AC Milan are in the process of finding a solution to their injury struggles at the start of this season. Although one option could be to sack the athletic coach Matteo Osti, this is something that Stefano Pioli has opposed.
Milan’s injury struggles were further highlighted in the 2-2 draw against Lecvce, with Davide Calabria and Rafael Leao withdrawing from the game. Now, as the international break, the Rossoneri are keen on getting to the bottom of the issue.
In an interview with Tutti Convocati, Gazzetta dello Sport’s Luca Bianchin shared his thoughts on the matter and what can be done. He stated that sacking the athletic coach Osti is an option, but remains frowned upon by Pioli.
“The only concrete thing could be to think about sacking Osti, but I don’t think this decision will be made. Managers generally view changes to their staff by the club poorly. Milan don’t have a clear answer to this problem,” he stated.
A solution must be found during this break and inspiration could be taken from an NFL study. Regardless of the solution, though, Pioli and his staff must be on the same page as the Milan management to make things work. One way or another, the injuries need to end.
Ok then I have a simpler and better idea: sack both of them and let them go to Salernitana or frosinone, Piolis highest level team that he can manage
I feel like the injuries are less of the medical team fault than poor team managment. The only wonder i have is how come Giroud at his veteran years is never injured.
There is the medical team and the athletic team.
The medical team’s responsibility is to take care of players after they’re injured while the athletic team’s job is to make sure they are in good shape and good condition to play.
A player getting injured too often or a team facing an injury crisis might be a sign of deficiency in either department or even both.
Now the coach might also be responsible if he, for example, insists on using players that are too tired and/or in a way that puts them at risk.
It’s more complicated than it seems, but someone, or many, are to blame here.
Facts.
Just look at this week for example.
Leao for the 1st time in his life ran back and he couldn’t even finish the game vs PSG, and Pioli instead of resting him vs a team like Lecce, he starts him and Leao pulls his hamstring as a result of that.
Same with Calabria. He worked extra hard playing vs Mbappe and instead of getting rest vs Lecce Pioli starts him resulting with injury.
Unless players get Injured Pioli isn’t rotating the lineup.
If you can’t win vs Lecce with Okafor and Florenzi starting then maybe you are not good enough of a coach. Okafor and Florenzi are still better than whatever Lecce has to offer.
Fire Pioli, he isn’t your long-term coach anymore.
Put in a caretaker until the end of the season while you work on securing the next long-term coach.
The team needs a different voice, different energy from the coach. Don’t forget that Chelsea won both of their UCL titles after they fired their coaches mid-season and going with a caretaker coach.
Not saying Milan will win UCL, but another coach can still salvage this season.
Do people realize that Roma under the most defensive coach in football has scored more goals than Milan this season in serie A, even though they’re been playing without their best player Dybala and Pellegrini most of the season?
Pioli cycle is over
Well said totally agree 👍 I may add having a young coach with new ideas for the long run (De Zerbi) ambitious with a winning mentality is what we need. Milan with new owners should evaluate current Milan’s management, medical staff and fitness staff all together. Lets start this era with a new team all together since Cardinal wants to be Berlusconi 2.0. Wheen Berlusconi took over he cuased a revolution to the club, perhaps Gerry needs to do the same.
Lets hope with Ibra’s return may shed some light and lifts the team up. The most important aspect of his return is to provide advice to Gerry. Ibra is out spoken he’s not afraid of saying his thoughts. Forza Milan
Hopefully, Milan management will wake up and smell the roses and give us an early Christmas present..
Milan Lab was supposed to analyze the players using data to analyze injury potential and inform the coach so they refrain from overusing the players who currently at risk of being injured, especially muscle injury.
We need good manager
Not to this luck coach
A number of things can be true at the same time.
1. There could be an issue with the training pitch (e.g. it is too hard). There have been suggestions this could be an issue, particularly during the colder months. It has been an issue for the AFL team I follow at its current home ground and was an issue for the covered stadium we started using in 2000 – it took 10 to 15 years to get that surface right.
2. The strength and conditioning is no longer at the cutting edge and is behind the times, meaning that the players are not conditions as well as they should be. This seems likely. We’re trying to manage participation in 3 competitions playing a high intensity brand. Milan has not done this recently enough for anyone at the club to still be involved.
3. The medical team is not properly managing the recovery of the players. Sure, it’s possible, but it seems to me to be the least likely explanation for the injury issues.
4. We are recruiting players with a history of injury problems. This tends to be a factor in picking off the depth players from other teams. We know Pulisic and RLC have had long running battles with injury, for example. This is clearly a factor for some players.
5. Team management. This stems from the failure to rotate the team enough to have a reliable B team to the specific and really stupid use of Calabria and Leao in a match against Lecce a few days after a really intense match against PSG away from home. Leao in particular redlined the game against PSG in a way he had never done before a few days after a tough battle with Festy at Udinese…and Leao was facing 2 Euro qualifiers for Portugal. Pioli is asking our best players to players to play too many games, just as he did last year. Giroud can play a lot because he doesn’t sprint a lot.
I don’t know what is meant by a reference to the ‘medical team’ in this context but I find it almost amusing that doctors treating injuries are the cause of an injury crises. I have no love for the medical profession given the wide-ranging dereliction of its duty in the last 4 years, but, seriously, we almost certainly do not have an injury crisis which has been caused by the ‘medical team’.
The most recent chapter in the crises was easily avoidable.
1. The field issue was suggested at some point, but since we saw how many players did get injured even in away games (Calabria and Leao are latest examples), I don’t think this the only problem. But it’s a shame for a big club to have a pitch problem and not to pay attention to it.
2. It can also mean (just as happened with Liverpool) that maybe we should modify our tactics. Liverpool used to press higher and more aggressively but Klopp had to moderate that because of injuries.
3. I agree
4. I agree although some players did became injury prone when they joined Milan
5. I agree
It could be switching from different quality of pitches (see below comment) to explain the “away” issue
Bro all facts. I remember Galliani talking about injuries related to the pitches at Milanello back in the day. If I recall correctly it was a hybrid turf-grass pitch (part plastic, part grass) and if you’ve ever played on turf you would know what a beating your body takes. Not a fan of the combo though but I’m not sure if we still have the hybrid pitch. That could be the cause.
Makes ZERO sense to sack Osti for the sake of sacking someone. Bring in outside “counsel” or physios and educate the current staff, and/or implement new ideas and strategies.
“Bring in outside “counsel” or physios and educate the current staff, and/or implement new ideas and strategies.” This statement makes zero sense. Wouldn’t this be tantamount to sacking the staff? Like, wouldn’t you just sack a head coach if you needed to bring in another head coach to teach the current head coach how to head coach?
Maybe..for instance, Real Modrid just sacked fitness staff because Arda Guller still has injury for months since he came to that club.