Stefano Pioli has refuted claims that his intense style of play might be too demanding for the squad to keep up over the course of a season with so many games.
Milan’s injury problems this season have been well documented, with close to 30 separate issues and only a handful of players left in the squad that haven’t come down with any sort of physical problem, the majority being muscular in nature too.
Tomorrow Milan will head to face Atalanta with just one fit senior centre-back – Fikayo Tomori – forcing them to probably field Theo Hernandez in a central role again and shift Alessandro Florenzi over to the left side of the back four.
Pioli has repeatedly stressed that he and his staff are looking for a fix to the problems, while there have been some suggestions from fans and the media that his intense style is hard to keep up over so many games.
In his pre-match press conference he responded to a question regarding the notion that his tactical demands might be a contributing factor, denying the claim.
“Our football has deep roots. I don’t think it’s so intense that it can’t handle three games a week. The objective was to be competitive in the league and in Europe, so we will try to reach it with our ideas,” he said.
“There are still too many games left to make definitive rankings, but it is clear that continuity of results cannot be missing and that is what we are looking for, it is our great objective. Another great opportunity tomorrow. The minimum objective is to reach the top four, but we want to do something more.”
You mean intense style of running and chasing after the ball? Midfield is doing ok, we did actually buy bunch of runners and chasers to fit this style.
I love that they are now “looking to fix the problems”.
It’s been going on 4 years now,
I think there is something to this. Not only is it contributing to injuries but it’s probably also why Milan seem to fade at the end of games and give up leads. You can’t have the entire team running end to end the entire game. Should be a little smarter about it and pick your spots. Also usually teams that play this way have more possession than Milan does so they can control the pace a little better. Milan is actually better suited to be a counter attacking team and sit a little deeper like they did against PSG in the second game.
I think you’re completely correct. I wish Pioli would also figure this out but he hasn’t for years, so he should leave by the end of the season.
Exactly my point. Thats what Inter does. We should be a very counter attacking team. Absorb the pressure, maintain a great defensive shape, break opposition play and launch counters, then see how Leao and Chuck would perform. Leao’s best goals have come from counter situations. If Pioli cannot see that then he must either be blind or very rigid
Pioli’s biggest problem is his stubbornness. He is determined to try and play like Man City even tho we do not have the players for that, rather than playing to the strengths of the team.
Newcastle, coming up next week, are in even worse shape, with over half of their starters injured and nobody good left on their bench, Just lost 3-0 to Everton, which got Everton out of the relegation zone (Everton had gotten a 10 point deduction for a decade of FFP violations)
Newcastle play an even more intense pressing style
Yes, there is a correlation with intense gegenpressing
Chelsea was like this also, but Chelsea always had 2-3 starter quality players per position