AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli has admitted that his side must do better in big games even if there have been positive performances, while he explained his decision to make the substitutions he did.
After 45 minutes Milan were rather surprisingly in command of the game at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona after Olivier Giroud had scored two headers in quick succession to break his goal drought, returning to haunting Napoli in the process.
However, things unravelled quickly in the second half as the Partenopei got themselves back level inside 20 minutes. The first goal came from Matteo Politano whose excellent flick and fierce finish left the Rossoneri standing still, then Giacomo Raspodori’s near-perfect free-kick earned the hosts a draw.
Pioli spoke after the game at his post-match press conference to try and assess what was a chaotic but entertaining game, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
How do you feel heading back to Milano?
“With a bitter taste in the mouth as it should be, because we were dominating and we shouldn’t have made the uncertainty with which we gave Napoli back momentum.
“We continued to create, it wasn’t easy to make 10 chances in Naples, but we didn’t close the match and we didn’t take the lead again when we could.”
Are Milan running into problems in big games?
“When the numbers are significant it means that we were lacking in something. With Inter we fell short of our possibilities, with Juventus and Napoli we didn’t, in fact the opposite. But in the end the points count and we have to do better.”
Milan’s schedule gave them a difficult start to the season…
“We knew these first few rounds would be complicated with many head-to-head clashes, in some matches we were less than we could be.
“Today Napoli were strong and have the best attacking numbers in the league, we take home the performance and the awareness of having to close the matches.
“Then on the schedule, titles are won by scoring points and there are no easy matches in Italy, but we can always play at a certain level, and we will move forward.”
What was the reason for bringing Giroud and Rafael Leao off?
“Giroud and Leao had lost momentum, we needed fresh players and it seemed right to give space to those with more energy.”
And Christian Pulisic?
“He came out due to muscle fatigue, otherwise I would never have taken him off. What we say probably doesn’t count for anything, because if Calabria had scored on Jovic’s cross you would have said good substitution.”
#pioliout clueless
If he replaced Leao on half time I would say nothing. But you remove the player that is capable of doing much more when there is space and Napoli is opening up to and you take Leao out and Giroud. To replace them with slow Okafor (yes, he is quite slow for a winger) and 0 impact Jović. I haven’t seen a move that stupid by a manager since Guardiola experiments in CL semi finals a couple of years ago.
Jovic a player with more energy. It is a bad joke.
He’s so stubborn and clueless at this point. Time to move on.
We’re 3 points behind Inter…..
But everyone should definitely FREAK OUT.
I would say the subs show why ‘depth’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be….
It’s not about subs and depth. It’s about tactics why we’re falling short. Injuries have plagued us for many years but this year especially, our starting 11 can never start consecutive games
Inconsistently inconsistent.
Only problem i have with last nights game is that adli didn’t get game time.
People crying about pioli need to touch grass. He didn’t fûck up last night
Should just sack Pioli, and auction off Milan so they go back to Serie D then idiots here will be happy.