AC Milan are winless in their last four league games and in two of those they let two-goal leads slip, which has prompted questions regarding the mentality of the squad and Stefano Pioli’s grip on the situation.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, his reflections after the draw with Lecce turn on more than one warning light: “We are Milan and not bringing home these results is a shame. It penalises us a lot in the table.”
The collapse against Napoli, the dire performance against Udinese, the reaction against PSG and the two-sided match against Lecce highlight a negative moment, and it is not something he is a stranger to.
Milan
Pioli has had more than one rough patch at Milan. In January there was a 2-2 draw against Roma from 2-0 up, a 2-2 draw against Lecce from 2-0 down, elimination from Coppa Italia Torino, the defeat in the Supecoppa against Inter and the hammerings from Lazio and Sassuolo.
The move to a three-man defence was fundamental for getting back on track and progressing to the Champions League round of 16 where they beat Tottenham, then against Napoli they were the underdogs but won on aggregate.
Signs of recovery were also needed at the end of the season: after the trio of defeats against Spezia and in the two Euroderbies with Inter, three consecutive wins allow the Devil to qualify for the next Champions League.
The other great collapse of the Rossoneri experience takes us back to December 2019 and the 5-0 against Atalanta. A disastrous match Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Simon Kjaer arrived, and a run of 5 wins and 2 draws in the first 7 games of the new year came.
Fiorentina
With La Viola, Pioli’s start wasn’t the easiest. Between the end of August and September 2017 he collected 4 defeats in the first 7, then in October he rearranged the situation with a trio of victories against Udinese, Benevento and Torino.
However, between December and February another bad run arrived, which began with the defeat in the Coppa against Lazio and continued with another 3 defeats, 3 draws and only one victory in 7 league matches.
The situation was critical, but a win against Chievo arrives at the end of February was followed by the tragedy of the passing Davide Astori. Fiorentina unites, restarted in memory of their captain and finished eighth thanks to five wins in the last part of the season.
The following year, between February and April 2019, a new moment of crisis coincided with 8 consecutive matches without the three points. After the defeat at home against Frosinone, Pioli spoke like this: “I don’t feel betrayed, but disappointed.” A few hours later, he resigned.
Inter
At Inter it’s a similar story in some respects. Pioli arrived on the Nerazzurri bench on 8 November 2016 and made a strong start in the league. After the 2-2 in the derby, a victory against Fiorentina and a defeat against Napoli, 7 victories arrive which launch the team into the Champions League race, playing well and scoring plenty of goals.
Then, between April and May, a real vertical collapse happened. Pioli collected only 2 points in 7 games, one of which involved a collapse in the final stages against Milan to draw 2-2 (Zapata 97). The club sacked him and promoted Stefano Vecchi from the Primavera.
Lazio
His experience with Lazio began in 2014 with 3 defeats in the first 4 rounds of Serie A. Then came the vigorous reaction with 5 wins and a draw in 6 matches, the true incipit of a season which for the Biancocelesti ended with third place and qualification in the Champions League.
In the following year, the elimination in the preliminaries against Bayer Leverkusen, a 4-0 defeat by Chievo and a 5-0 defeat by Napoli put the capital club on the alert between the end of August and mid-September.
It’s a season that progressed with ups and downs, but the blow comes in the derby at the beginning of April. El Shaarawy, Dzeko, Florenzi and Perotti scored a resounding 4-1, putting an end to Pioli’s Biancocelesti adventure, with Simone Inzaghi taking his place.
Bologna and Parma
A separate chapter is deserved for Pioli’s spells as a head coach in his native Emilia, between Bologna and Parma. Pioli coached the former from 2011 to 2014, but in the last few weeks he was really under pressure.
Pioli achieved comfortable safety with thirteenth place in the 2012-13 season, after overcoming a complicated period between October and November (with 6 games lost out of 8 played). He was sacked in January 2014, with 15 points in 18 games and the Rossoblù in the drop zone. The last 9 games were decisive, featuring 5 defeats, 3 draws and only one success.
A negative period also came to Parma, the club with which he made his Serie A debut. After a so-so start, he was sacked in February 2007, after 6 defeats, 4 draws and only one win in 11 matches.
Pioli stabilizes. He was initially brought in to stabilize Milan. He will do it again. But he won’t elevate Milan beyond that. not in Europe and not domestically. I doubt he will get us another Scudetto.
Having said this, it would be a mistake sacking him midseason. I’d re-evaluate this summer.
its not mid season. its 1/3 so we good. He gotta go
Fun fact, I was at that 2-2 derby that Zapata tied up in the 97th minute. It was wild, but to be honest, we should have won that match outright as Deulofeu and Suso (of course) missed big chances early on.
As to this article, we should look to ADL for inspiration. That dude has no reservations on pulling the plug when he smells underperformance. If Napoli can fire their coach when they’re in 4th place and only 2 points below us in the standings, then so can we. Napoli losing to Empoli is the equivalent of us losing to Udinese. Honestly, I think the CL is what is keeping Pioli alive. Qualification will mean he continues. Failure to qualify and I think they will fire him, or at the very least he will be on the bubble and a loss to a relegation struggler away from being fired.
Yea but we’re not Napoli and Napoli have basically won only one Scudetto and zero international trophies since Maradona (and just the one under ADL). Napoli isn’t exactly the model you want to be following to win things
I think that’s more to my point. Here is a club that just won its first scudetto in 30 years and they’re underperforming in the next season, so they fired the coach. Meanwhile, Milan is a club that is always expected to challenge, we’re underperforming, technically we finished 5th last season (the season after a title), and there is not even a hint that they’re considering removing the coach. So by Napoli standards, Pioli should he been fired last season, probably sometime in March after that wretched period in which we were losing games 2-5 and 4-0. He got another chance and once again we lost another game 5-1, to Inter no less and a club he does not know how to beat, and we’ve also lost to Udinese, winless in 10 games to that point and couldn’t hold a lead in Lecce. So what will it take?
You failed to mention that the coach that won Napoli’s scudetto has left during the summer. Rudy Garcia was in Napoli only during the beginning of the season, and it started to become obvious that the team is underperforming and that the players don’t particularly like him.
Pioli was the coach during our last scudetto, produced the best Milan in the last decade or so and get us to an UCL semi-final (if you cant to call that an achievement, I personally think not and it’s overrated). So the comparaison with Rudy Garcia is not very fair to be honest.
Now with that said, the disaster in january 2023 would probably costed him his place in most clubs, but I think ours decided to keep him because the blame at that time was mostly on our lack of depth. Now this season, he’s ran out of excuses, and while the blame can be partially put on the players, it’s clear that gameplan, team management, tactics and strategy costed us A LOT.
Now I agree with you on the UCL, and I think that this is what is keeping him here, if we qualify pioli will probably be here at least until summer, otherwise, he could left as soon as december.
I think you’re making my own case for me 😂
“Napoli standards, Pioli should he been fired last season, ” that’s exactly what I’m saying…those are Napoli’s standards not ours.
Our most successful times in the club’s history were when we had stable sets of coaches for long periods. It’s no surprise that when Pioli’s numbers are posted here that the other more successful coaches are in the mix. And I wouldn’t fire a coach because another team does it. I’d take stock of where we’re at…which to be fair is what you did.
My thing is that the expectation that we’d somehow be fighting for the Scudetto at the beginning of the season is far fetched. We were always a 3rd at best (where we are at right now) and 4th as still successful. Juve and Inter just have more quality than us. Inter, along with Bayern and City are the three best teams in Europe. We’re not in that ballpark. And Juve are Mr..Serie A. That’s why they’re distinctly ahead and we’re in the next band of teams. We’re still in UCL (though I thought we’d be knocked out in group stage). So all in all, right now, I don’t know if changing a coach would be advisable. Sure if we slip to 8th and getting beat by poor performances then sure maybe. But it’s not like a Giampaolo situation where it’s clear as day. Surely at the end of the season take stock and make evaluations but right now…?? Who’s available that would take that up?
If we were to fire pioli right now, we have to be patient with however our new coach is gonna be. Because it’s gonna take him a lot of time to understand the team, to developp gameplans and tactics, and it won’t be until summer that he will be able to adress specific weaknesses to test new ideas (unless we are really, really lucky).
Of course this is gonna be at the expense of some games, and we shouldn’t expect more than a 4th place.
You make valid points, particularly regarding who would come in and vastly improve results. But I disagree about what our objects are (or were) this season. Despite still missing one or two components I think we had the quality to challenge for the title. How can we beat PSG and not have it? Inter is clearly superior on paper, they were always the favorites, but I just don’t accept that it’s OK that we’re 8 points behind in November. As to Juventus, I disagree they are better. Why are they better? They’re playing a number of youngsters and their defense is a shadow what it was five years ago. Yet, they’re only 2 points behind Inter, which is where we should be. Or at least no more than 4 points behind Inter, where we would have been had we beaten Udinese and Lecce.
Also, I think ADL’s Napoli isn’t a bad model at all. In the 20 years he’s been in charge he took the club from bankruptcy and Serie D to a title. They’ve showcased some phenomenal talent in that time and all of this while balancing the books. I would argue that Kvara-Osimhen-Politano > Leao-Giroud-Pulisic. When was the last time we had a 20+ goal scorer? They’ve had Osimhen, Mertens, Higuain, Cavani. We haven’t had a striker top 20 goals since Ibra in 2011/12. They failed to win more titles in the last 10 years only because of Juventus, and Juventus has won titles over lots of great challengers over the years, because they are Juventus. Not only that but they’ve played some phenomenal football as well, particularly under Sarri and Spalletti. Meanwhile kick and run Pioli…
its true.. Napoli has been doing very well under ADL
You guys are making it sound like keeping Pioli will GUARANTEE top 4 and UCL knockout stage. And hiring a new coach will definitely WRITE OFF those two targets. The simple point is the players are no longer playing for Pioli. He has totally lost the dressing room. Try to justify keeping a manager who has lost the respect of all his subordinates. We might be gambling if we hire a replacement coach but keeping a helpless and impotent coach is beyond comprehension. Before responding please consider the fact that Pioli has completely lost the dressing room.