No doubt over sacked Mihajlovic's quality, insists Montolivo

AC Milan captain Riccardo Montolivo insists there are no doubts over Sinisa Mihajlovic's quality as a head coach despite his sacking from the club.

The Serie A side won 1-0 at Sampdoria in the first match under new boss Cristian Brocchi on Sunday in a performance the skipper believes also had part of both the former and current occupants of the top job.

Montolivo was thrilled to halt a recent run of five matches without a victory and stressed that it should be the players who are blamed for Mihajlovic's departure.

"Mihajlovic's quality is not up for debate, unfortunately we were unable to give him what he wanted," the 31-year-old said to Mediaset Premium.

"We step on to the pitch, it is primarily our fault. It is a shame to be in this situation because we had done really well in and then lost our way.

"We are happy because aside from the change of management we needed a victory after many negative results.

"Now we are at the disposal of coach Brocchi and will try to put his ideas into practice. 

"We haven't been working with Brocchi for long and it will take time to assimilate his concepts. The ideas are there.

"Whose ideas were behind this victory? There was a lot of Brocchi and a lot of Mihajlovic in there."