AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri admitted his team “needs more conviction” after they failed to gain ground on Serie A leaders Napoli following a 1-1 draw with Atalanta in Bergamo.
Napoli had narrowly beaten Lecce earlier in the day and Allegri may have thought his team was going to reduce the gap to just one point when midfielder Samuele Ricci opened the scoring in less than five minutes.
However, Atalanta, who remain unbeaten in the league this season, hit back and equalized in the 35th minute thanks to a fine finish from Ademola Lookman from a tight angle to give their team their seventh draw in their first nine games in the top flight.
The result sees Milan leapfrog Roma, who host Parma on Wednesday, into second place, and Allegri said his players “should be satisfied with the performance” but there were still areas for improvement.
“In the first half we had to defend because we made too many technical errors when building from the back,” said the Milan coach.
“We had the opportunity to play, I don’t know if it was fatigue or the quality of Atalanta, but they also deserved credit.
“The second half was better, we created scoring opportunities but we made wrong decisions in the last 20 meters and we must improve there. This team needs more conviction in what they do.
“But the players should be satisfied with the performance in Bergamo, we extended our positive streak and now on Sunday we have a good game against Roma.”
