Gerry Cardinale's confidence in Ruben Amorim remains intact despite a turbulent start to the season, but the Milan owner expects a change in direction beginning with Sunday's home match against Lecce, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.
The midweek Europa League fixture against Benfica only deepened the frustration around Milanello. Last season's squad had qualified only for the Europa League rather than the Champions League, and after heavy summer investment Cardinale had anticipated a stronger opening. He watched from New York and is set to return to Milan in time to take his seat at San Siro for the weekend.
Cardinale chose Amorim ahead of every other candidate interviewed during the summer. The Portuguese coach won the job on the strength of his personality and the aggressive, possession-based identity he promised to install. The vision was a Milan side that would chase an extra goal rather than settle for keeping one out. So far, the reality has looked nothing like it.
Beyond the appointment itself, Cardinale backed Amorim with high-profile signings and has attended every match bar Wednesday's. Pulling the plug after five games and a single defeat would contradict all of that. Internal discussions following the Benfica result assessed the situation without escalating it, and Amorim's position is described as secure.
What is expected, though, is improvement, and quickly. The schedule between the October and November international breaks offers no room for drift: nine fixtures in all, five of them away. Milan face Sassuolo and Salzburg on the road, host Atalanta, then travel to Bournemouth and Udine before a run of Bologna at home, the derby, Ferencváros at San Siro, and a trip to Genoa. Every three days, Serie A and Europa League matches will alternate.
Amorim, for his part, is not hiding from the pressure. After the Europa League disappointment he was the last person to leave the stadium, returning alone to Milanello to spend the night going over what went wrong. There are no executives on site with whom he can discuss purely tactical questions, so the work was solitary.
He has been with the squad for two months. Early training-ground progress translated into wins against Torino and Venezia, but a regression in both quality of play and competitive intensity followed, something the coach himself has acknowledged publicly. That is the area he intends to address in the coming days, looking to restore calm and confidence before the three-week break after this run of games.
Personnel changes are coming for Sunday. Adrien Rabiot and, above all, Christian Pulisic will return to the starting lineup. Amorim described Pulisic as "angry" over his recent lack of minutes. Luka Modrić, who did not get on the pitch in midweek, is another whose mood needs lifting.
"Time is bought by winning matches," Amorim said recently, and that single line captures where things stand. The broader rebuild will take weeks, but individual battles have to be won first, starting at San Siro against Lecce, where the platform for everything else either begins to form or the questions grow louder still.