Stefano Pioli racked up his 200th game in charge of AC Milan during the midweek defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, and he was given a medal before training yesterday.
As this morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes, Milan have won 109 of those 200 games putting Pioli eighth in the list of most wins as the Rossoneri’s head coach, with 49 draws and 42 defeats completing the record.
CEO Giorgio Furlani was the man who commemorated the landmark before training started yesterday afternoon, and he had a message for Pioli: “Two hundred games a great achievement. The next mini milestone will arrive around February when you will surpass Sacchi’s 220, but above all there is a big milestone, in May, when we hope to all celebrate.”
Also on the field was the head of the technical area Geoffrey Moncada and the whole team to witness the moment in which Pioli was given a medal.
The coach thanked the club: “I could not have reached this goal without the support of the club and without your moral, professional and technical qualities.”
After a difficult last couple of weeks it is a reminder of the positive and calm atmosphere around the squad, but Furlani made it clear what the aim is: “We like to win, right?”
How does one talk about the limitations of Pioli without sounding ungrateful for the squdetto season?
For the ambitions management and the ownership has, and for all the dreams milanisti have, unfortunately I don’t think Pioli is the man for it.
It’s an understatement if one predicted the PSG game was going to be tough, but that game clearly epitomises his limitations. Swapping Thiaw and Tomori positions (presumably to contain Mbappe), swapping Reijnders and Musah(for only God knows what), that’s, I’m sorry to say, mid-table coach mentality.
I have huge respects for Pioli, but unfortunately one cannot deny, “he is not ready”