emphatic result against Lecce.
For Amorim, however, the more important consequence may be on the Italian season ahead. Milan’s victory offered evidence that the coach has taken a hard lesson from England and is willing to let his methods bend without losing their identity.
