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.”
