Sérgio Conceição's successor has gone from praising Milan's January mercato as a perfect window to admitting the squad is only partly suited to his style of play, all within the space of two weeks.
The shift in tone followed Wednesday's defeat to Benfica at San Siro, a result that deepened the sense of unease around Amorim's early tenure. According to Gazzetta dello Sport, there is an "unpleasant" feeling in the air, with the coach having already raised the possibility that he may not have enough time to complete his project at Milan, just two months into the job.
Before the Benfica match, Amorim was direct when asked whether the squad fits his ideas. "Is the squad poorly suited to my style of play? Partly, yes," he said. "I don't have the perfect characteristics because it's impossible to arrive at a new club and have everything ready." That honesty is refreshing, but it sits awkwardly alongside his assessment of the January transfer window as "10 out of 10" only a fortnight earlier. Both statements cannot comfortably be true at the same time. Either the mercato addressed his needs perfectly, or the squad remains partially mismatched to what he wants to do. Gerry Cardinale invested heavily to back the new coach, and Amorim has acknowledged as much, but the contradiction has not gone unnoticed by fans or the Italian press.
What stands out most is the language Amorim is reaching for. Hearing a newly appointed coach use the word "fail" with such ease this early in a tenure is unusual, and it echoes the stubbornness he showed at Manchester United, where he once declared that not even the Pope could convince him to change his system. At Milan, the fatalism has a slightly different flavour. "I want to help this club. I don't know if I'll have the time, but the players listen to me a lot in training, and that gives me hope," he said. The mention of time can be read as a simple reference to the day-to-day process of building understanding, but it also carries a broader implication about how long he expects the club to give him.
Amorim himself has admitted he knows there are people waiting for him to stumble, a point he made explicitly ahead of the Lazio fixture. With each passing week the squad continues to fall short across multiple departments, and the coach appears, as Gazzetta puts it, "increasingly restless." The goodwill a new appointment brings does not last forever, and Amorim seems to know that better than anyone, which may explain why he is already preparing the ground for every possible outcome rather than projecting calm confidence.
Whether that realism steadies the dressing room or unsettles it further will depend on results, and the next few fixtures will say more than any press conference.