AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli has revealed that Gerry Cardinale was not best pleased with the performance against Chelsea in midweek.
It had all the ingredients to be a classic European tie but it ended up being a night to forget for Milan in London as they were comfortably beaten 3-0 in the end having bean worse in each department.
Wesley Fofana’s goal in the first half was a sign of things to come as a set piece was not dealt with and the ball dropped to him, while Reece James was then allowed to set one up and score one due to poor defending down the Rossoneri’s left side to put the game to bed.
Pioli was asked to reflect on the game and what went wrong for his team in today’s press conference ahead of the Juventus game.
“We have data that tell us that our physical and technical efficiency was not up to par. Do we think Napoli are inferior to Chelsea now? Against Napoli we have had fantastic data, but if you play below your level with certain teams you can lose,” he said (via MilanNews).
“If we play at our level in the league you win, maybe even if you go down a little bit in level… Wednesday we missed in many areas. Last year Liverpool had put us under pressure.”
Did you speak to Gerry Cardinale in London?
“No, he wanted the team to be focused. He was certainly not satisfied with the performance.”
How are the team now?
“We forgot about the match against Chelsea immediately, then we’ll go back to thinking about it from Sunday morning. Yesterday the boys were tired, but I saw them eager. It doesn’t mean that tomorrow we will win the game: let’s not forget the team Juventus are and what targets they have, but we will give it our all. In the Champions League it is clear that we have to level up. We know how to do better things, but we didn’t succeed.”
You have a rigid and timid coaching style. You don’t experiment intelligently, always using average Krunic as substitute in odd areas because you are stuck to a textbook 4231.
And you are always scared of the fake bigger teams, always needing Ibra to imbue the necessary confidence in the boys, and forgetting that you are in charge of Milan, one of the 3 greatest teams in Europe.
Respect that you are hardworking, loyal and well behaved but you are just average like Krunic.
Milan need a great coach, a brave, daring, intelligent, brilliant and well respected coach which we cannot afford unless we go for someone who has love and affection for the club.