Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 9y

Filippo Inzaghi 'proud' of prolific AC Milan despite defensive frailty

AC Milan coach Filippo Inzaghi says he can live with his side's lacklustre defending if his forwards continue their impressive goalscoring record this season.

Milan moved up to fourth on Saturday as Keisuke Honda netted a brace in a 3-1 win at Hellas Verona, and the Rossoneri have now scored more goals than any other side in Serie A this term.

Only the bottom six sides have conceded more than Milan, though, and they once again had Christian Abbiati to thank for preserving the points in Verona. But Inzaghi -- a former striker for the San Siro side -- is not placing too much importance on the goals conceded column.

"The fact that we have the best attack is extremely satisfying," he said after the game. "I'm so proud to be coaching this team. I didn't expect we would go 3-0 up today at such a difficult place, but the team are giving me plenty of satisfaction.

"We know that we've got to improve and slowly but surely, we will do. We conceded four very odd goals at Parma, two from set-pieces against Empoli and we scored one against ourselves in Cesena, but I'm only delighted today."

Inzaghi stuck with Abbiati even though summer signing Diego Lopez was fit again and back in his squad, and was pleased his faith in the Italian was rewarded.

"Abbiati was in excellent form and I felt he deserved to play," Inzaghi told his postgame news conference. "He played another great game. I've known him for a lifetime and he deserves all the compliments he gets."

Honda took plenty of praise too for his fifth and sixth goals of the season, taking him joint-top of the Serie A goalscoring charts.

"It's very rare that he makes a mistake in front of goal," Inzaghi added. "He's selfish and he also deserves all the compliments. I spoke about him at the start of August already because it would be too easy for me to do that now. I just tried to find his ideal position."

^ Back to Top ^