AC Milan put in another poor performance as Roma convincingly defended, as well as extended, their aggregate lead in the Europa League quarter-final. Several players were subpar and below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri.
If you haven’t already, make sure to check out how we decide the player ratings. From the scale to what affects the rating, we have compiled everything there.
Starting XI
Maignan (6): Honestly, even if the failed touch at the end was comical, he couldn’t do anything about the goals scored tonight. He also made a few decent stops to deny Roma more glory. The loss is definitely not on him, once again he was left alone.
Calabria (4.5): Inverted role, yet again, and one has to wonder why Pioli would want the captain in that position. When played as a proper right-back, he can be decent and sometimes even very good (Napoli games last season). But like this, he doesn’t shine at all and got caught sleeping on the first goal, truly a fatal error.
Gabbia (5): The goal, which was very nice, salvages his rating a little but there is no doubt that this was a very poor display from him. He was way too rash on the second, trying to body Lukaku, instead of just following the run. The clearance moments after was far from good either.
Tomori (5.5): He was the best Milan defender on the pitch today and that says a lot, given that he didn’t get a pass from us here. The positioning was questionable on more than one occasion and he seemed to struggle with communication.
Hernandez (5): Yes, Pioli didn’t exactly deploy tactics that benefit the Frenchman, but it’s also true that the left-back has to do more. He’s such a good player normally and what we saw tonight was just a bunch of sideways/backpasses and half-hearted runs forward.
Bennacer (4.5): Milan want him on the pitch for two things, specifically defensive work and vertical passing. Today, we saw nothing of this in the 40 minutes he got on the pitch. He was caught sleeping on the first goal, just like Calabria, and even when he saw Leao free on the left, he didn’t dare to play the tough pass.
Musah (4.5): Yikes. He did so well with his dribbling but that has no meaning if the end product is bad every single time. Such a frustrating performance to witness and he knew it himself too. His vision is just incredibly poor at the moment.
Pulisic (5): Perhaps one or two good 1v1s on the right, but nothing more than that. He struggled to impose himself, truth be told, and easily lost the duel against Mancini before the first goal. He can do more, we all know it.
Loftus-Cheek (5): His finishing let him down, or perhaps it was more so a case of the Roma players being in the right places. Above all, though, Milan needed him to do more in the midfield battle. Before the second goal, Pellegrini was left free to hit the ball to Lukaku, RLC should have closed him down (and it happened time after time).
Leao (5): He ended up getting an assist, and he did create one or two good chances, so he deserves some slack. However, he only came to life at the end of the game and whenever he did beat his man, the cross just wasn’t right. This wasn’t the answer we were hoping for, even if Pioli shares the blame for all individual performances today.
Giroud (4.5): Static, never in the right place, losing duels and so on. The contrast with Lukaku – and even Abraham – was striking as the Roma strikers handled the hold-up play brilliantly. The Frenchman failed to do just that, which made life very difficult for Milan.
Substitutes
Jovic (5): He added some energy to the attack, we’ll give him that, but he also missed a few opportunities in the box (all blocked).
Reijnders (5): Didn’t really change the game in any way and when he did have chances to shoot, he failed to make the most of them.
Chukwueze (5.5): The closest player to getting a pass, i.e. a 6, today excluding Maignan. He did just what Milan had missed up until his entrance and created some opportunities. Ultimately, though, the end product could have been better from him.
Okafor (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Florenzi (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
The manager
Pioli (4): Where do we even start? Milan were outplayed despite being one man up and they looked completely without hope from the first minute. Roma knew exactly what they were doing, the Rossoneri didn’t. Hit-and-hope football without the hope, and surely this was the final nail in the coffin for him. Dreadful in every sense of the word.
@Boulden Where you are now? 🤡🤡🤡
Was hearing a lot of crap from you last week, what your excuse now? At least admit your mistakes, you are always toxic to others who are just sharing an opinion.
He’s no Oracle, nor does it seem to have any original thoughts of his own. He clowns, kinda like what you’re doing right now.
You have to talk to people like him in this manner. He was saying so much crap towards upcoming managers like DDL and Motta. Even said “Pioli is a better manager than Pep once” he should just admit Pioli is an average manager with low self-esteem then I, @Mirajol and many others who have been tired of this failed sarcasm won’t react. We can’t even play well against a team with 10 men and still people like him will defend him saying he doesn’t have enough quality but when an novice like DDL can create such a positive change is Roma then they don’t have anything to back their claims.
Boulden’s bodyguard here again (or should I say his another fake account?) 👀👀
That’s what you took from my post? I don’t know that I can dumb it down any more than that, brother.
I am more interested to hear from @Poli. 🤡 Cause according to him: Milan should be winning treble, now that Maldini and Massara aren’t here to hold us back.
Pioli pre-match pressers … ” we need clarity”
Pioli post-match pressers … “we lacked quality”
I am taking about @Poli not Pioli, one of Furlani’s enthusiast on this site. Who has gone missing since June 2023.
Remember @Giancarlo and @Martin….
There was pleanty of bots here to defend the new ownership on everything that they would do. Seems they are gone now.
@Doki I do remember Giancarlo. As for Martin; are you referring to the Danish guy? Or another troll who was last spotted in June 2023 on this site?
Milan fan, Pretty sure he is refering to a different martin as there was one guy posting only with the name martin and no surname. Me and doki is at least on good terms in my book 🙂
@Martin Bernhard Yes yes, it’s a different Martin. I know for sure I have never said anything and will probably will never.
Doki 🙂 thanks yeah i would be surprised if it was in regard of me as we have a good repour as i see it and glad you share that notion as well.
You seem very happy Milan lost.
You seem to value thinking you win some online debate over your team winning.
By the way nothing should change. It’s one tie. It happens.
We’re finishing 2nd in the league and that’s what matters the most.
Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!
And there it is! The acceptance of mediocrity at its finest! Constant excuses. You must be Pioli’s brother or something LOL.
Hilarious
It doesn’t get more mediocre than fans celebrating their team going out of a tournament.
Most of the people down here don’t deserve a cup this season.
All you have done is attack and criticise the manager and the players.
If you’re not happy with the standard go do some other voluntary thing.
See my friend no fan with his or her right mind would deliberately celebrate the downfall of the team they have been supporting for several years through the tick and thin but what seems to be outrageous is the fact that the actual fans seem to know more than the actual Head coach Mr. Pioli who is supposed to become a strategist in a few years from now according to Arrigo Sacchi.
I tell you today that with same team I would have done something better than Mr. Pioli this season based on the fact that I know that he should stated stated Chukwueze on the right, Pulisic as the the central attacking midfielder and shift Ruben Loftus Cheek to collaborate with any of Tijjani ,Bennacer or Adli. The instructions should have been simple as ABC and fully unleash the wings department of the team and the team must defend together and Okafor should have been the starting striker and should be roaming with all the other forward players in Leao, Chukwueze and Pulisic.
Mr. Pioli is not a tactician let alone a strategist, in this kind of match you know your future depends on the outcome, either way you gonna lose the job come the end of the season and if I were to be in his shoes I would have risk it all while keeping it simple by playing ultra attacking and defensive football making sure no stone is left unturned satisfying my conscience and will be gratified that I did everything even if the eventual appraisal of season performances consequently result in sacking I would moved on with my shoulders held high.
Mr. Pioli gat no balls and is a big confusionist in the team I submit.
I rest my case.
So according to your logic or lack thereof, anyone who dares to criticize the players, coach or management are not real fans???? LOL. Please go and explain that to the Curva Sud and see where that gets you. 😂🤡
It is you who are not a true fan. It is you that have accepted mediocrity. Just be competitive and that’s good enough – like Atlanta. I suggest you go support them instead as you have zero passion for the club and will accept less than the best.
Since when have we as a club sunk so low? We were once on par with Real Madrid and now we have fans like you accepting 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc… place? Just happy to qualify?
For someone who criticizes management and Redbird for all of their (10) transfers – you sure are complicit in being brainwashed by that very same management/ownership into believing anything but wining titles is good enough. You are a walking contradiction buddy – and a poor one at that. The worse part is you don’t even realize it.
We are AC Milan. Not Fiorentina. Go support them if you are content with just being average. Expect more and you get more. Demand more and you get more. Hold ownership, management, players and coaches accountable. Nobody should be immune from criticism unless you don’t care about your team. The club belongs to the fans. Owners, managers, players, are only stewards of the club – they come and go – but what remains is the fans love and support. Get it yet buddy?
We want titles, being runner-up is never enough.
What ‘it happens’? Another match where Milan is outplayed for 60min by team playing in 10man?
It’s a joke, not ‘it happens’.
And what’s the diffrence (not talking about $ bonuses) in finishing 2nd and 4th (or even 5th this year)?
You always said about judge the whole season not match. Well, how about we judge all Pioli’s tenure at Milan? He’s been in this Milan for the 5th season. Yes 5th, not the 2nd or 3rd. And to see we don’t even have a clear identity about our playing style after the 5th season is a drawback to say the least.
Losing is one thing. Losing without playing any decent identity, without mentality, without clear idea is something else.
Glad that you don’t bring up any of your ‘what ifs’ mentality. It’s an improvement.
Pioli helped the team qualify for the Champions League and won a historical scudetto when the expectations were very low for him. But reaching the Champions League and finishing 2-4 in the league is not enough when the whole foundation of the club is build on winning trophies. DDL read Pioli like an open book he had a counter for every play we were trying to create, some loses should be on the manager, we never even looked threatening in the 180 minutes played against Roma. This is not what we should be aiming for, replacing a manager is not as difficult as it looks when there is an abundance of upcoming managers who all deserve a chance to manage the team and maybe your opinion will change once this happens next season.
How can you be so delusional. Finishing 2nd in the league just papers over the cracks. We can all see through and see the faults. You seems to be happy with finishing 2nd with subpar and stubborn performances.
Wake up man. I’m one of the biggest Milan fans there is and I used to defend pioli at the start but I’ve had enough now. Time for change.
Hahaha I was about to type this same comment 😂😂😂
Was reading his comments on one of the other articles and he was slating people who were saying de Rossi was a genius and stuff haha.
cardinale 💩
furlani 💩
moncada 💩
scaroni 💩
pioli 💩
zlatan (i used to admired him) 1/2 💩
You’re Dense.
i’m sorry, did i hurt your little feeling?
Don’t worry, your IQ is not high enough for that.
awwww.. your even know the word IQ
It’s an abbreviation actually and I rest my case. 🤣
Tomori the best defender.. did I watch a different game? He was awful. Apart from musah, gabbia and a couple others, these players today played like they were ahead 1-0 in the tie. Whatever happens, tonight was the players fault completely. Whoever is coaching next season, if this is the attitude and effort we put into quarter final ties we will never see results.
Leao played s**t football today but still managed to get an assist. That should sum up our lackluster performance.
Bad mix of poor tactics again and players not showing up again… something’s gotta give. Well, a lot of the blame lies with the tactics Pioli used, or didn’t use, the players also have to take responsibility.
I won’t judge Pioli on a single game, because overall he has done well with this team. But unfortunately, in this game, all of his shortcomings surfaced to light again.
You nailed it on the head.
How many times are we supposed to “not judge Pioli on a single game” before you finally just admit it’s NOT been just a single game where he’s been so absolutely outclassed by his opposing manager (and a younger, far less experienced one at that?) You even say at the end, “all of his shortcomings surfaced to light AGAIN.” C’mon.
You’re absolutely right, he has been inconsistent during his entire tenure. But during the games he wins he gets no praise.
He got us out of some dark times and has developed many of our players into their better selves.
But he also continues to make the same mistakes that he always has. And I have always said that eventually we need to upgrade on him.
Unfortunately, for him, in this one game, he showed every single shortcoming that he had.
Poor tactics, wrong selection, we were outplayed by 10men, it’s disappointing and disgraceful
I usually defend Pioli, but today’s defeat is in big part on Pioli. He should have kept tension a lot higher during the week. I’m not going to say anything about which players sucked, because frankly we didn’t play as a team, and we lacked intensity. In the interviews, Pioli had a lot of calmness and confidence which imo was misplaced.
At this point, I have very little hope for the derby. We’ll see what management will do next year, this should be a lesson for them as well.
It’s not ONE game – that is the problem. It’s many games over many seasons when faced against better tactical coaches. He hasn’t changed/evolved tactically – so what do we do just accept it and give him many more years to finally change?? He would have done so by now. All the experts say it, heck it was front page of the newspapers – Pioli schooled by De Rossi.
It’s obviously he cannot improve his tactics and that for me is the nail on the coffin IF we really aspire to be a great club again
I agree. He’s tactically limited and hasn’t improved any of his shortcomings.
If the tactics were so bad how come we created 20 chances to Roma’s 6?
10 vs. 11 players for over an hour ring a bell?
That’s a very silly take you have.. wasnt it 2-0 for Roma for basically the whole game.. and you want to talk about tactics? And how we had more shoots?
FFS
I find it interesting that you pretty much cherrypicked this stat and ignored that we were beaten twice and losing 2-0 to 10 men until the dying minutes of the game.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter how many chances you created, the ones you score and conceide are the only relevant ones.
Where is Boulden and his Minions? I am sorry brother but I’ve said it before Milan will be content with Top 4 finish. The way we have been playing from the beginning of the season was a recipe for disaster.
You mean being second in the league?
being second means nothing at all except winning the league.
do you mean that second place can play in the UCL?
third & fourth place can also play in UCL, also if uefa increase the quota based on fifa ranking, 5 Italian teams can play in UCL.
can’t beat inter in the last 2 seasons, in the league or in Europe, can’t win against big teams in the league, and can’t win in crucial Europe matches.
We were fifth last season. Is this not an improvement?
You’re right in the sense that there are factors he has not improved upon, like how to defend better and how to beat inter.
We were 4th. Juve cheated and had they not had those players they would not have finished top 4. Ya we are second (for now) – but we are second in a down year for Napoli and Lazio and benefitted from Mourhino at Roma half the season. We will see where we end up but claiming hey we are second BEFORE the season is over isn’t saying much and going from the SEMI finals of UCL to not even qualifying then getting bounced from Europa – is hardly a successful season.
My my how many fans have lowered their standards of what is expected of our club. Congrats Gerry – mission accomplished. Make the fans believe just being competitive is good enough. We were once on par with Real Madrid – UCL champs or nothing. And now we are pleased to maybe finish SECOND place. LOL. What a fall from grace. Silvio is rolling in his grave.
Shame
How many big games against good teams have we won this season? 2? Stop defending mediocrity just to be different
The leagues a joke. What’s to brag about being in second when no serie a team is good? Inter are 16 points clear of anyone. It’s an embarrassment and some people need to pull the wool from their eyes. Being in second in a horrible league and crashing out of Europe isn’t something I will brag about. We haven’t played a great game all season long.
Listen, does Milan deserve better? Absolutely. Can you achieve everything at once with the slew of new players and tactically limited coach? No, absolutely not.
It is a process. It will take time. And a better tactician .
It all starts with a new manager. A world class one that only accepts winning. We’re 2-3 players away and a coach to make them click away from being a very good team. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that we should be playing better than what we are, and we should have better results in certain games. It’s been a bad year.
How is Pioli ‘tactically limited’ if we’re second in Serie A?
I know that’s an accepted narrative around this parts including amongst his defenders – but accepted narratives are often total BS.
See religion.
Accepted narratives just means everyone repeating the same thing without really thinking.
Like….,religion.
This. This team will not develop with the current coach. We’ve seen that already. The change is needed. The change is evitable.
@MH tactics are one aspect of a win.
Player quality is another. We have incredible players. That is how we are in second.
Player motivation is another. Pioli is a fine man manager.(Tho this game not so much it seemed)
Player fitness is another.
Etc etc etc
It’s a complex system to deliver wins per game. Today we can see that tactical prep and execution is the biggest constraint to wins per game.
When the biggest constraint in a system is evident, you fix it. Anything else is merely tinkering.
Glad you added Tactician !!
I had been saying for months that the idea that Milan could win the UEL was naive. European competitions need tactical, technical quality and winner’s mentality. De Rossi has instantly given Roma a winning mentality, hence the result. Some of Milan’s players are too lazy, and the game is slow and quite predictable. Better luck next season.
Todays loss had nothing to do with winning mentality. Roma didn’t win because they where great. We lost because we where terrible. Pioli got his tactics wrong. Milan has the players to reach the final but not the coach to lead them.
Well said, mate. I’ve always loved Pioli, but, tonight, he got the player-selection and tactics totally wrong. What was the point of bringing Musah into a game you needed to attack from both wings, and the midfield, leaving out Reijnders? We expected Adli, if Bennacer failed or tired out. Poor, poor, tactics. And we had a man advantage – I completely forgot that. Our players are still the same, but, the coach failed them, the fans, and management tonight. I think Pioli has shot himself in the foot.
Don’t encourage shinter fans bro. They’re scum
“Todays loss had nothing to do with winning mentality. ”
Roma wanted to win. Milan didn’t. Milan also lacked any tactics and teamplay. That’s why Roma progressed.
Every time I see your name on here I’m reminded of your cheating, sorry, I mean completely worthy winners, and wonder what you’re doing here.
The bizarre thing is he shows more respect than some of the alleged ‘fans’/other inter fans are who not as open about their identities.
As a milan, dude shut the fck up. No one knows why ur here. Such a nuisance.
Go give back Juve their Scudetto that y’all took from that farce of a trail in 06. Your sh!t a$$ team got a paper trophy. Work on your real second star in the next two Scudettos
Champions league qualification. 2nd 3rd 4th.
Why did Musah play? He should never start a game. Maybe he can come in in the 89th against Lecce if we’re 3-0 up. Other than that scenario. He has nothing to do on the field.
Him playing was the biggest reason that we lost imo. Him playing means losing midfield totally.
I’m so angry at how Milan played today. If Pioli stays for next season I think I’m out of watching games until somone says he has totally changed our game. Cause right now Milan is very boring and predictable…
Musah didn’t even play in the midfield for the most part. What game are you watching?
PLAYING NO DEFENSE AND 80 % is one reason why we lost !!! THANK YOU LEAO !!!!!!!
I think Chuk deserves a pass. Great shot miraculously saved by the goalie. Earned corners, made some dangerous crosses. We could have done better if he had played the whole game.
I do agree that Maignan earned a pass.
I do think that only Maignan and Chuk deserved a pass today, but maybe Rafa too for the assist.
Gabbia, mixed; he scored, but also got bullied by Lukaku in their essential first goal that broke our resolve.
Everybody else, poor.
Pioli, horrible. Started Giroud although he’s been putrid for the last several games. Didn’t start Chuk who has been in obvious red hot form.
At this point I think Pioli should be fired immediately and a caretaker should coach the squad for the last few games. This way maybe we may have some motivation not to lose to Inter and let them celebrate their Scudetto in front of our home crowd. If Pioli is still there, he will sit Chuk and start Giroud again, given that he never learns from his mistakes.
Maybe a new coach will start against Inter the offense that everybody knows might work better than Pioli’s preferred:
Puli as CAM. Chuk on the right wing. Rafa left. Okafor as the striker.
And the new guy wouldn’t start Thiaw over Gabbia which is what Pioli loves to do. At least he didn’t do it today but that doesn’t save him from his other horrible mistakes.
This site keeps saying “you are posting too quickly” when the last time I posted was one hour ago.
I agree with everything you wrote. However, I just fear they’ll bring in a coach like Conte who will tear everything apart, destroy morale (more than it currently is), demotivate the new talent that is obviously working well, and tantrum publicly for 1.5 seasons until Milan sells the entire roster and buys a new one.
Thank you for this. Why can’t Pioli have a consistent starting 11. Again, Giroud is finished, I have always maintained my arguments. He has nothing to offer anymore
“Although we are playing in a Champions League semi-final, we are not yet at the level of the best clubs. We have to make investments now, to reach that level and not risk taking steps backwards,” – Maldini April 2023
One year from then we are in deep mess
Forza Lord Cardinale and his puppets
Maldini was right.
Of course he was. Don’t let these airheads on this site fool u into thinking otherwise
Amen.
Huge mistake to dismiss him, not to mention the way it was done.
And he also said we already had a great foundation (mix of young and experienced squad) and just had to invest in 1-2 important players each season to complete it. But no, we’re doing a wholesale recruitment this season. Backed with our genius coach who’d like to invent his own version of 433 with all box to box mids, modern and European football.
What happened? It went fiasco and he reverted it back to our 4231 identity and start those previous winning run. Just imagine if this summer we simply tried in perfecting our already-laid-there foundation.
Exactly, this would have been a wonderful season if we continued with that plan.
💯💯💯
Like I’ve been saying. This year we’ve been “made whole” from prior seasons. Meaning we really had the same level of team. It wasn’t a team much better than say the Scudetto winning season if this team can only muster a point or so better, a few goals better and waaaaaay more goals conceded. It’s obvious the level hasn’t been raised, just different personnel operating in different roles. Lost Tonali and Kessie, gained Deers and RLC …ok…that’s not a clear overall improvement, I’m sorry. It’s just certain aspects.
We seem to have regressed without Maldini and Massara. How can the club forget to buy a DM but buy a 20m Musah who is completely useless.
That’s about it for Pioli, for sure. I will forever his wonderful Scudetto season, but I can’t put the blame of this failure on players. It was 50% his fault and 50% the management’s. Going through a full season with a 37 year old striker and Jovic who nobody wanted was beyond madness. Tonali was crucial and he was never replaced.
Wasted season, and God knows what’s in store with a new coach next season. I’m not excited about the names we’re hearing for the Milan bench anyway.
Fully agree.
Pioli is appreciated because he doesn’t flip the table like Conte when management doesn’t buy the players he wants, so not sure if these were players he wanted. He wanted to keep Krunic in summer because we had no other midfielder who’d play a defensive filter. He also asked for a new solid defender in January, which we didn’t get, with all due respect for Gabbia.
Also from management point of view, this is not a wasted year, we’re moving with new marketing deals, steps for U23 and new stadium, we’re keeping books in check and hopefully next year the management will have more experience and understand better what needs to be done.
From the fans point of view, this day was very difficult to digest… I blame both management and Pioli but I also understand the logic of most of the operations done so far. Also for EL, the disappointment is mostly due to Liverpool elimination which increased our chances of winning. That said, even with Leverkusen, we’d be the clear underdog.
💯💯💯
Another embarrassment by a Pioli led team. Unprepared for the umpteenth time this season. How many times Milan went down early in games? That’s on the coach.
I lost all hope even before the game when I saw Milan’s best midfielder (Reijnders) benched for Milan’s worst midfielder ( Bennacer).
Pioli out coached by a rookie coach who has been Roma coach for 2 months.
After the Slavia games I said Milan isn’t going far in the competition, because 11v11 Slavia was better than Milan and only the 2 early red cards in both games allowed Milan to go thru. In 3 of the last 4 games in EL Milan had man advantage from early in the 1st half and are out of the competition.
Roma deserved it. Even with a man down they were better. De Rossi amazing coach, tactically and mentality wise. Players are dying for him, after they were dead under the dinosaur Mourinho.
Can we all agree now that the bum coach needs to go or there are still some Pioli die hard fans, ala that senile old fool sacchi that wants Pioli to stay?
Last nail on this season coffin will be Monday when Inter fans will sing Pioli’s on fire while they celebrate their 20th scudetto and 2nd 🌟.
I wouldn’t even be against Conte being hired anymore. Milan needs mentality adjustment to wash off the Pioli mediocrity, that have spread around like a disease even around the fans who like to count points while inter counts trophies.
Conte is a proven winner and even some of the fans, especially the so called best players on the team, needs attitude adjustment. Conte will provide that, even though it will probably be for at most 2 years.
Agree 100%
Glad if Giroud gone. His seniority and maturity failed big time. Time for refresh summer
Wait, I think Thiaw is disqualified for the derby, right? So whoever is coaching Milan, won’t be able to start him over Gabbia, thankfully.
Yep. His yellow card was the best thing at the Sassuolo match. 🙂
Well, there goes one more trophyless season. Its pointless to explain Pioli mistakes, we all know they are pleanty and that he is not good enough. Hopefully the managment will find a good coach or even better sell the club to some more ambitious owners who understand the value of Milan and is ready to invest and win trophies.
Seems like the same players fail to perform:
Bennacer – no midfield dominance or any useful contribution.
Calabria – limited. Inverting him adds zero to play.
Musah – great on the ball but can’t seem to make the right pass. But he’s young. That comes from experience.
RLC – again nothing useful except for a couple of shots on goal that came close to be fair.
Puli – hasn’t had a big impact over last two ties.
Giroud – our big game player is already soaking up the sun in LA.
Gabbia – not Milan quality still despite being better than Thiaw so far.
Leao – can’t carry the team.
Finally Pioli – same limits, same mistakes, same lack or tactical awareness and inability to change game plan mid-game…
For the second game in a row players aren’t showing up for an important European fixture. This is the most worrisome sign for a coach/club.
Benny is washed up but most fans still have this delusion that with time he would get back to a peak he never had. I like him but he had kessi and tonali to make him look good. Now, dude can’t play a forward pass, indecisive, poor positioning,et me stop here.
I think Calabria looks like Arnold Trent to Pioli cause I don’t understand this inverted role.
RLC is no AMF, using him in this position always puts us a man down. He does not create, doesn’t help defensively despite his strength which he is always praised for. I don’t know how Pioli doesn’t see this.
Pulisic was supposed to be the go to man when Leao is shut down but he always find a way to disappear when we play a big team. Puli adds nothing to the RW, aside his positioning and shooting from outside the box, he does nothing in the game. For me, he is not effective in the RW, why not play him as the AMF that we have seen him performing. I stand to be corrected.
Giroud 4.5 is generous. His main contribution I saw was yelling at him team mates. So much of the ball in attack and he added nothing.
Musah was so frustrating. He tried hard but so many bad passes.
Pulisic had very little contribution.
If Pioli picks of front line again for Inter of Leao, RLC, Pulisic, Giroud; he should be sacked before kick off
Lol
Well what can you say, that was terrible.
Not a huge surprise, we have been beating rubbish teams and struggling against decent ones.
Roma deserve it, I hope they and Atalanta go far.
I was shocked by the lineup today and our attitude the last day and today.
I’m glad Giroud is leaving, maybe he can take RLC with him.
I have not been 1 who has called for Pioli’s head, while I have been critical. I now however believe we need a new manager, it is always a risk but it is time. He had 3 important games and he has failed miserably in the 1st two.
I honestly don’t care about the derby now.
This is the type of result that will make our better players think seriously about leaving. Why would Mike or Theo not go to Bayern or whoever
Man, you’re right. Pioli failed the players tonight, with his selection and tactics. Like you, I care less about the derby. There’s nothing to prove. Tactically, Pioli has failed. It hurts, because I like him. But, it’s time for him to move on. The management just need to be careful in picking a replacement.
Do not blame Pioli too much. He has his part of the blame (a huge amoung of blame, indeed) but the players did nothing to win the match. Many were individual errors that Pioli can’t fix. Like in the first goal the Roma player who scored was between two Milan players (Calabria and Bennacer if I am not mistaken). They could have easily prevented the goal but they were sleeping. Some of the players kept passing the ball to Roma. You can’t blame Pioli for such dumb player mistakes. There is a reason why Man City, RM, Arsenal, Bayern etc buy top quality players: no matter how good the coach is, with low quality players you can’t win anything.
If you want him take him at Inter.
He is a low quality coach, not Milan having low quality players.
Milan lost to Roma not Real Madrid. Roma doesn’t have higher quality players, they just have a higher quality coach than Pioli.
There is no big difference in overall player quality between Roma and Milan. Milan not winning any trophy is not a big deal because Milan’s mildfield is crappy (no decent DM etc), the attack is “led” by either a 37 years old guy who can’t run or by someone who came for free because nobody wanted for him, and the defenders keep making silly mistakes.
Milan beat Roma easily twice this season with the “crappy” midfield and the no difference in quality between the 2 teams, but since they hired a new coach they beat Milan twice.
Yeah it’s not the coach but the low quality players. 🤔
You want Pioli, you can take him over there.
Why are so thick? I am not saying that Pioli is doing well. I am saying that the team’s overall quality too has to be blamed. You can win two games against Roma, but with such kind of a team there is no guarantee you will win the next two as well. Anyways, I guess you are quite furious now after the match, so discussing with you might be a waste of time.
Hey thick inter fan, Milan is 14 points ahead of Roma on the table, how is there not much difference in quality between the 2 teams?
Inter had 14 points advantage over Milan, based on your logic there isn’t much difference in quality between the 2 teams right?
The coach makes the difference
Clearly it’s the coach. Di Rossi used the same tactics Inzaghi used with Inter to beat Milan twice. De Rossi said so himself that he used Inzaghi tactics.
Tactics is important to win games. Roma sat back and counter attack. That’s how they beat us in two legs. Pioli doesn’t know how to beat Inter and now with De Rossi he doesn’t know how to beat Roma.
Milan needs to replace Pioli this summer. Tactically he doesn’t learn from his mistakes which why it’s so easy for Inter to beat Milan.
Lol this BS again. He spent 100mil on players last season, how are Roma players better ? Also it has been proven 100times that tactics, that is the coach, affects how players perform. Again look at Roma before and now with De Rosi, did they got 11new players or what ? You want different example ? Which top players does Xhavi Alonso has ?
lol If the players do not know how to pass the ball, when they sleep on the pitch and the striker is either a 37 years old or a guy who came for free because nobody wanted him, Pioli gets the entire blame. Xabi Alonso, he has the kind of Wirtz (way better than any Milan players, rest assured of that), Grimaldo, Frimpong, Boniface plus hard working players who keep running. The coach should prepare the tactics; if the players sleep on the pitch there is no “tactic” to wake them up.
You literally didn’t knew any of those players until this season lol. And why is that ? Cause they were nobodies until Alonso put them on the map. Without him they never performed good. Players play with urgency or with boring slow football depending on the style of the coach. Its not the players who chose the style of play. You get what you train for. And that is based on the coach. And as people have told you Milan didn’t lost to Real Madrid but to Roma. So that’s that when talking about players quality.
“You literally didn’t knew any of those players until this season”
Wirtz has been known as one of Europe’s biggest talents for 2 or 3 years. Frimpong has been looked at by major teams for a few years as well. Boniface was one of the biggest buys in the history of Leverkusen because he did show his talent in Belgium and other major teams too were interested in him in the summer. Xabi Alonso is a great coach, that is for sure though and he making Leverkusen punch above their weight.
Yes, Milan lost to Roma and Milan is not a elite-level team, so losing to Roma is not a surprise. Roma is not Lecce, Verona or Salernitana. So “that’s that when talking about players quality”.
Boniface market value when he joined Leverkusen 12mil now 40mil. Frimpong value 4mil now 50mil. Wirtz 200k when he joined… You are just proving what everyone is telling you here but i guess your ego doesn’t allow you to admit it. The market value of all this players has skyrocketed under Alonso. Also XD “Yes, Milan lost to Roma and Milan is not a elite-level team, so losing to Roma is not a surprise” so Roma is an elite team now ? lol. Milan value 533mil, Roma 327mil.
With all due respect, Milan individual players are clearly better, if not a lot, than Roma. The difference is that they play as a unit. And that’s the coach main responsibility to glue all the talents into a unit.
Milan used to play in unit. We used to defend, attack, and press as unit. But not this season. Not once I said in this forum that Pioli is more and more dependant to individual skllls of certain players and that’s, most of the time, the start of a downhill curve.
And look Roma for an instance. Under Mourinho, they used to be our dog under your great Mourinho. And with the same exact players, De Rossi can turn things around. The coach plays far more vital role than just an in game strategy. They need to transmit value. Create winning mentality. And so on.
Milan has a better team than Roma, but not by a big margin. So just the mood of the team can make the difference is such cases. De Rossi is doing a great job (though time will tell), and Pioli indeed should go. But still the team has its share of the blame, and without fixes to the team no coach can really make Milan a serious, continuous challenger for silverware. With the team Milan has, every Roma can beat them and that should not come as a surprise.
You must really have no life outside the basement, huh kiddo?
This. 100%. Same players, different coach, different spirit, different outcome. That’s what a capable coach does.
Pioli is a Coach who is incapable of learning from his mistakes, he came with the same game plan in the first leg, couldn’t he have changed the line up and formation, he decided to field a very weak and exposed midfield, we could have started with a midfield 3, why would he continue to play a tired and absent minded Giroud .
What I have now understood, we lost 3 good players Diaz , Alexis and Tonali, and we replaced them with average players, no movement, no creativity, we need a coach who understands how to play, in God’s name, why do we still play with an inverted system, Pioli needs to leave, Inter will destroy us..
The lack of creativity is killing us because we have no tactics. No one knows how we’re supposed to create scoring chances besides the “pass the ball to Leao and pray”. Pioli isn’t helping the players at all.
I don’t think Milan will keep Pioli after tonight’s poor game. I expected him to put the game on the ground, with Okafor upfront, rather than Giroud, who’s always backing the post, and Chukwueze on the wing; Pulisic to replace Loftus-Cheek, who has performed below par in the last two games. Reijnders and Bennacer in the middle. The attack would have kept Roma back, and ensured we had possession. Rather, he started Giroud again, forcing us to play the crossing game, which didn’t work in the first leg. Musah’s inclusion completely changed the way Milan plays, knocking Leao out of the first half. Pioli’s tactics tonight were dead wrong. At a point, different players were just moving out positions. So, so, disappointed with the way the team was set up.
Things I’m tired of from this Milan:
– Pioli
– Leao’s attitude, body language and invisibility vs good teams (there is a reason good teams stayed away from him, he was a flop that had 1 and half good seasons and can’t be relied upon)
– Pioli’s predictable and inflexible tactics
– RLC’s movement like a snail
– Making stupid substitutions, leaving our best midfielders in the bench and playing the actual worst
– Giroud not impacting the game for 90 minutes
– Soft defending vs Physical attackers
Time to look at next season, hopefully with a competent coach. Cheers all fans, we have a good team on paper, we just need to exploit it and hold people accountable.
Leao gave the assist to our only goal. He did more for the final score than anybody else, given that Gabbia did score but also failed in both of Roma’s goals.
But certain people always criticize Leao, no matter what.
This constant defense of Leao is why he will never grow.
Oh, he assisted on the goal! Great , hive him a cookie. He was dog poo throughout the both games.
He assisted after the tie was over, just like in serie A he started performing after Milan missed out on the scudetto.
As per usual leao shows up a day late and a dollar short.
But according to him, it’s not how you start but how you finish. Well he had trash start and had a passable finish. Give him a cookie.
Teams about to line up and offer Milan 100 plus for him. Not.
Football is all about goals and assists. All the great teams in the world would kill for a terrible player who comes up with a goal or an assist every match, cause that’s what win you matches. Leao is a fantastic player.
He has already won Milan a Scudetto. Leao is not Milan’s problem, we will be 10 times worst without him on the pitch. Anybody who is stupid enough to doubt that can check the stats from the times we have played without him.
Milan without Leao will only be worse if Pioli stays as a coach. Other teams don’t have Leao and are doing just fine.
Milan needs their fantastic player to perform when it counts not when it’s all lost.
He was part of the team that won a scudetto, he didn’t win it for Milan. Giroud stepped up that year when it counted the most.
Suso was Milan’s best player in goals and assists. Was replaced first with Castillejo, then with Saelemakers, back to back upgrades…both players contributed less in goals/assists but made the team much better.
The plan used to be “ball to Suso, he cuts inside and either crosses on the back post, or tries to score”
Even Messi and Mbappé are useless when the gameplan sucks. Leao is one of the best talents in the world, but he needs to play in the right setup. Of course if the team fails, the player fails also. What exactly did you expect him to do when Roma put 3 to 5 players around him and fouled him every time he took flight? He reduced them to 10 and made an assist out of nothing when nobody else could. What more is he supposed to do in the circumstances?
Think, do you really believe we would have fared better with a Hauge, Okafor or Castillejo starting this match? lol
Let me ask this, what more could Mbappé do in this match? In place of Leao?
Leao made some mistakes but he still looked our most dangerous player. He caused the red card for Roma and eventually got an assist.
He was not the problem tonight and was much more involved than the first leg.
Geee wonder why people criticize our supposed star and highest paid player when he doesn’t show up for 85 minutes, flops 1 good center in garbage time, doesn’t contribute to defending and has the worst attitude/effort on the field. Completely undeserved criticism…
But hey, he was the MVP in the scudetto season. 😀 That carries on for decades too.
Agree with ELPotro 100 percent !!! Sell LAZY LEAO !!
Leao had a poor game, despite the assist. My love for him doesn’t make me blind to the truth. If he were to go to Man City, you would see a different Leao. Today’s performance was below par, but, I don’t blame him, or any of the guys for the loss. Pioli was out of sorts.
You just want to criticize leao, at least he had an assist, also added the numerical advantage with his bursting run, despite the tactical error by the poor coach. Tactics and selection was our undoing not Leao
Also, an addition to my older comment. This match also proves that our transfer strategy has been wrong. The same players never perform in big games, as much as I hate Pioli for this team selection and lack to trust on the in-form players, the players, the management everyone is to blame for this loss. Some of these players can’t even make a decent pass, they lose the ball all the time, always lazy while opponents are on the attack. This should also be addressed in the next transfer window.
Whenever we are a goal down or two down mostly early in a game, we tend to struggle a lot to get back into the game.
It’s speaks a lot about the teams mentality…. As much as Stefano has a large share of this pie, the players also are culpable. What makes a top team is always that ability to stay focus and not cave in to a goal i.e the man city vs Madrid game, watch both legs. From coach to players, it’s just giving it your all till the last minute.
How does Pioli get a 4 ? Is it out of pity or benevolence @Isak ?
@Isak also should have given Adli a 2 for managing to get a yellow card whilst warming up.
Forcing even a man as stubborn as Pioli from changing his presumed plan not bringing him on. At that point of the match the team could have used his passing and carrying abilities to unlock the Roma defence.
Was wondering the same. As someone who defends the coach alot, I’d say this was attrocious
A couple of week ago when I said “Roma after Mourinho left and Daniele de Rossi took over, are at least as good as we are” people here laughed at me and ridiculed what I was saying. People said we always beat Roma.
I guess now we know who was right.
I also said Leverkusen are better than we are. I was laughed at, and ridiculed again. People said they hadn’t accomplished anything. Well, they did something we were unable to do: they advanced to the semifinals. And they have now a streak of 44 unbeaten games. FORTY-FOUR!!!! And in the meantime, they won the Bundesliga. Yeah, sure, they haven’t accomplished anything (insert rolling eyes).
I guess now we know who was right.
Super narcissistic comment
Quickly erase this comment before Boulden sees it. He will say “you are a fake milan supporter and prayed that bad things happen to milan so you can be right”
At one point we had three strikers (Giroud, Jovic and Ok4) and three wingers (Puli, Chuk and Leao)
That roughly makes us a 2-2 6. We still couldnt look dangerous.
Musah is getting a world of stick for his passing. But who passed well?
What bugs me is this 3.CF and 3 wings is not something they could have practiced. So it smacks of a lack of preparation a lack of faith in the ones own system and desperation. It’s what some random fan here would do in the name of pling out all the stops.
Next, there was no halftime bounce. We didn’t come out motivated moving faster.ot crisper. That is all in the coach.
Worse, the ref early let them play. Yet or players moaned and rolled and complained. That’s players desperate for a n advantage they don’t believe they can create on their own or through the system put on place.
Pioli has lost his players and he has lost this fan. I am unclear who we go for, but clearly we need our own DDR.
Good points
I don’t think Pioli lost them, per se. I think it’s just that the players are comfortable around him. You cannot improve if you’re comfortable. A new tactician needs to come in to bring new ideas and expectations of progress and improvement.
It’s been five years. It’s time for the next chapter.
Stale is how I’d summarize your point.
Given it describes our last three performances accurately I agree.
But honestly 3 strikers, 3 forwards totalling something like 80 goal involvements this season against 10 men and we were anemic. Desperation is not sexy.
Coaching aside, we have a big problem with leadership and winning mentality (I think Maldini and Zlatan’s departure has to do with it).
We do fine when things are going our way, but when things get dire, almost no one steps up to inspire the others. And here the blame is with our “leaders” like Calabria, Giroud, Leao and Theo. The coach is also supposedly a leader but Pioli is not that coach.
Overall, I’m thankful for what was accomplished, but in order to improve and make progress, I think we should consider alternatives coaching wise.
Pioli tactic already exposed to many coach in serie A . From Simone inzaghi, Gasperini,Palladino now De rossi. All of them already know how to win vs high press pioli. 5 years already enough , ACM need refresh their coach if still target trophy, but if only want finish top 4 each season without trophy then just use pioli forever
If this doesn’t seal pioli’s fateI don’t know what will. He was out smarted by de rossi. Roma actually looked like a team with heart, we have no heart. No tactics whatsoever and this just convinced me more than I already knew that pioli can’t bring us to the next level. There is zero excuse because on paper our team is miles better. We don’t play nice football, I’ve said it from the beginning of the season and it’s 100% on pioli. Way too inconsistent and this season has been long and stressful. When inter demolish us it’s not about pioli’s fate, it will just be to put a dagger in Rossoneri hearts.
I’m at the point that I’ll gladly take Conte because he has a winning mentality. He makes your players winners and this team needs a top coach like that. It’s been really bad and there’s no justifying it from anybody. We deserve better.
What happens when we win the derby?
we delay Inter’s second star by one week. Big deal
We wake up from a wonderful dream
Honestly it depends on how. If Pioli adapts to Inzaghi and there is a clear execution then I’m really happy. If we win I am happy. If we lose but play well I am happy
I expect to be disappointed.
I get that our CBs are still mix and match. We get them back then they get a card and have to miss yet another game due to the sins of the earlier season when we seemed determined to win the malloit jaune (oops wait wrong sport)
What I don’t get is the mix and match midfield. How can it be obvious to me that starting Adli and Reinjders is what we need starting a goal down? WTF Bennacer and Musah? Where is the two goals in that? Musah off the bench is great. Benny needs the off season as it is clear he isn’t recovered yet he doesn’t need to start the most important game of our season.
Okay gotta stop the rant. Thanks for helping me get it out of my system!
Our midfield has been wrong all season. Pioli must have thought Musah and Benny could put up a fight with the more physical Roma players. It did not work, the wet surface played against us and we suffered for it.
We need to diversify our attack. We are the most predictable team in Serie A and we can not out skill the top teams. We all want to see attractive football but we honestly don’t have players that are that much better than the opponent which they need to be to always play on the front foot.
I’d say Musah did pit fight them. But Pyrrhic victories because he could find a team mate.
Benny was simply manhandled. He clearly doesn’t have the let’s to avoid the big guys simply making him irrelevant.
People keep asking WTF Giroud. The reason is Jo ic an dOk4 are not target men. Jovic is better at hold up and link up by a mile but our wings are not playing that way. So we have to play a target man because we only seem to know how to play that way.
I mean jeebers RLC might as well be an SS. Why not slly acknowledge that him and Jovic make a pretty fine pair and adapt with a 352 going forward when they are on. 505 and todays “226” really don’t seem buot.to break down a low block. Apparently true even when. There are only 9 men in it.
Again I rant about stuff I’m only really just learning. Thanks the shoulder to cry on KH!
This has been one of the more stressful seasons in a while becuase we appear to be headed in the right direction only to come crashing down to earth, but its football. I am hoping we finish the season with a clearer picture of how to move foward. Just think if Pioli beats Inter and Juve and finishes strong we are stuck in limbo again for another summer.
I expect to be disappointed , Haha thats Funny.
As I see it, management will almost always get what it deserves and this result is what it deserved.
You can’t undermine the coach in this way and then expect to beat a side as good as Roma is under De Rossi.
It’s this stupid arrogance that Milan has basically done nothing to justify for more than a decade now.
Just look at the teams, player for player. Theo, Leao and Tomori are the only guys who are clearly better than their counterpart on the other side. That’s not to say that every other Roma player is better but the teams are evenly matched. Milan does not have a midfielder who is better than this versions of Pellegrini, for example. Paredes is another very good player and is back in form. Roma pre-De Rossi is not relevant to this tie.
Having said that, the writing has been on the wall. Goals conceded to a Czech minnow, a draw against Sassuolo. All of rekindled love for Pioli was on the back of a soft draw. All indications are that Inter is going to belt Milan.
So management will get its wish and its excuse to move on from Pioli. Problem is that the alternatives are now underwhelming.
It was always going to be hard to break Roma down. This was compounded by the ref allowing rugby tackles in the box. On one corner, both Giroud and Leao were pulled down by players behind them while going for the ball. The ref was the only thing worse than the Milan players.
Embarrassing to say the least.
I know I know – the Pioli supporters will continue to find excuses and claim Pioli did a good job this season and management for that matter.
But reasonable people all know the truth.
We were simply out coached and outclassed OVER 2 GAMES by a hungrier and tactically better team. PERIOD.
If this doesn’t prove Pioli is NOT a TACTICAL coach nothing will. Time for a change. De Rossi schooled him….AGAIN.
Inverted RB? Starting Bennacer and Musah – who both have been terrible all season? leaving Chuck on the bench (who has finally has found his form) in favor of Pulisic who should have been moved inside instead of RLC so Chuck could start at RW; waiting until half time to make any meaningful subs and only putting in the wasteful Jovic; leaving Calabria and Musah in way too long when we needed offense/goals; not being able to solve El Shawary locking up Theo one again…..shall I go on???
Look I have said many times I like Pioli and appreciate all he has done but like everything in life – all things come to an end. Pioli cycle at Milan is one of them. And there is nothing wrong with that. So we can continue to find excuses and complain when we get beat by higher quality teams or just better coached ones OR we can attempt to make a change for the better. Will it work out? who knows. BUT we all know what we have now and that is a coach who is limited TACTICALLY- and until that is remedied we will not become an elite club no matter what transfers we make.
Let’s see how serious Furlani and Gerry are about WINNING vs being competitive. Make the call Zlatan and bring in a tactical coach once and for all.
Saturday should be interesting
AND management doesn’t get a pass either. Sure Would have been nice to have Lukaku knocking people over for us instead of the other way around – but nah – of course we went the cheap route and took a player in Jovic nobody wanted. Brilliant.
Piolose out
This is arrogance of management, we shoud sign Dybala when he’s free agent. Now guirassy is one example to sign but dunno about mercato this summer
We should have signed Dybala 2 years ago but went for CDK
Oh where do I begin. Game needed an Adli type player to spray the passes, not Jovic. Left out the two best passers of the ball in favour of more aggressive minded players wtf. Btw, what exactly does RLC do? His inflated goal stats against Slavia and Rennes can’t fool me. Maybe other people they do but dude never scores against big teams (bullying small teams is fine but if management really think he’s the one to get us to the next level in Europe then they need to think again)..Why was Musah right wing? What does he really do well? Serious questions need to be asked. Plays inverted full backs when we wing play and not through the middle thereby negating the whole reason for inversion smh
The decisions were baffling. Roma set up the same way 2 games in a row and we didn’t have an answer??
Second half comes along and Deers comes on. Wowee. Entire first half I’m thinking he must be injured. Incredible. Pioli plays the two worst mids, left the two best ones on the bench. But to make it worse Adli gets a yellow while warming up smh. LMAO. Talk about shooting ourselves in our foot.
Where’s Ted? I think we can safely land on no DM, no party. Just look at the lack of protection in front of our defence and then look at Roma’s.
Sometimes I wished we could just defend like how Roma did with 9 and just counter. Compact with players in front of the defence holding their positions correctly
Leao and Theo looked like they lacked energy…hmmn 🤔 I wonder why…maybe because they played a full game at max speed against a team we didn’t really need to put all that effort in.
Anyways my rant is a bit helter skelter. Well that’s that for Pioli. That’s a poor loss against a rookie coach, unless he’s the next Pep and we didn’t know. Pep De Rossiola if you will. This idea that we’re somehow better than last season because we scored more goals is a fallacy. Can’t make it out of UCL, cant beat a Roma team. Can barely score against them too. Lots of y’all gonna say coach and yes he has some part to play but the quality of the players weren’t that great…maybe we should have gotten Lukaku wink wink. Lol. And if management really trust their decisions stick with the players they got last season and hope for better next season when they gel better and would have had a year with each other.
More and more serie A club coach now know how to neutralize pioli tactic. From Simone inzaghi , Gasperini and now De rossi. Pioli tactic are just the same for 5 years in ACM . We have more quality starter than Roma ( except striker & AMF starter) even ACM depth better than ROma but DDR know the hole on high line defense ACM . If ACM lose in derby next match better sacking pioli so the new coach can get ready for preseason but again it is up to RedBird , what are their ambition ? If just stay on top 4 serie A then just keep pioli but if want to improve in europe then finding new coach that have experience winning trophy are better
I agree mostly. Except that we did have a good identity after COVID and for about 2 years playing some nice football. I could have boasted to ppl about. But since then, we’ve regressed in style I’ll admit. It’s the slow process of losing key players and chemistry. I suppose I’m one of the “defenders” of the coach but this was painful and frustrating to watch. Extremely frustrating!. I think the manner of this defeat condemns Pioli’s fate. If we came back, draw and lost that’s a whole different story. But a late goal from a defender is the best we could do?
I agree totally that we have a better squad overall than Roma but DDR just had better tactics and kudos to him for figuring out at such a young stage in his coaching career (I’m highly impressed by him btw and I don’t think it’s a fluke – I always recall him telling Ventura to not being him on as a sub in that Italy game when they needed the goal – his intuition is spot on). Pioli left his best mid, Reijnders, on the bench smh. Poor guy came on and his face looked disappointed he didn’t start. Pioli overplayed his tactics when he could have just kept it simple…the regular formation and lineup.
I don’t know of Redbird’s ambitions, alot of it will come in the summer. I sense tension between Furlani and Ibra just from how the interviews clash and I’m guessing Cardinale wants Ibra to have more say which could mean another set of upheavals. Not good for anyone. And 120m+ spent and couldn’t buy a DM, that’s on management. And the one that sort of did the job (and who btw always owned Roma ironically) got transferred in January without a replacement.
PS: this is probably the last Adli will play for Pioli. How can u get a card while warming up when the coach needs you to come in to change the game smh 🤦♂️
Exactly what I have said so many times and I have been criticized here by several colleagues, Theo and Leao are not leaders. They are two talented players but they don’t have the mentality and character to be leaders. They don’t have consistency in their game, they do one good game and 5 bad ones in a row. I don’t like this at all. In addition, another thing can be observed, both Theo and Leao, who are supposed to be the leaders of the team, stand out with good developments only with small teams and that rarely. In big matches they often appear as ghosts on the field. If I was the owner of this club, both Theo and Leao would have been sold for a long time. Now you can criticized me again…
Milan needs a new manager that can get the best out of the entire players in every game, whether friendlies or competitions. Stefano Pioli gave all he’s got and will not take Milan to the next level. I salute him but time is up. Milan cannot continue to depend on few players to bring the success. New direction is needed now.
#pioliout
Milan won the scudetto DESPITE Pioli. It was all Maldini, Zlatan, Maignan, Leao, Tonali, Giroud, Tomori etc. Had nothing to do with Pioli and his (lack of) tactics.
When some of the keyplayers (Theo, Leao, Giroud, Pulisic) are having a bad day, Milan will struggle. Even against the relegation teams. And that’s because the lack of teamplay, attitude and tactics. And that falls on Pioli alone.
Look at the attitude of Roma players. Everyone did everything to win it. They wanted it badly. And Milan players? No one put themselves on the line. No one played well (or even decently). RLC, Giroud, Tomori, Theo, Calabria, Pulisic. All of them completely MIA.
One thing is certain. Pioli will never again win any trophies.
Pioli is not going anywhere.
I think he is just executing board’s nonsense football philosophy on the pitch.
Now firing coach will expose them.
Also firing Pioli now looks like Maldini was right. Cardinale’s ego can’t consume this nightmare reality.
He invited some politicians and big businessmen for Roma match and wanted show off what he is doing… aaaaand it backfired.
He is seeking for investment from Middle East to pay off his ‘loan’ from Elliot and to build that ‘promised’ stadium.
I am afraid this is just beginning of next long term downfall.
I wish I am exaggerating things
Musah and Benny in the midfield, there was no one dictating the tempo. Adli, as much as he’s not a proper deep lying playmaker, was needed from the start.
Then seeing Calabria move into midfield with Musah covering the flank and I almost had a seizure.
Still, I’ll say it again for the 100th time – We have mezzalas and attacking midfielders operating as pivots and we have a box to box force operating as trequartista.
Completely out of balance. Both Pioli and management are to be blamed.
“Then seeing Calabria move into midfield with Musah covering the flank and I almost had a seizure.”
Bro I can’t tell you how infuriating that was. I thought he’d learn how lesson after the first leg….nah mister went and did the same. Worse yet, neither of them are deep lying playmakers. Game was screaming out for Aldi or Deers.
Your whole post sums up our season. Sure we got a couple good players but the squad itself is poorly constructed.
Agree Ted, both have mistake . Management splash 120m euro without buying midfield that have strong defensive atribute and trusted krunic will take the role DMF for one season. All our midfield good on atacking but weak on defense : pobega,tiji,adili,rlc,yunus,benna,. RLC too lazy help defense. . Pioli 23 years coaching experience got beaten by de rossi that still 3-4 month coaching serie A club , not only that more and more coach serie A club already know how to neutralize pioli high press 4231 system and tactic like simone inzaghi, gasperini,palladino and now de rossi . Pioli using inverted RB are very stupid idea
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Where are all those pioli lovers. This was solely on PIOLI. Yes we are secomd but at the same time all the big dogs have poor this year. Except inter and roma hit their form late. The dude gotta go. No ceeativity, no tactics and no game plan. Does that imverted full back and almost fails. Thats his mojo inverted full backs. Stupid coach. They should open a pioli forum so all his fans can write there. Out with this fool.
All of us here taking the time out to comments about Milan has one thing in common, which is we all love this club and that is the most important quality we possess as fans.
I understand that we show our affection through our comments, some of us are more patient than others with Pioli, some more critical than others, some of us think its the fault of management and others thinks its the players.
One thing that is glaring obvious and we should all understand, Pioli does not have what it takes to be a Milan coach. He can have Mpabe, Haaland, Bellingham and the likes and he will still make terrible selection choices, his in game management and tactics would be mediocre at best and game plan if there’s one, will not adapt to the opposition game of play.
To summarise the longer Pioli stays as coach, the more he drag some of our players with him who have been doing well and we have seen glimpses of their quality.
I could go on, but at this point if management doesn’t realise that Pioli is not the man for the job then who am I ….or us.
Pioli out at end of season, is the only way.
Another trophyless season. Not only that, but actually didn’t fight for a single title, we were out of the scudetto race since november with the gap always growing between us and first place (don’t care about who is behind us), we were eliminated in the group stage of the UCL and it took Atalanta and Roma to get us from the remaining coppa italia and Europa League. I said before that I think Pioli needed to at least reach the finals and end the scudetto in a strong fashion to deserve a next season, needless to say that this has completely failed.
I was shocked how, despite already playing once against them, we seemed so unprepared to face Roma, perhaps the players and coach, like some fans here, assumed the first loss was a fluke due to poor refeering. Well if it happens twice, it’s no longer a fluke. I don’t know also if being down 2-0 killed our hopes, but it seems none of our players had a dog in him. Forget the performance, why none of our players, including former scudetto winners already given up (Calabria, Giroud, Theo,… I’m looking at you). It’s clear that club currently lacks winning mentality since the departure of Zlatan and Maldini (perhaps Tonali as well). And let’s not even talk about Pioli, did he even study the game ? What were the subs ? What was the strategy ?
Overall, Pioli’s era is clearly better than the 2012-2019 era and I’m grateful to him for the scudetto. I’m not in the camp who thinks it was a fluke, that we won it because Inter lost to Bologna,… but only one title in 4 years, and fighting for no other title ever since, I think our scudetto starts to ressemble Ranieri’s EPL with Leicester and Di Matteo’s UCL with Chelsea: great performances, but singular cases rather than display of continuity.
In the end, I think we’re at the crossing roads, if we’re happy with no title each season, just having a participation trophy in some european competition while finishing inside the top 4, I guess we can continue as we did. If we want MORE, actually winning titles, hanging on with the best till the end of each season, then it’s about time we look for alternatives in the coaching department (hopefully not Conte or Lopetegui), because with Pioli I think this is as far as we can go.
Tomori was found out of position many times last night. He travels a lot.
Gabbia was bullied because he was always last man standing when Roma counter attacked. Tomori was nowhere to be seen.
Playing Thiaw and Tomori in pair, two fast paced ball players who often travel far up the pitch, will expose the backline too many times.
I’d be all for selling both Tomori and Thiaw. Too reckless both of them. And get Buongiorno to pair Gabbia. Simić and Kalulu who can also cover for RB as their alternatives.
@maldini heir and all you other pioli fan boys. Stop saying we are second in the league and not to judge pioli on one game as a scape goat. The man is terrible as a manager and tactician. We have done well because we have great players who have moments of brilliance to win games themselves. But when it counts and the manager needs to implement good tactics to win a game without relying only on players. Pioli fails every time…. Enough now.