AC Milan’s current plan is to continue with Stefano Pioli as the head coach until the end of the season, according to what was reported by Gianluca Di Marzio.
The 3-1 loss in front of a sold out San Siro has made it nearly impossible for Milan to reach the knockout stages in Europe, while their rough league form means that getting top four looks like being the main objective rather than a Scudetto battle.
Owner Gerry Cardinale was at last night’s game and he also showed up at Milanello today along with CEO Giorgio Furlani to meet Pioli, with whom he had lunch. There had been reports in the media suggesting the head coach’s job is at risk, but that does not seem to be the case.
Speaking on Sky (via MilanNews), Di Marzio spoke about the situation linked to Pioli and offered an interesting update regarding what the current plan is for the management.
“Milan’s idea is to continue with Stefano Pioli until the end of the season. I didn’t perceive a sign of distrust, it doesn’t seem to me that Pioli has lost control of the group,” he said.
“There are serious problems, such as injuries. Thiaw and Tomori are playing all these matches because they have no replacements. These muscular problems must be seriously analysed.”
Di Marzio then gave a comment on the Primavera, in particular Jan-Carlo Simic who could well make his debut against Frosinone.
“They are young and good, let’s let them play. Yes, they qualified with one round to spare in the Youth League by beating Borussia Dortmund 4-1.”
At least there is some positive left with the club in our youth team. I don’t know why but Abate seem more like a Capello than Inzaghi or Brocchi. But that’s the story for the future, and I don’t mean to replace Pioli with him.
Talking about the state of our senior team. I think the blame should be on our medical/fitness department more than Pioli. He did make some questionable decisions in not bringing on Florenzi instead of Krunic. But with all these injuries, there isn’t much he can do. We should take Real Madrid as an example, they fired their medical staff because of their injuries. It’s not normal at all, these many injuries when we haven’t even reached half the season. Apart from Musah, Tomori and Reijnders every player has suffered an injury also Reijnders and Tomori played almost every game last season, it’s not long before any of them will get injured. Now it’s not even about players being injury prone, apart from Benny, Calabria, Kjaer and Florenzi no one in our club is injury prone. Remember Maignan and Sportiello never got injured before joining Milan.
” I think the blame should be on our medical/fitness department more than Pioli. He did make some questionable decisions in not bringing on Florenzi instead of Krunic. But with all these injuries, there isn’t much he can do. ”
That’s where you are wrong. i’d say 90% of muscle injuries are due to overload and lack of rest. Pioli doesn’t rest his players. This is what happens.
Abate will be our coach in the future but probably not yet. Unless we fail to sign Thiago Motta or someone similarly good. We need to go all in for a promising manager whatever it takes. We cannot afford to lose momentum because of dumb tactics and subs like Pioli is known for.
To mention names De Zerbi is an exciting option. But would he come back to Italy is what I do not know
It’s mindblowing that we have 6 center-backs yet 5 of them are injured:
Thiaw
Kalulu
Kjaer
Pellegrino
Caldara