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Ruben Amorim explained what he told his Milan players to spark their 2-1 win over Torino. “Their concern was not to lose, but this is not how you win a game. They understood that.”

The Rossoneri had produced several worrying results during pre-season, and they also took time to find their rhythm at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino.

It was only after the introductions of Adrien Rabiot and Luka Modric that Milan really went at Torino, with the France international setting up Alphadjo Cisse for his first Serie A goal before scoring the second himself shortly afterwards.

The Granata pulled one back in stoppage time through an acrobatic Che Adams volley that arced into the far top corner beyond Mike Maignan’s fingertips, but it came too late to stop Milan taking all three points.

The Portuguese coach had said in his press conference yesterday that he “loved” Cisse, and the 19-year-old demonstrated why by scoring his first goal.

“It was not just the goal, but the quality that Cisse showed during the game,” Amorim told DAZN Italia.

“In the first half, he acted like the most experienced player in our team, with the way he took the game forward. I think we saw one team for the first 75 minutes, then another at the end, we struggled physically. To press the way we want to for 90 minutes, we’d have needed more games in pre-season.

“We are improving some players, we have a lot of players who are doing pre-season now, but we will do more work during the week.”

It was a tense and nervous match until the breakthrough, so Amorim was asked what it was like watching that unfold from the touchline.

“The passion of the goal is for a coach who celebrated so many Milan goals, and now I am the coach of Milan, so I want to feel that passion in my staff too.

“I think we saw a way of playing that is more similar to what we used to do, but we need time to get this team playing in a different way. However, in the final minutes we were working as a team, suffering and defending, we were tired, but we were a team. That is a very good feeling.”

Notably, when Rabiot came off the bench, it was to replace Ruben Loftus-Cheek in a more advanced trequartista role, rather than the position he had been used to under previous coach Max Allegri.

Amorim was also asked what he said to his players at half-time to lift them, given they attacked with much greater conviction in the second half.

“In the first half, the concern of my players was control the game, don’t lose the game, don’t lose it in transition, but we lacked aggression in the final third. We talked about that in the dressing room, they understood that this is not how you win the game.

“It’s not drawing, it’s not waiting for the game, we need to do that in order to win the game. We put a lot more pace into the first 20 minutes of the second half, because again I think we lack physicality in this moment.”

Amorim was then asked what pleased him most this evening and where he believes the team still needs the most work.

“The most important thing is to win. We talk about ways of playing, but there is one goal in football, winning. It’s not enough, it cannot be enough for Milan, but we showed some of what we worked on in training and in pre-season, even under stress, and that is a good feeling,” said the coach.

“We need to work on how to attack the box, how to defend out own box, how to suffer with the ball, so I am happy today because we won, and the concerns will be for tomorrow.”

Diego Moreira was on the bench but did not make his debut in a Milan shirt, while Rafael Leao remained at home recovering from a minor injury.