Ruben Amorim has changed how Milan train, and the shift goes well beyond the tactical board. According to Gazzetta dello Sport, who have followed the sessions through pre-season, the new coach is running what the paper calls a gentle revolution built on empathy.
After a season under a different regime, the contrast in method is stark, and it starts before the players even reach the pitch.
Amorim and his staff always arrive first, setting up the equipment for each exercise before the squad comes out. When the players do emerge for the warm-up, Amorim shakes hands with everyone and hugs each man in turn, with nobody left out. It is a deliberate way of building a relationship, of showing he is more than a voice barking instructions.
The language barrier is being worked on. Amorim does not yet speak Italian, though he uses a few words and understands several phrases, and he has taken online lessons with a teacher because he knows what communicating in the dressing room will require. For now he gets by on English and gestures.
Every session opens the same way, with the group gathered in a huddle as Amorim explains the work ahead. It is not a long monologue, just a few dozen seconds, but the programme itself is varied. Yesterday the team trained once, starting at 12:30 Australian time for two hours, closing with a practice match and pausing only for drinks.
The tactical side is where the intensity lands. After dribbling drills and a team talk, roughly 15 minutes go to athletic work, running, sprinting and strength, before the focus turns to the feet and the mind. Silhouettes on the pitch mark out the shapes: 3-4-2-1 in possession, 4-4-1-1 out of it. The movements are drilled repeatedly, with Amorim correcting players without raising his voice.
Strahinja Pavlović summed up the demands in his interview yesterday, pointing to high pressing, ball possession and pace. Set against last season, the adjustment being asked of the squad is significant.
The choice to run a single session per day, even an intense one, is also about giving players room to breathe. From his first day at Milanello, Amorim refused a closed summer retreat, letting the squad go home in the afternoons to eat and sleep with their families. Breakfast is taken at the training centre by 8:30am, but there is no seclusion beyond that, and in Australia the players have free time either side of training.
Today's session is a recovery one after days of travel and heavy work, after which the group will get an afternoon of sightseeing and dinner away from the hotel. The logic is simple: unwind now, be sharper on the pitch later.
What the squad makes of it will show once the results start to matter, but the early method is clear enough, and it is Amorim's to prove right.