It is three years since Stefano Pioli became the new head coach of AC Milan and it has certainly been a journey with an upward trajectory.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (via MilanNews) reports how it was exactly three years ago – on 10 October 2019 – that Pioli entered Milanello for the first time as Milan coach after taking the place of Marco Giampaolo after his sacking.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
A whole 1096 days have passed since that day and it would be fair to describe the period as a revolution, with the ‘#PioliOut’ campaign upon his announcement now being replaced by the song ‘Pioli is on fire’.
His first match was a 2-2 home draw against Lecce and his last game was the 2-0 victory on Saturday against Juventus, in which he thoroughly outcoached Max Allegri with some brilliant tactical moves. Pioli has built a fortress, which is based on a united group full of young talent.
Pioli is also rightly recognised for having helped many individuals grow from Theo Hernandez and Pierre Kalulu in the back four to Sandro Tonali and Ismael Bennacer in the midfield, without forgetting Rafael Leao in attack.
However, his job is not over yet as the next talents to be improved are in fact Charles De Ketelaere and Yacine Adli, both of whom arrived this summer. There is another job too: to go further in the Champions League.
I noticed unity in the entire Milan team and the management 💯. Leao must stay. Origi should be converted to right winger if not he can go, CDK will hear up next year.
It’s crazy how some people still wants Pioli out after what he achieved with Milan:
– Pioli 1st season: rebuild the team and gave them an identity as a young attacking/pressing team.
– Pioli 2nd season: he helped Milan back on UCL after 8-9 years of absent and also as a Serie-a runner up.
– Pioli 3rd season: he brings a Scudetto for Milan after 11 years of without trophy. No one believe him can win a Scudetto with unknown young players and a dozen of iniuries.
– Pioli current season: Milan still at the top table of Serie-A at 4th place / only 3 points gap with 1st spot and 3rd place in UCL still have big chance to qualify for next round.
– Pioli developed unknown + inexperienced young players into good and mature ones like Theo, Calabria, Tomori, Kalulu, Tonali, Bennacer, Leao, and so on.
If only Pioli got more world class players, i bet he will do better.
#pioliout