Mihajlovic: Milan must show heart as well as quality

Milan head coach Sinisa Mihajlovic has called on his players to show “more heart” after their 1-0 Serie A defeat to Genoa.

Blerim Dzemaili’s deflected free-kick was enough for the home side to claim maximum points on Sunday, though Milan created a number of chances in the second half despite having seen Alessio Romagnoli sent off prior to the break.

But Mihajlovic insists the Rossoneri must play with greater passion in order to maximise their quality after watching a third defeat in six league games so far this season.

“That’s the reality. We do well for a time and unfortunately it’s not enough,” he told Sky.

“We made too many mistakes and lost too many individual battles, but we almost never gave up clear opportunities. Their goal came from a dead ball but we didn’t suffer from then on. 

“We have to understand that, in these games, it’s not enough for Milan to have better quality players. We have to have more heart than our opponents in order to bring out that quality.

“We’ll analyse the defeat to find out what went well and then prepare ourselves for the match against Napoli, a strong team with many great forwards.”

Italy head coach Antonio Conte was in the stands at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris as Mario Balotelli delivered another encouraging display in the second half, despite Milan being down to 10 men.

Speaking after the match, Milan CEO Adriano Galliani confirmed Conte had spoken with Mihajlovic about the striker, who has been tipped for an international recall.

“People should let Conte do his work and wait for the call-ups to be announced,” Galliani told Premium Sport.

“Conte did speak to Mihajlovic, so we’ll see what happens.

“Balotelli is behaving wonderfully and over the last month has been beyond reproach both on and off the pitch. It’s true a month isn’t enough to judge things, but Mario is being super in every way.”