There were some eyebrows raised by Stefano Pioli’s decision to bring Rafael Leao off at half-time in the defeat to Torino on Sunday night, but the winger took the substitution well.
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That is according to today’s edition of Il Corriere della Sera (via SempreMilan.it), who have looked back at Pioli opting to take Leao out of the game after just 45 minutes in the match against Torino, which initially annoyed the Portuguese forward who would have preferred, as expected, to remain on the turf.
However, the paper cites sources close to Leao in claiming that he understood Pioli’s choice and the two reasons that have emerged as being the cause behind it.
The first was to send a strong signal to him and to the group that if he thinks a player is not at their level he will swap them for someone who might fare better, but the second was to preserve him in view of the match against Red Bull Salzburg which is a bigger game and will of course see Leao start.
