After the disappointing defeat against Atalanta, Stefano Pioli spoke to the club’s official channel and shared his thoughts on the performance. He also touched on the upcoming clash against Newcastle, which is decisive.
Milan came back from behind twice at Gewiss Stadium and still left the clash empty-handed. Several players did poorly, as you can see in our player ratings, and many fans are now calling for Pioli to be sacked.
Speaking to MilanTV (see video below with subtitles), Pioli shared his thoughts on the performance, which he thought was positive in many ways. He did admit, however, that Milan lacked the concentration needed to prevent the goals they conceded.
On the game…
“We were the better team in the first half, but we weren’t able to find the winning move. They were better at the start of the second half and capitalised on our distractions. We had some serious distractions inside the box, but overall the match was balanced.
“Our regret is ending the game a man down, just when it looked like we could find the winner. Obviously, we conceded three goals and a defeat slows us down in everything.”
On his mood…
“We head home with a defeat, having conceded three goals, and I would have felt very differently even if the game had ended 2-2. In the end, we lost a game in which we hoped to extend our winning run, and to build confidence. We need to do better, because we can do better.”
On the defensive mistakes and Newcastle…
“We lacked attention when we conceded, we need to cut that out or eliminate it as much as possible. However, I didn’t see a team that lacked ideas and was confused.
“I’m confident that we will prepare well for our next game and that we will do well. Newcastle will be challenging. They are a strong team, especially at home. Only one result will work for us, but I believe we will have a great desire to continue in Europe.”
What Milan really needed to do is literally to find someone to replace Kessie’s role and someone better to replace Diaz (or Hakan if we want to go further). All the foundations have been lied there. But no, the genius coach wanted to do something different. He wanted a new system. He wanted all box to box players in the world. He wanted Leao 2.0.
After that serie a title and CL semi, this genius thought he’s the member of the elite coaches league. Maybe he really wanted to proof he could do those things on his own, his own legacy. The big mistake of this current management who let the genius coach dare to even think about it.
I said at the beginning of the season the pressure on Pioli is going to be much much bigger than it ever was beft. He has no excuses as he had claimed it have the players he wanted. He also changed formation on his own (my guess was to mask any comparison with last year’s in case something went wrong). And now he’s back to last year’s formation with players not suitable to the formation.
Like you said and which I had complained 3 years in a row (with the first year people criticizing me saying “we have Pobega, we don’t need Kessie”) is that we haven’t replaced Kessie and we still haven’t. ALL of this to save 3-4mil.per year on the wage budget? People are going to say “is he really worth that much” and the like and I’d say seeing how we’ve performed ever since…..maybe he was worth that much. Same thing for snake. He would have been perfect for Pioli’s tactics. Could have saved all that money from all those transfers and had a midfield of Kessie, Tonali, Bennacer, Chalha flanked by Leao and Puli (as we’d save enough money to buy him and maybe another piece) and whichever striker we wanted plus Giroud. Backline remains the same but NO, we just hadda scar a few bucks
loooooooooooooooooooool
Pioli this is clearly your problem and your fault when Will play the 4-2-3-1 last season didn’t we defeat Atlanta we did but since you started preferring the central midfielder over the attacking midfield and playing the 4-3-3 this were your problem started
I’m not sure anyone takes anything Pioli says seriously anymore… He can paint the rosiest of paintings, but the results on the field (or there lack of) speak of themselves.
The team looks confused, without any idea what to do with the ball in the final third. Then gets caught in transition with an offensive midfield and defensive insufficiencies, and the results speak for themselves.
Yes I agree. I have been ignoring his sayings since mid last season.
He doesn’t want to say honest opinion, because it will backfire him/he just want to save himself.. He is the manager, if the team lost, it’s on him. It is just normal. He is the one who take the responsibility about teams performance, either it is good or bad.