Journalist Carlo Pellegatti believes that Stefano Pioli deserves questioning for his team selection after last night’s 4-0 defeat against Lazio.
It was another damaging defeat for Milan as they were swept aside by Maurizio Sarri’s men in the capital. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Mattia Zaccagni each scored in the first half to continue the trend of falling behind early, with a penalty from Luis Alberto and a fourth from Felipe Anderson condemning the Rossoneri to another dismal loss.
It comes after a damaging defeat against Inter in the Supercoppa which ended hopes of one trophy, which in turn came not long after Milan had been knocked out of the Coppa Italia by Torino.
Pellegatti wrote an editorial for MilanNews after the full-time whistle and put forward some interesting points regarding Pioli’s selections and the current direction the team are heading in.
“These lines come from the Olimpico press room. Milan lost 7-0 in the worst 180 minutes in the last three years. Milan-Inter and Lazio-Milan were a single game. Two shots on goal and an anthology of chances from the opposing teams,” he began.
“What is happening is the question that is racking all the Milan fans? By the way, I open a parenthesis. The best out there today was the wonderful, heartwarming fans of the Curva. Their endless, impetuous, emotional chorus on 4-0 for Lazio is chilling. A treasure that Milan must absolutely not waste. It would be the most serious and painful defeat.
“Going back to the game, Stefano Pioli’s initial choices didn’t convince me. The Milan coach has re-proposed the same midfield and the same attack of Riyadh. Assuming that he is the one who leads the training sessions and knows the form of his men in depth, I was convinced that he was trying to compact the team with the insertion of Saelemaekers on the right and Pobega behind Giroud.
“At the Olimpico it was important not to concede goals, to restore confidence in a defence that was too often in trouble in the last few games. Picking the same as in the Supercup, I thought, before the match, represented an enormous risk. Unfortunately the match proved me right.
“Today Milan have unfortunately lost all the qualities that had distinguished the journey up to the 87th minute of Milan-Roma. Organisation, self-esteem, fighting spirit, desire to amaze, to entertain and to excite. Today eleven players take the field, not one team takes the field.
“Paolo Maldini reiterated that the line of sustainability does not allow investments in already established and therefore expensive players, but rather pushes the search for prospects. It is a policy that helps the budget, but risks jeopardizing the rise of the project, in the event of wrong assessments of the youngest signings. It is a hypothesis that must always be kept into consideration.
“The future? Playing like in the last two and a half games (the second half in Lecce was decent), you certainly won’t go far. Now the focus must be on maintaining the Champions League position and trying to beat Tottenham. Today it seems like a bare-handed Himalayan feat. There are three weeks left and we hope that Pioli, with the help of Maldini and Massara, will be able to find solutions.”
Yes… Tottenham will beat the sh*t out of them.
Tottenham have been in dreadful form. The tie will be decided by which team regains any self belief leading up to the first leg. Milan do have a chance, but not like this.
“Tottenham have been in dreadful form. ”
Have they lost last two matches 0-7 without getting ANY decent scoring chances? Yeah, thought so…
I didn’t say they were in worse form than Milan, which I believe you knew and chose to ignore. My point was that Milan simply need to play better to have a chance. Tottenham aren’t flying out of sight.
Start with replacing Diaz. This guy is going back to RM yet poli continues his romance with his pet. Wake up Poli. Give these rights to new MILAN owned young players.
The only problem Milan have is Maldini.
If Milan can sack that fool and bring a competent director, we will do well