Messias admits there was ‘too much pressure’ at Milan: 'I played to avoid making mistakes'

Junior Messias has admitted that he struggled with the pressure of playing for a club like AC Milan, and that he tried to simply not make mistakes rather than doing anything with confidence.

Messias joined Milan on an initial one-year loan deal during the 2021 summer transfer window and he scored five league goals that season, which of course ended with a Scudetto win.

He would repeat his five league goals last season, also getting two assists as he had the campaign prior, but the Rossoneri decided to overhaul the right wing department.

Christian Pulisic and Samuel Chukwueze arrived during the summer window and that was enough to convince Messias to move to Genoa, with the conditions for the obligation to buy clause recently being met.

Messias spoke about his time with Genoa so far – with whom he has one goal in nine games – in an interview with Il Secolo XIX and he also reflected on the time that he spent with Milan. MilanNews published the quotes from the paper.

“Too much pressure at Milan, I played to avoid making mistakes. The enthusiasm I found here was important. The main thing, however, was the desire to return to play with joy,” he said.

“At Milan it’s not that you don’t enjoy playing, you’re at the top of the top, but there I realised I had to take the field to avoid making mistakes. I was criticised in that period and if you mentally focus on that, in the end you make a mistake.

“I wanted to go back to being the player I was at Crotone and I thought that Genoa could allow me to go back to being that player.”