There was a meeting which took place involving owner Gerry Cardinale and head coach Stefano Pioli at Milanello, and news continues to filter about what was said.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (as seen below) write this morning that there was no need to sleep on the decision after the 3-1 defeat against Borussia Dortmund because the club had already decided to keep Pioli as the head coach.
Cardinale has no intention of upsetting the plans and Milan also considered the extenuating circumstances: the coach is not fully guilty if injuries do not allow him to have the best team available. The squad have suffered sequence of muscular problems that does not weigh in the evaluation of the coach and the staff but rather exonerates them.
Cardinale was not expected at Milanello in the morning when the team resumed preparation for the game against Frosinone, but he chose to show up at lunchtime to personally reiterate his support for Pioli, who in turn judged the meeting to be constructive and stimulating.
The owners extend their hand to the coach, who knows he can no longer fall and must get back on track immediately against Frosinone and then proceed quickly. In the race for the top four places in the table, no missteps are allowed.
So far he has found justification in the unstoppable chain of injuries and in some haunted matches. The last one was against Dortmund, played without Rafael Leao and the assistant purchased in the summer (Noah Okafor), with Thiaw’s injury which compressed the defensive stability and before that with the penalty missed by Olivier Giroud. Without real alternatives behind him or even in attack.
Milan played well in other Champions League matches, at San Siro against Newcastle and then away against Dortmund, without however managing to take the chances. That plays in Pioli’s favour, as well as obviously the win over PSG at home.
For the club there is no proof that it is the work of the coach, and above all the loads of the technical staff, that affects the number of injuries. However, it was deemed disproportionate, so much so that it merited further investigation by the club.
The problem has remained unsolved for years now: now that it has become evident, it needs to be studied and fixed. If it is not Pioli, and it is not his collaborators (they may only have part of the responsibility), once the conditions of the new purchases have been checked in the summer, the reason must still be sought at Milanello. The management will monitor.
Milan did do something in the summer, though. They ended their collaboration with Andra Milutinovic, a Serbian trainer whose methods were now considered outdated. Changing doctors, trainers or physiotherapists, according to the club, would not protect the team from new physical problems.
This also applies to the coach: would changing during the game guarantee success? Not today, unless events worsen. The financial sustainability of the club, a virtuous goal which at the same time has led to sporting successes, does not in any case allow for crazy expenses for a new coach.
The three-way meeting between Pioli, Cardinale and the CEO Furlani continued for an hour and three quarters. The club reiterated its support for the coach, as has already happened in the past. A definitive assessment can be made when Pioli has the entire team at his disposal, if that ever happens.
And then, certainly, an overall examination will be done at the end of the season, when the coach will have a final year of his contract ahead of him. In the meantime, answers to the crisis of play and results must be found quickly.
While the current Champions League is unlikely to provide further satisfaction, the real objective is to qualify for the next edition. Three points are a must in Saturday evening’s match against Frosinone: would the excuses of injuries and suspensions hold up even in the face of a flop in a home match against a newly promoted team?
so what does this mean exactly? What if Pioli wins the next couple Serie A games but fails to qualify for UCL knockouts? What if he draws or loses some serie a games but makes it to UCL knockouts? What is the tipping point and when?
The head doctor Stefano Mazzoni is the problem, mark my words. He was brought here by Allegri in 2011, and assumed the position of the head doctor in 2016 – since then, no matter who coached us, or what players played for us, at least once a season we have a serious injury crisis unseen in other Serie A teams. He’s the main culprit and should be let go immediately.
I didn’t know this. This guy ended Patos career in Milan with overtraining and weird methods. He needs to go
He’s been giving us a shock for months now. What a disaster.
Even a small team coach can do more than pioli if gattuso get such group he will do more than pioli even abate can manage more than pioli 😠 I think pioli has done his own please give someone connected to Milan this job 🤲🤲
January Acmilan should sign Kerem arktogun and Romain Favre for attacking midfield then sign ritsu Doan as leao back up