AC Milan lost the first of two games against Inter, conceding two quick goals in the first half. After the game, Stefano Pioli spoke to the media about what went so wrong for the Rossoneri this evening.
Pioli’s men put in a very disappointing performance, especially in the first half, as Inter easily won the ball and reached the final third in 2-3 passes. In fact, Milan were lucky to not concede any more in the first 45 minutes.
Speaking to Prime Video, as cited by SempreMilan.it, the gaffer shared his thoughts on what went wrong on such an important evening. He also spoke about the return leg and the condition of his big star Rafael Leao.
On the game…
“Inter played better than us in the first half and scored two goals, we played better in the second but failed to score. Inter immediately scored with their first corner kick. It’s clear that we had to be more attentive and ready, especially on the second goal. We wanted another performance and another result.”
On the lack of compactness…
“The goal was to be an aggressive team, Inter got the better of many second balls. They did very well to score two goals, complicating the match from a tactical and mental point of view, then I saw a great reaction there and that’s what we have to do in the second leg.”
On the return…
“We have to start with the attitude we had in the second half, but with an intense approach and with more quality. Today we missed many easy solutions.”
Have you spoken to the team yet?
“The boys are aware that it’s not the performance and the result we wanted, there is disappointment and the determination and will to try and change this result in the second leg.”
On the referee…
“I protested in the end because he wasn’t consistent in his decisions.”
On Leao…
“There are still seven days to go, today he wasn’t in condition to play. We’ll see.”
Milan will take on Spezia next and it remains to be seen how much Pioli will rotate. The Rossoneri still need to clinch a top-four finish in the league and the game is thus a must-win, so heavy rotation will not be an option.
I do t like anything you said just now and I don’t like the performance tonight either and it’s on you. I don’t care if leao has to hop along for the next game, you better play him!
If a player is hoping it does not make any sense to play him. Bennacer leaved the san siro in crutches, does that means he should play. Just don’t know why you would say something like that.
you dont like Milan at all then
I’m glad Pioli doesn’t comment section
The team is stretched out to its limits. The injuries have started piling up on the starters. It seems the players got scared after conceding that 1st goal, while inter was very confident
this team was stretched when the first whistle rang. We let players go on a thin squad and sidnt replace them with players of better or equal quality. With a world cup season on top of that and our nost important players playing alot of minutes in it, we are lucky to even be in the CL now and in a race to get a apot next year. Our rivals got stronger or stayed pat, while we got weaker.
How anyone is surprised by the results is comical and makes me wonder if their brains can think straight. We scored no goals again. No coach can teach players how to score. That is a akillset that is innate and those players have to be bought with significant amounts of money. We lost 8 goals from our midfield with Kessie, 10 at least with Ibra out which could be anticipated given he was injured by the end of last season. Who did we bring in to shore that up?
A young foreign player that will need 2 or 3 seasons to adapt to a league that plays a style completely different and at a much higher level he has ever consistently faced. This season was written in the depths of hell yet we have a chance to kiss the sky. This coach did well with what he has.
It’s all on the coach ,how to you explain playing guys with lack of confidence,moreso too many spaces for inter to penetrate,defends just too annoying free spaces all the time .this has to be addressed
who, get Conte? Lmao
Inzaghi always gets the better of Pioli. We Lost the midfield battle. Milan behaved like Napoli in the quarters. The team needs to be more focused and shun such emotional play against inter any time we meet them. Onana is yet to concede a goal against Milan.
The right attitude is needed in the 2nd leg. If Milan put in the right attitude,we could have draw this match.
You should be ready for yourself
Idiot
For this kind of game you don’t prepare
Inter F you 4 time this year
Shame go coach samdoria
The mistakes is repeat again and again, sh**ty deadball defence, going nowhere third final attack, lack of concentration, zero variation of strategy bla bla bla..im sorry but as the coach pioli must responsible for this, he is like clueless how to fix all that problems.
He is a one trick pony he has a good system against possesion based teams because of our great counter press but sadly that is the only source of atacking danger from our team except if Theo or Rafa pull something out of their asses.. There is 0 ideas for build up only thing that we can think of is long balls to Giroud and hope the ball bounces in an akvard angle for our counter press to get in a dangerous spot and that is it there is literaly nothing more… And that is just sad if Inter can build up with overlapping runs with slowest players on earth (Dzeko, Acerbi Mkhitaryan) there is no excuse for Pioli on that front…..
Stupid coach..!!! For the important semi-final match of the UCL, they are still forced to play Saelemakers as LW, even though there is still REBIC, Pioli is too dependent on LEAO..MEDIOKER COACH..!!!
this guy really said Rebic is an option
wtf is going on in this blog
Fiorentina is your level, go back there and fight for 6th place there, not at Milan. Yes, Maldini is also clueless but Pioli has no idea how to attack, how to break down defensive teams. None! He just hopes Leao will dribble past several defenders or Theo will run 80 yards and score. That’s not a strategy! Sick of this clown.
Đội hình thiếu chiều sâu, thất bại là khó tránh khỏi. Tôi đã nhìn thấy kết quả của cả mùa giải sau khi kỳ mua sắm mùa hè kết thúc.
One stupid thing about our players is they easily fall down looking for a foul when they can move on and get the ball. Salaemarkers, Diaz, Messias and Theo. Always looking for needless fouls.
We have players like Adli who are good why don’t you use them
Please, let’s cut Pioli some slack. It’s not as though he had many options to choose from to play a competitive game. It’s clear that he feeds his best 11 into the game, and if because of injury key players can’t play, then you can only hope that the players are 100% focused and avoid mistakes.
Look at Man City, every year they come very close to winning the champions league but they lose out at the end. How do they resolve it? By strengthening the squad for the next season. This season, they are definitely the favourite.
In summary, we can’t continue losing key players every season, and not replace or strengthen the squad and still expect the team to perform to our expectation. It’s a no brainer.
We’ve actually been lucky to have progressed this far imo.
Man city rotates thier squad, they even manage to field academy players. On the other hand Pioli refuses to try new things or even players, that’s on him. No Leao, mediocre RW, why not pack the midfield and over load the wings with Theo and Calabria or use Alexis.. it’s coaching 101.. the problem here is Pioli isn’t used to a team playing many matches and thus same mentality is used with this Milan team.
I don’t understand how you guys think. Like u make it sound so simple, “just overload the wings” as if that wasn’t thought about. You do know that’s precisely Inter’s strategy right? They play 3 at the back and wingbacks so we literally cannot over load the wings. We can match their formation but that’s just ugly football and a football we’re not accustomed to. Btw Man City can rotate their players because their second team is as strong if not stronger than our first team. It’s easier to play academy players when you’re already up 5-0. There’s a gap in quality which translates directly to money. Pioli is only doing what he can with this squad.
My problem with the coach is he is one dimensional, if you don’t have the players for a certain formation, you just have to switch to accommodate the players you have, but that’s never Pioli.
Our midfield was constantly overrun, we can’t pick the easiest of passes, it seems like we don’t even train with the passing and overall play. My question is what on earth is done in training, are theses things not observed in matches ?
But we got slaped by Inter not City we are also getting slaped by Cremonese and teams like that there is a point where you say guys this is not working. We have zero idea how to attack besides counter pressing and hoping we get the ball in a dangerous possition.. How many 1vs1 or long balls did City try in a game against Real, not that many they make space by off the ball movement as much as skill on the ball or not even compare ourselves with City how many 1v1 and sprints did Inter won last night but still managed to open us up wit slow players like Dzeko and Darmian for god sake.. ?