AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli has reflected on a ‘painful’ victory for his side against Sampdoria, and discussed how Rafael Leao will be replaced.
Milan ended up making hard work of things against a Sampdoria side who have struggled to begin the season with just two points from their opening five games before meeting the Rossoneri, but Pioli’s men did triumph 2-1.
Junior Messias gave Milan the lead with a smart low finish early on, but Rafael Leao was given a second yellow card less than a minute into the second half for a high boot and Filip Djuricic headed in the equaliser not long after.
Milan would escape from the Marassi with three points though as VAR awarded a penalty for a handball after Olivier Giroud’s header from a corner, and the Frenchman tucked away the spot kick.
Pioli spoke to Sky after the game to reflect on the performance and the result, with his comments relayed by MilanNews and translated below.
On Tonali: “He is an important player. He has never stopped believing in his qualities and has become a complete midfielder. But he knows he can do even more. The renewal is deserved, he feels inside everything and takes it on field.”
On the victory: “It’s important because it was a painful and desired victory. We had an excellent second half, we could have scored more goals. We bring home an important victory. Sampdoria are not easy to face here. We wanted to approach the game well and we did it.”
On Leao and De Ketelaere: “Whenever an attacker defends the ball and the defender throws himself on the ground, the attacker gets a yellow card. I’m sorry for Rafa, someone else will play next Sunday. De Ketelaere is not getting in slowly, he is doing everything we are asking of him.”
On Milan-Napoli: “Both teams can lose a lot without Leao and Osimhen. Maybe we lose more because Rebic probably won’t be there either. It was a heavy week, we have another Champions League match which is very heavy for the team. We think about that, then we will think about Napoli. Leao is crucial for us, but we will find other solutions.”
On what he says to the players before the matches: “I had seen Leao joking a lot in the first part of the warm-up. When that’s the way it is usually good, he told me not to worry, maybe I had to tell him something (smiles). I like it being close to the boys before matches. Sometimes I have to reassure them, other times I have to stimulate them. It’s part of our way of working.”
On referees in Italy and Europe: “The players adapt to the refereeing method. In Salzburg the half contacts never whistled them and the players never said anything. In the derby we played 47 minutes of actual football. If the referees they whistle less, the players adapt. There is a difference between Italy and Europe.”
Leao gets to have a break before we face Chelsea.
It’s management fault for not going for another striker like say Belotti for example, now we got to push everyone double time.
Origi is just not cutting it for me, injured all the time? Thank good ness he came for free!
The motm in this game against Sampdoria is Maignan imo, but our defense is solid… the attack bothers me because since Leao is out, big question mark on where the threat is going forward… if CDK will step up then no problem!
Theo as LW
Dest LB
Theo LW, Calabria LB, Dest RB
Theo obviously can play LW. The problem is, who can play LB as well as Theo? If you guys are saying that Calabria or Dest can, then we’re all set. But Pioli is not an adventurous head coach. If he displaces Theo to the left wing, I’m afraid he’ll go with Ballo as LB and he sucks. Our defense won’t be as solid. So another option is to leave Theo there, and get Origi (if he’s fit) to play LW. But like many here, Origi hasn’t convinced me yet, not by a long shot. He came to us for free but with a huge salary. For me, I’m still thinking that he needs to prove himself or else it will have been a big waste of money. By the way I don’t understand Pioli’s praise for Pobega. I find him slow, selfish, and tactically dumb. I’m hoping that Vranckx becomes a better option as a back-up if we can’t count on Tonali and Bennacer. After Kessié left, our midfield is one injury away from being in big trouble. Every time Tonali or Bennacer fall down and seem to be injured, I have cold sweats!
Osimhen is out and Napoli are away in Europe, though Scotland is not far, the game could be physical. If we beat Napoli, we’d have already faced most of the big teams in the first month of the season. Only Juventus and Roma are left.
Good point. Teams from smaller leagues tend to be quite physical. So that is a positive and a negative at the same time as we are facing one ourselves.
The fact that Leao is not going to be there scares me a little, given he is by far the most productive in advancing play, but hey, it is what it is. Hopefully Pioli can conjure some magic and the rest of our attack can surprise us in a positive way.
CDK, Diaz, Adli as tridente behind Giroud
That would be the most unexpected situation, and I do not think it is going to happen.
The fact is we are a very good team ,but as for all teams ,we have so many matches in such a short space of time …We are doing rather well at the moment let’s not forget that we are still unbeaten .of course the next two games are vital ,but never doubt pioli .
We also have a great management team .Also let’s not forget Olivier Giroud yes he may be 35 years old ,but still a real weapon to have ,and seems to relish the big games ,of course it’s a blow to lose leao ,but we will cope ..please don’t lose confidence in our team .It’s AC Milan for me ..