After the game between AC Milan and Lecce, which ended in a disappointing 2-2 draw for the former, Stefano Pioli shared his thoughts with the media. He stated that the mistakes made certainly could have been avoided.
The Rossoneri started the game well and within 35 minutes, they were 2-0 up thanks to goals from Olivier Giroud and Tijjani Reijnders. They even had chances to score more and that continued in the second half, up until Lecce scored their first. Then, unfortunately, a second also arrived.
Speaking to DAZN after the game, as cited by MilanNews, Pioli highlighted the fact that Lecce’s first goal was almost identical to the one conceded against PSG. He also stated that there is a lot to work on, losing yet another game they had in their hands.
Strange and crazy match. What do you take with you?
“I’m absolutely not satisfied. In the second half, we played with a frenzy that doesn’t represent us. We needed to control the game better and manage the ball better. We had two chances to go 3-0 up. We gave the opponents space and they punished us. We conceded the same goal from a corner as on Tuesday against PSG. These are mistakes that we are paying for dearly.”
Is the original sin not having killed the game?
“There were opportunities to close the match, 3-0 probably would have closed the match. Not having succeeded should have made us maintain better compactness. Unfortunately, once again we were unable to win a match we could have won.”
After PSG, was there a risk of underestimating the opponents?
“It shouldn’t be like this, let’s say that the possibility of not approaching a match like today after the Champions League match was there but we did approach it well. It cannot be that a goal conceded, in a match in which you were in control, makes you lose everything you were doing. Yet you can also see on the second goal: we had the ball, there was a teammate on the ground, we could have managed it better. We could have put the ball out to get help but instead, we conceded a goal.
“We are making mistakes of frenzy and clarity that have prevented us from winning two games that we could have won. Having gone ahead by two goals in almost two consecutive games and not being able to bring the points home is disappointing.”
The conditions of the injured…
“Calabria and Leao had flexor injuries, both of which need to be evaluated. I put Musah and not Florenzi because he was more suited to the level of pace and speed of the only Lecce player who could create difficulties for us in these situations.”
Mental continuity is lacking throughout the 90 minutes…
“We have to work on it, we are losing points which penalize us in the standings and take us away from the top, these are situations that we will have to face well and work on. It’s normal that when you see matches slip away, you can also lose a bit of clarity: it shouldn’t happen but that’s what happened at the end.”
Reijnders finally got on the scoresheet…
“He times his run into the box excellently. He is a technical and intelligent player. That he must be an effective player in the attacking zone, yes, today he did it and he could have even scored more goals. He absolutely must continue like this because he is a player of great quality.”
Milan will face Fiorentina after the break and it remains to be seen if Rafael Leao will be available. He went off with an injury today and, in addition to that, Olivier Giroud was sent off for dissent and will also miss the game.
” I put Musah and not Florenzi because he was more suited to the level of pace and speed of the only Lecce player who could create difficulties for us in these situations”
Bro Musah is not a muthaf@cking Right Back. Doesn’t he know Football? A midfielder and a defender are two different positions requiring different sets of skills. Not everyone that has pace and defend in midfield can play as RB. smh 🤦♂️ wtf is wrong with him
But Boulden and MaldInis Heir will say otherwise.
I can only assume you’ve never played the game if you think there’s such a vast difference!
Especially going from midfield to FB. It’s much harder to go the other way because you have your back to goal.
Plus the goals didn’t come from him being out of position!
Bald eediat the only mistakes were from your end.
Musah had a Yaya toure type of performance against psg then u play him uncomfortably at right back leaving slowbega and Sloppic (krunic) on the pitch.
He could have simply put musah and Adli in midfield then put his grandma or anyone else at right back.
Pioli should be investigated for match fixing.
Lol, Pioli doesn’t have enough skills. His only talent is consistently doing substitution around 70th minute.
Seconded!!
You must definitely be a mad man for saying Florenzi couldn’t perform. He doesn’t need to have the pace but the experience to cut off all passes coming to the right hand. If you needed musah in the game you should have subbed off pogbeba in the game. Why in God’s name is adli still on bench. You need to be sacked from that club cause you don’t deserve to be coaching any Club.
Most milan supporters who were against pioli from pre-season friendlies are now silent, while those who WERE the pioli supporters are now reacting to what they could not see earlier…. thats because some fans are simply reacting to results. When milan wins all of a sudden pioli is a genius and milan is dangerous….. people who understand football, know that upsets can happen…. milan beating psg 2-1 can happen…. but people who know football also can see that if Milan played psg 10 times, the results may be:
1 win in favour of milan
2 draws
7 wins in favour of psg.
Thats how inter won the last 4-5 games against milan. No good coach will ever allow that to happen. A really good coach would have had this milan on top of the tables of both serie a and the champions league group.
I doubt that pioli would be sacked right now… enjoy the roller coaster ride of highs, lows till the end of the season..
I get why he put Musah in. Banda was a touch customer. But Musah is NOT a defensive player so it was no surprise he was at fault for both goals.
I’ve watched Musah for a long time as an American fan, and I’ve never seen him be so poor. I don’t know how much to blame Pioli. His mistakes were not due to lack of familiarity with the position, he missed his marker on a set piece and lost possession dribbling when he should have passed.
The goals didn’t come from Musah’s positioning as a full back!
The second goal is a mistake resulting from him being out of position. In midfield, his crazy behavior might not end up in an attack for Lecce, since someone can cover up his mistake. But here no one can cover him, because he is the last man.
It seems clear that, since he never played as a defender, he didn’t have the instincts that will allow him to deal properly with that situation.
Pioli out enough of losing point against lower teams I fear for milan with the likes of krunic and pobega
Mr. Pioli..genius…thank you for putting dead wood Krunić with Pobega on double 6 against worst Serie A team!!!!!!!!Great tactics to kill low defence,bravo!!!!!!!!!!Never heard that 2:0 is the worst result for leading team?That does not mean that you can play slower,or even worse…to pull back!Teater….pure teater.Sorry to say this but it just makes me sick to watch these up and downs for the whole season…..It comes to my mind that it is posible that ACM at the moment too strong is for Pioli…Of course I might be wrong.But I also might be right…right?
This joker never takes any blame – he won’t get another top level job after he is sacked
Pioli enough of all these flimsy excuses how can you bring in Musah at the expense of Florenzi in the name of he has pace.
Did Calabria had pace when he faced Mpape??
Please come again.
You can’t toil with our emotions like…u have to admit that u made a mistake and not come n defend your poor decision.
Why do u take delight in benching Adli?
I said last it in the early part of last season ,when we lost against bottom teams that Pioli had already peaked as a manager with Milan and that he must be sacked.
Here we are at it again almost a brand new team with the same old coach(Pioli) inconsistent performances …poor team management and substitutions then he expect different result.
No Pioli apples and oranges are not the same …you reap what you sow…played a midfielder as a right back, he got caught out but the game was also lost in the midfield too and your lack of motivation and enthusiasm as a coach.
He should be sacked during the international break…otherwise it will not get better.
And some of us here thought Maldini made bought the wrong players the season before. Pioli handpicked these players or have significant input in the transfer market and yet this is the performances we see.
He is unfit for this role as Milan coach period….
No ifs …no but..
Not fired yet? shame
I just saw this on Twitter. Some journalist said that the management is evaluating Pioli’s position.
Where are the Pioli worshippers now? Pathetic
#PioliOut
I have nothing else to say… I just can’t stand this idiot anymore..
Notice how Boulden and Maldini Heir are no where to be seen. But let’s not worry Pioli has us in third 6 points off top and inter have a game in hand…😂😂
You said the exact same thing after the Udinese game!
Is this your only comment after every negative result?
You do seem to relish the negative results.
A team whose players can’t complete 90 minutes does not deserve to win anything.
Every match the same f’ing thing!
Let’s blame everyone and everything else except Pioli, right? FFS… Any decent coach would have reacted before it was too late.
Everything for acmilan is going well is just that Acmilan made mistake by using musah in the right back Florenzi should be the person musah should play from the defensive midfield but what is just there is that Noah Okafor is good and solid when it comes to striker so I presume that now Acmilan has found stability is just to continue in making improvements
Bro I wish I had your optimism. I’d be married to a super model by now lol 😂.
I’m not a defender of Pioli (anymore) but neither would I wish someone to be fired. But man are these hard days.
But in January we need to sign sarmadzic for attacking midfield then sign Guler from realmadrid to support leao then for now we need pulisic at the attacking midfield for now while chukwueze and Romero should play the wing please we don’t need jovic because he is not supporting the team at all
Bad market…
We should get a good AM n ST, theo backup in January… Okafor is a LW, do u don’t need another, we should send Jovic back to where he came from…
And pray that some club cones for krunic again so Adli can play
More signings!
Because the 10 signings we made this summer made such a difference!
I think enough is enough how pioli stood and watched that in the second half to be truthful I don’t think he knew
how to sort it out we need a top coach to sort this before we lose any more ground in the league and Europe.
Always finding an excuse! Never seeing the log in his eye !!!
This season, our defend looks weaker. Maybe because of Tonali’s departure. From 2019/2020, we had solid defend thanks to double pivots who actively help back 4. These pivots were : Tonali, Kessie, or Bennacer. Now we have : Loftus-Cheeks, Reijnders, Musah and Krunic. They didn’t give enough help for defenders. If we struggled with back 4, it’s okay move to 3 CBs because we had 3 good CBs : Kalulu, Thiaw, Tomori. So Theo (WBL) & Calabria / Musah (WBR) can go higher up but can also recovered the defensive while back 3 contain any fast attacks.
But i don’t really agree with our 3-4-3 because we weren’t play vertical enough with 3-4-3, we go too wide. So i prefer with 3-4-1-2. Force our way to play through mid, and the WBs can enjoy the wings all the way, because our focus is to play vertical, through mid.
It’s okay since Leao will play as STC with Okafor. Because Leao was a Striker at Sporting & Okafor used to play as 1 from 2 strikers. And Pulisic the Captain America is playing as AMC at American National Team.
Loftus-Cheeks & Reijnders as Pivots ? Well im pretty confident with RLC, but not really with Reijnders. But We have Musah who pretty strong and can playmaking at deep while at Valencia.