AC Milan failed to clinch all three points against Salernitana on Friday evening, drawing 2-2, and it’s a result that has put Stefano Pioli’s position in real danger. The journalist Andrea Longoni was left ‘speechless’ by the manager’s post-match comments.
It was a rather poor performance from the Rossoneri, failing to kill the game after the first goal despite dominating possession. And as we have seen so many times before, defensive errors cost them the three points, while another injury was added to the list.
In his latest editorial for MilanNews, Andrea Longoni discussed Milan’s recent form and the blame that rightfully must be put on Pioli. Above all, he highlighted the manager’s post-match comments, stating that the Rossoneri’s reaction to recover was positive.
“The fact that the manager [Pioli] said that ‘the only positive was the desire to try until the end’ is astounding. As is talking about ‘the reaction of a great team’ when you drew against the last team in the standings, not exactly Real Madrid.
“The team trying until the end is the very minimum, patting the players on the back for this reason leaves one speechless. And once again, we reiterate, Salernitana were coming off three consecutive defeats and had conceded nine goals,” he wrote.
One can certainly agree with Longoni, as a draw against the bottom-placed Salernitana cannot be considered good by any means. The game against Sassuolo on Saturday will surely be decisive for the manager, who is on his last life.
We have interviewed Longoni in our Substack series ‘Meeting the Milan Media’. So if you want to read more about him and his career, you can do so here. In short, he has followed the team for a long time and knows what he’s talking about.
Maignan should then be blamed for conceding the 2nd goal that was easily savable
MM16 made two world-class game savers though. So I’d still leave him on the positive side there. It could have been 3-1 without his incredible save after the 2-1 goal.
Sure, he should have NEVER conceded such a goal but he didn’t get much help from the 10 others on the pitch who were just thinking about their xmas presents and what to wear for the xmas dinner. Leao was probably thinking about his next album’s cover photo.
THEO should be blamed for that goal. He didn’t close Candreva down knowing how good he is from shooting outside the box. In the video you could see Mike confronting THEO. These players just don’t care about the performance. All the want is the money and dress nicely and enjoy life.
99/100 Mike saves that shot. This is a GK error 100% BUT Mike will always save us more points than he’ll cost us. I have no issues with this goal.
I do have an issue with how crappy this team played and with a complete confusion and myopic approach in the final third….
There seemed to be miscommunication with Reinjdeer and Theo. I think he told Theo to stay back while he press him, giving Candreva a space and time to shoot. I might read too much into the situation though.
Anytime a goalkeeper is forced to make a save it means the entire team failed. The opponent should not be able to bring the ball up in the first place.
Pioli should be blamed period, when a coach doesn’t give any clear tactics and plays one way.
It is obvious that the players are confuse and is more about individual brilliance, and not a solid team performance.
Unlike most people I don’t hate Pioli’s tactics (or lack of tactics). It’s his complete lack of emotional intelligence that is unacceptable for a coach. He has no ability to ‘read the room’. This is why he develops no connections to the players and, in return, they don’t fight hard for him. This is why Maldini was important and why Ibra had to be brought back.
Compare the emotional intelligence of Guardiola and Klopp to Pioli, Allegri, Conte and Mourinho. Theres a reason Klopp and Guardiola keep winning, it’s because they form connections with their players and, in return, their players fight hard for them.
This is a personality problem and it can’t be fixed with knowledge and learning. It has to be developed when younger. Too late now. Pioli has to go…
A lack of emotional intelligence would be laying into the players and demotivating them just to pander to the media and fans like you.
I don’t think Pioli entirely knows either what is going on or how to fix this. Hence his bizarre comments.
I don’t think he can come out and say “I don’t know what these guys’ problem is…”
They really aren’t that bizarre if you distinguish between what people actually say in real life and what people say online.
Pioli has to deal with reality not fantasy, and reality involves dealing with actual human football players.
Personally I cannot stand when manage coach through the media. I don’t think anyone would appreciate if their manager were to criticise them in the media. It’s not normal. So why do we expect it with football?