Journalist Alfredo Pedullà believes that AC Milan have a ‘ladder of problems’ which is impacting the current moment and has somewhat darkened the previously positive atmosphere surrounding the club.
It has been a rocky last week-and-a-half for Milan, as they suffered their second defeat of the season in the 1-0 loss against Juventus at San Siro which was followed up by a 3-0 pasting against Paris Saint-Germain in the French capital in which more tactical naivety was on display.
Then, on Sunday, Milan threw away a 2-0 lead against Napoli to draw 2-2 at the Maradona, with pressure mounting on head coach Stefano Pioli.
This is not just because of the results either, but because of incidents like Davide Calabria’s comments post-PSG plus Olivier Giroud and Rafael Leao’s reactions to coming off in Naples.
Pedulla wrote an editorial in the columns of Sportitalia focusing in particular on Milan and the alleged errors which he detected were committed by Pioli, and his comments were relayed by PianetaMilan.
“Stefano Pioli has made a considerable contribution to Milan’s recent progress, but he makes important mistakes that should be reported. Last season would have ended without qualifying for the Champions League if they hadn’t taken the points away from Juve,” he said.
“Of course, precisely in the European event most important for the club they went all the way to the semi-final. But it would have been better to go out in the quarter-finals to avoid being slapped like that by Inter.
“The summer transfer window was tailor-made, generally respecting the coach’s requests. And there’s also little to say about the timing. The new players arrived on time, they cost a lot of money, to allow them to work on ‘team chemistry’ with the minimum amount of time necessary to avoid being in deep trouble.
“It’s right that Pioli meditates on the last week, leaving aside the five slaps suffered by Inter in the league. From the last week: the too naive defeat against Juve, the trip to Paris which he summarised with a first half of ‘excellent level’ (lie), the heavy observations of Calabria (the captain).
“Giroud who does not accept the substitution, isolates himself on the pitch to meditate and cool off, Leao who asks for explanations, the inadequate substitutions (Pulisic out as a precaution? Everyone except Romero in his place, the Argentine is not yet ready. You don’t always replace role by role, the coach must have imagination to protect the team.)
“Well, the last week in several episodes has seen the scales tip clearly against the coach, a ladder (of problems): on and off the pitch, it’s an aggravating factor. And all those injuries can’t be the result of chance.”
The media need to back off and stop trying to build a narrative to get Pioli sacked.
Is this why you became journalists?
Cry more about it.
I don’t need to cry.
We’re 3 points off top.
But your loyalty is strong as ever. With fans like you…
I don’t believe in knee – jerk reactions by media or fans.
However that doesn’t mean Pioli should not be questioned after such a week.
Injuries are a huge concern, he is the manager so the responsibility is ultimately his.
Dropping Pellegrino into that game was a shocking decision (especially when he was given no minutes in easier fixtures).
Pioli regularly says he doesn’t think about past games, I really wish he would and then learn from mistakes made.
Perhaps he might consider watching our previous matches v Inter before we play them again.
I hope we regain harmony in the dressing room.
Saying all that, Pioli has a lot of new players to integrate and deserves time to do so.
I hope to see a fit and firing team develop in coming months. Summer of 2024 will be the time to discuss how we continue and with whom at the helm
we have only 3new player’s on the 11 most of the time. We hire lot of players this year, but most of them come from bench than starting position.
Except Musah everyone played 45 to 60days in Milan before the season started.
There were clear mistakes from Pioli when we lost match’s easily, his response to those lost matches doesn’t see himself responsible also.
If we loose in the last minutes or with close games , no one will say something on Pioli but its the opposite
No, it’s because Pioli keeps making poor decisions, odd decisions and keeps using tactics that are not working. He’s also losing the locker room because of this and it’s pretty obvious too.
After every loss, Pioli says this:
We played well for 70+ mins, just a few unlucky goals otherwise we would have won.
Next game: same tactics. Doesn’t even address tactical mistakes.
I like Pioli, I do – but coaches NEED to grow and develop as much as players do and Pioli isn’t doing that. He’s stuck in a loop, thus Milan is stuck.
We’re 3 points off top.
Tell us about the time you lead a team to the top of Serie A….
I always defend Pioli thru the last season’s fiasco, but let’s not forget that Maldini also said more or less the same thing with us being 2nd on the half of season while we could see several problems on the background. And we all know what happened next. And that’s a feeling many of us experience now. That kind of naivety what often causes a problem in the end.
My concern is Pioli becoming the fall guy for the directors’ decisions this summer.
They cost at least two of the most influential people at the club in Maldini and Tonali, in the full knowledge Ibra was retiring.
They sold league winners and replaced them with non-league winners. A lot of them.
And of course all of this was encouraged and celebrated by the media and fans.
What’ll happen next is the media will eventually get its way, Pioli will be sacked, Conte will be hired, and the last remnants of the Scudetto winning side will leave, and we’ll back to the dark days.
And the directors, media and fans won’t take any responsibility but will no doubt continue to have strong (and new) opinions.
and yet we’ve lost or drawn all of the “big” matches.
CL:
Newcastle? Draw 0-0
Dortmund? Draw 0-0
PSG? LOSS 3-0
League:
Juve? LOSS 1-0
Inter? LOSS 5-1
Napoli? Draw 2-2 after losing a 2 goal lead
But Maldini’s Heir: “BuT gUYz, we beat Torino 4-1!!!”
Milan SHOULD be beating lower teams consistently but we haven’t won a game against a big team. That’s 0 wins 3 draws 3 losses.
What was the excuse against Juve? They had more key players out than Milan did and still spanked Milan. Don’t even get me started on the 5-1 Inter loss. PSG was a total tactical embarrassment, talk about being outcoached.
he got credit for good results. He should get the heat for poor ones as well.
If sacking is to be done better sooner than later
We’re 3 points off top…,how is he not still getting credit?
Stop spam idiot
You know me. I love a good fact.
Especially with all of these opinions flying about!
we are 3 points off top but overall feel is the season is not going well. CL is one poor result away from being over, the team cant sccore for the life of them (3 goals in last 5 matches, 2 of those last game) and injuries & poor managment are persisting week in week out.
If you think we are doing well idk man.. touch grass?
Richtig.
Do you really think that milan are playing up to their standards at the moment? Don’t you agree that there’s no ‘plan b’ or a change of tactics. We can’t just sit here and ignore the obvious that pioli is being stubborn. You’re someone who likes continuity, doesn’t pioli not see that a 4 2 3 1 is the best option for this team after 4 years of success with it?
We’re 3 points off top and that is all that matters…..
As usual people are placing opinions and (unrealistic) expectations over actual facts!
Personally I prefer 4231 and I actually hate 433 because it’s too rigid but I trust a Scudetto winning manager’s judgment over my own!
I don’t trust the various hangers on and directors who have never kicked a football. And they’ll be the ones we’re stuck with when Pioli gets sacked!
That’s not all that matters. What if we could be 3points on top of everyone but because of his tactics it stopped us.
It is literally the only thing that matters.
Winning is the only thing that matters.
I do love how all of these people with their big expectancies seem to forget the most important thing in football!
Milan win scudetto by less than 3points, what do you say about it?
Especially the way you lost matches is what matter most. There are only 3new players for most of the matches and among them Pulisic is playing well even Musah/Reijnders/RLC.
So still why do we loose matches?- Are those matches Milan lost after very good performance/lack of players performance/tactical ideas?
Especially this year all players that were hired have a say by Pioli.
Do you still say it’s management responsible or Pioli for good/bad?
That was a constructive argument based on facts. If you dint accept constructive pointing finger. That is a sign of being arrogant. That is Pioli main problem pal
Pioli is operation bastard now PSG is pricing to buy our best player if Acmilan is solid this season or we beat PSG this nonsense won’t have happen so Pioli is just a bastard and that’s is simple
He is absolutely right. These injuries are not by chance or bad luck, it’s been like this every season under Pioli. Clearly they are doing something wrong in the way they are training and preparing for matches. Yet nothing changes.
And he’s also correct about the sub of Romero for Pulisic. If he needed to come off there were other options. You don’t necessarily need to bring on an attacking player there when you are already up 2-0. Should have been protecting the lead. In-game tactics are a weakness for Pioli.
“The summer transfer window was tailor-made, generally respecting the coach’s requests. And there’s also little to say about the timing. The new players arrived on time, they cost a lot of money, to allow them to work on ‘team chemistry’ with the minimum amount of time necessary to avoid being in deep trouble.”
If he did ask for that level of turnover then he’s partly to blame. But the directors didn’t need to pander to his every request.
That’s like an IT manager asking a business for a load of new tech. Sure the wish list is endless but every Euro spent has to make at least two Euros back.
“[E]very Euro spent has to make at least two Euros back.”
That’s exactly what Tonali did. Actually we made better than a 2 to 1 ratio with him. And good thing too, because if we had only signed one player in the summer and kept everyone else, as you wished, then we’d be in 5th or 6th place right now. The midfield would have been Tonali-Krunic-Pobega, which would have become Adli-Krunic-Pobega, with no-one behind them but the primavera, when Tonali got suspended for 10 months. Totally a scudetto winning midfield. We would have had the two donkeys of Messias and Saladmaker still toiling on the right wing, instead of a guy who has more goals and assists in 10 games than practically the aforementioned two donkeys had combined for in all of last season. I miss Salad just storming his way to nowhere. Leao would be forced to play every single minute since his backup would have been 18 year old Traore. But maybe we would have had mighty 31 year old Taremi as our one transfer, and maybe he would have scored 50 goals to take us to the title and champions league all by himself. Pioli, would have become a GIANT among Milan managers, reaching the other grandmaster, Alberto Zaccheroni, who was never given enough time. Oh what could have been! /s
Well it didn’t really because we spent more signing players than we made from his sale.
And we’ve spent over $1b Euros in 10 years and have one Scudetto to show for it.
But more to the point we ripped players out of Scudetto winning side so my 1 Euro spent/2 Euros back analogy in footballing terms must be that this squad must finish higher than last season.
And that’s not a requirement for Pioli or the players but the directors.
So far Pioli is delivering for them on that target. They should be grateful.
“Scudetto winning side”: the good players that we lost from the squad were Ibra, Kessie and Tonali. Kessie was regretful mismanagement case, Ibrahimovic retired from football and Tonali, well because of the betting we were at risk of losing him anyways.
For the rest, I’m confused, do you think we should have kept Messias and Saelemakers instead of bringing Pulisic (who has already exceeded Saele in the G/A) ? So if Messias and Saelemakers were here, we would have won against psg, inter and juve ? Do you think we should have kept Rebic ?
If they were so good, why are they underperforming with teams that are weaker than us ?
While I understand your point Vero, you actually don’t know if those players would have played better (it’s a what if). Buying players that looked good the first set of games doesn’t mean they would have performed better than what we had and it’s likely we would have gotten other options (Berardi, SMS, Thuram, Kamada) and even those we can’t say if they’d do a better job either.
We’re still 2 points behind Inter in Serie A. Everyone relax
Thank you.
It’s just the media generating content and trying to get a person sacked….
3 points but i nevertheless still agree with your assesments, people are complaining excessively but it shouldnt really come as a surprise as that is what a great deal of fans always do around here.
Empty barrels make the loudest noise.
How can the league position be the only yardstick? What about the UCL standings? What about the horrible performances against big teams? When did AC Milan become this lukewarm??
We are 3pts behind inter now, but we were 2pts ahead of inter a while ago, and we’re rock bottom of our UCL group, we had a shambolic last season aside the UCL run where we still ended up getting hammered by inter,
We have broken every shameful record known and yet to be known!
It is wise to be worried!
But the 3 points system makes it fairly easy to turn it around and back to that and if you want to talk about shamefull records you should also take note of several of our good records made while pioli has been coach at the club for example we won 16 or 17 matches in a row in recent years and we also had some scoring records so it isnt as simple as you paint the picture.
Obviously the last week has been a disapointment but looking at the cl group of ours it has always been a great possibility that we wouldnt progress from our it or even get the 3rd place and both is still a possiible to reach..
One thing is if people are worried but another thing if they completely panics which certainly isnt wise either.
“aside the UCL run” = The actual Semi-finals of the actual Champions League after a decade in the wilderness…
And last season Pioli met expectations in the league and exceeded them in Europe, and has consistently met and exceeded expectations since he took over and took us out of the wilderness.
We are bottom of a very difficult UCL group where we have only had one defeat (away to Paris Feckin’ St Germain).
Seriously what exactly are your expectations here?
You cease to remember that we only finished in 4th last year because Juventus were docked points. Last January the results were so poor and right on par with results under gattuso. Besides the first 3 games of this season that were played well, they have started to drift off. I support who we have but we also need to be realists here.
And you cease to remember that juventus would have had a weaker team had they not been tampering with their finances so they wouldnt have had the same options to spend in the mercatos as they have been doing so its highly likely that they would already have had fewer points to begin with,
Last season up untill around the world cup milan had 2 points fewer compared to the scudetto wining season the year before after just as many matches played.
And you and others cease to remember that Pioli would’ve factored in Juve’s points deduction when he rested players in the league and focused on the champions league….
Your saying what ifs here… He was gifted a top 4 finish and Juventus almost caught up too.
@ Milanellofm
No what ifs. Check the league table. We finished 4th.
Everyone else is what if’ing like there was no tomorrow!
Let’s be real about our CL run last year we had a relatively easy group. We got past awful Tottenham with 1 goal in 180min of play not that impressive to be honest. We beat Napoli ok not taking anything away from that … But then Inter made us look like we don’t belong in CL… We finnished 5th in the league. If 5th place is our expectation god help us be honest last season was a disaster..
Why are so many fans downplaying their own team’s successes?
The Scudetto was a fluke and beating Napoli over two legs was easy peasy!
Getting to the semi-finals of the champions league after a decade in the wilderness is a big achievement for which we should be eternally grateful.
And if we are not – what is the point?
What is the point of supporting a team where you can’t celebrate the successes, where you dislike the manager and some of the players, where there is constant player turnover, and if some people had there way, manager turnover as well.
I know this is the internet where everyone is miserable and has a miserable opinion but what IS the point?
Newsflash Paris Saint Germain is a very beatable team this season. The likes of Aston Villa would win them without conceding
That’s the problem with ‘news’ today. It’s mostly opinions and feelings.
But even as opinions go that one is pretty ludicrous!
They’ve got the best player on the planet! We lost to the team with the best player in the planet!
I agreed,he hate Adli while he is better than krunic!
Ya we’re 3 points off the top but we’re not playing to our potential. We haven’t played well in over a month. If the change of tactics and formation were to happen, maybe we’d be just that much better.
Juventus are second on the league and haven’t played well for two seasons, but every player, every journalist and every fan criticize them.
Milan haven’t had the best results in the last three games and that would have been ok had they played a great match. In the last three, only the first half in napoli was great, second half was dreadful. That’s down to pioli. Yes he has injuries but once pulisic got hurt wouldn’t it have been smarter to bring on a midfielder, change to like a 4 4 2 and close off he game just like the good old days in Italy? Teams back then would take a 1-0 lead and defend and close out the game. Girouds words were clear. They came out in the second half and they didn’t know whether to attack or defend. That’s 100% pioli’s fault.
I’m not asking for pioli to get sacked. I’m asking for alternatives. Have a different name plan because not all games are going to be the same, you can adjust during a game and he’s been way too stubborn and if it doesn’t change the results will start to hurt and then eventually yes he should get sacked. He needs to show he can adapt.
God bless you for saving me the time to type the exact same things!
Pioli’s tactics notwithstanding, we made it through a tough stretch of games, with PSG still coming up. now our domestic schedule will get easier. We can sit back and watch top teams scalp each other.
So let’s see how Pioli carries this team through an easier fixture list. We need maximum points to take advantage of the teams around up when they slip up.
10 games in is when the season really starts. 3rd ain’t bad, but realistically we’d be second if it wasn’t for that Juve game. Still everything to play for. No need to panic yet.
The games against the so called weaker teams are absolutely key!
That is what will determine our season as they have determined most of our seasons!
I don’t know how much our schedule is getting “easier”, we have yet to play Fiorentina who beat Napoli in la Maradona, Atalanta who is 3 points behind us and Sassuolo who became a bit like a boogeyman for us. Right now, I think these 3 are better than Lazio, Roma and even Napoli.
Pioli out!
0 wins in CL
0 goals in CL
0 offensive tactics
3 straight losses to Juve (courtesy of his lover), PSG and Napoli.
5-1 loss to Inter
He can’t beat a quality side this year. And he hates Adli because his lover boy Krunic must play.
Yes, I count the Napoli game as a loss because we were up 2-0 and he blew it!
Of course you treat 2:2 as a loss. Facts aren’t exactly your strong point.
By my word do you have very strong opinions.
You want facts? Here are some:
First time in the whole team’s 124 year history that we have 5 (and still counting) European Games without scoring (First Italian team ever also to have such a bad streak).
Fist time in the whole team’s 124 year history that we have 5 consecutive defeats to Inter.
First time in the whole team’s 124 year history (last year’s fact tho) that we conceded 3+ Goals in consecutive matches (0-3 Vs Inter, 4-0 Vs Lazio, 2-5 Vs Sassuolo).
First time in the whole team’s 124 year history (last year’s fact also) that we did not win 7 matches in a row!! (2-2 Vs Roma on Jan 8th, till 1-0 Vs Inter on Fub 5th, with Torino, Lecce, Inter, Lazio & Sassuolo inbetween).
First time in almost half a century that we concede 5 goals from Inter.
I could go on all day, but instead I will pose some rhetorical questions : When does the blind support and optimism stop? When do we adress the elephant in the room? When do we start asking changes in order not to be embrarassed by a current situation?…
Interesting stats.
In our history we were also relegated and in our very recent history didn’t qualify the for champions league for 10 years….but hey let’s go back 124 years!
(And people tell me I’m living in the past…).
But as of right now, guess what?
We’re. 3. Points. Behind. The. League. Leaders. Having. Played. Our. Hardest. Matches. And. We. Now. Have. Some. On. Paper. Easier. Matches. Where. We. Might. Pick. Up. More. Points. And. If. We. Don’t. Then. We. Might. Have. A. Problem.
And besides what happened to everyone’s excitement this summer about all the wonderful new signings???
And they’re not as exciting as everyone thought they were????
Maybe what’s happening is the season’s going how I expected so I’m not having a meltdown!
Stop stealing my handle dude.
You don’t watch the games, we all know this. We blow a 2 goal lead with a direct rival and it’s all good to you. The way you defend Pioli on every post is a bit weird to be honest. Is your name Rade?
The way I defend the manager of my football team?
What’s weird is you support a team where you don’t like the manager or some/most of the players.
But as I keep saying, changing clubs is the easiest thing in the world. If Milan are not giving you the joy that you feel you deserve. GO. SUPPORT. ANOTHER. TEAM.
You’re defending him like your life depends on it after every terrible display. Not only are we not beating any quality side, but the product on the field is awful. The tactics and substitutions are horrid and that’s 100% the manager. I am not a sheep and will not blindly support anyone just because they are associated with Milan. I want to win, I want results and he’s not producing. The fact is a real fan should not support this mediocrity.
The difference between me and you is I support Milan and you support Pioli. Now, go practice your passing Rade, it’s awful.
You just typed nothing
What did you type? Do you have any points or you just a salam with an extra chromosome?
Oh, another great sign for Pioli is the fact that we’re desperate to bring Ibra back. I love Ibra, but how sad is it that we need to immediately bring this dude back from retirement in some kind of leadership/cheerleader capacity because Pioli isn’t capable of being that for the team.
If only the directors hadn’t also sacked Maldini and sold our future potential captain….
I would say it’s a tribute to Pioli that he’s managed to steady the ship after the directors unleashed chaos this summer.
But no one will take responsibility for that. The media, the directors, the fans who revelled in the madness will not take responsibility. And when we’ve been through managers this season and had more player turnover next summer, still no responsibility.
It’s all a game I guess.
We have a limp team.
We need a leader back.
Ibra.
Considering all injuries that happen, how the fxck that 37 years old giroud didnt have injuries and play almost all match as a starter LOL
Different players have different injury tolerances
Let’s be fair here and don’t eat the media words without properly analyzing the situation.
Pioli has flaws for sure and he needs to fix it if he wants to keep his job. But some of the injured happened outside of his control.
For example Chuk and Okafor injured from their NT and you can’t blame Pioli for that.
Kalulu, Pellegrino, and Pulisic injured happened during an intense match against Napoli, which again that’s not Pioli faults. No matter how good your preparation before any match, you still can’t 100% prevent an injury by tackles, falling down, or any accidents in the field.
Now the rest of injury / muscle fatigues during training like what happened to Kjaer, RLC, and Sportiello can be addressed to Pioli and his medical team.
Are you saying Pioli is not responsible for fractures???
Sarcasm alert
the problem is a bit pioli but mostly our players expecially our best attacker which is leao.pioli’s tactics keep creating chances for us to score but leao keeps deciding to do whatever he wants for example newcastle game when he decided to do a back heel when totally clear on goal.if not for the addition of pulisic we wud have struggled far more this season.and just once pioli decided to remove d idiot after he decided to lob a keeper in his post rather than play a simple opening pass to romero,see all the media backlash he faced.milan decided to improve d right side to give d left side some room so we can be dangerous all front but now d left side is turning a problem thanks to leao’s am too big attitude.its not yet a panic as most people are thinking but i think its right to bring ibra back to be a leader in d dressing room again and instill fear and seriousness in d dude.cos his lacklustre contribution is really affecting the team as he is d main focal point.
A lot of good points here, for both sides of the argument. I have to admit, I’m not sure. On he one hand we are doing better now than in the last ten years, we are indeed third in the league.
On the other hand, some of the tactics we use are questionable, and im not convinced long term on some of the summer signings. The results in the CL i feel are more reflective of the state of Italian football in general compared to other leagues, than on us in particular.
Valid point
Alfredo pedulla just wrote a shit load of shit!!!!
Valid point!