Arrigo Sacchi has held nothing back in his criticism of AC Milan, branding them ‘no longer a team’ and also finally pointing the finger at Stefano Pioli for his part in the current crisis.
Milan had to settle for a 2-2 draw against the bottom-placed side Salernitana on Friday night, with a late Luka Jovic strike earning them a point after what was an otherwise abject performance.
Fikayo Tomori got the opening goal as he bundled in a Rafael Leao cross from close range, but then Federico Fazio equalised before half-time with a header from a corner and then Antonio Candreva’s strike had Milan looking at a nightmare result.
Luka Jovic came off the bench and was on hand to smash home an equaliser with not long left in the game, but Milan are nine points behind Juventus and 11 behind Inter in the title race, which is now all but over.
Sacchi spoke during an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport about Milan’s failings in Salerno and beyond that, and it would be fair to say the ex-Rossoneri head coach spoke his monind.
“When there are situations like this we don’t have to look for the culprit, but focus on the possible remedies. The managers, the coach and the players have to do it.”
What is happening at Milan?
“Simple: they’re not a team. Or rather: they are one sometimes and then it goes back to darkness. They have no continuity, too fluctuating. In Salerno there wasn’t a collective, but a group scattered around the pitch. Everyone does their own thing The defence is in difficulty because the attackers aren’t helping. This is the real problem.”
A rather complicated situation…
“I would say yes. The fact is that there are players who don’t have continuity of performance.”
And then they often get injured…
“This also depends on the fact that the game is almost never collective, but individual. When you do everything alone it is easier to encounter physical problems.”
The club are not satisfied. In these conditions, what should they do?
“I don’t think the problem will be solved by sending the coach away. Pioli has done excellent things, but he hasn’t managed to give continuity to his work. But it must be said that I don’t know if there is anyone around capable of giving continuity to this squad.”
Where is original sin?
“In my opinion, in the summer market. Only foreign players were purchased, who did not come from brilliant experiences and, moreover, they had to get used to Italian football. But we want to understand that for a boy who comes from abroad it is complicated to tune into our wavelength?
“Even great champions have had difficulties. If you build a completely new team based on foreigners, it would be necessary to have patience. But patience in football, as we know, is a rare commodity.”
Is it the fault of the management, then?
“I wouldn’t stand there and look for the responsibilities of one or the other, provided we understand, however, that we need to change direction. Here players were taken without knowing what their strengths and weaknesses were.
“A footballer, before signing him, must be evaluated, followed, known. When I took Rijkaard, I had him monitored closely for 15 days: his eating habits were also written in the report that my collaborator brought me. You have to go and see the players in person, do we want to get it into our heads?”
If you were Pioli, how would you behave?
“I would only send reliable people onto the pitch, those who give the greatest guarantees. Anyone who isn’t there should stay out. I say one thing to Milan: when there’s no moral strength, everyone goes about their own business.
“It is what it is what happened in Salerno. Therefore, let them first of all choose reliable men and with these they form a collective to which the coach will have to give a game. This is the path to follow.”
Thank you for striking the nail on the heads…the management/ coach and poor players recruited! But many football professors here who hadn’t kicked a ball or have a professional game in their entirely life will put on their critique glasses on and disagree! They have quite a lot of experience on the Football manager console such that they have confused reality with computer games! What a shame
What a bunch of bs. So 31 injuries is because of foreigners? Poor player choice and game management is because of foreigners? The reality is simple, the majority of our players signed are of a high level (only one I question is Loftus cheek), but when you have a coach who is not inspiring and hasnt got the foggiest idea of what brand of football he wants to play you’re not going to get the results you want, and to put the nail on the coffin Pioli went into overdrive after the inter match and threw away all the tactics he planned over the summer leaving an attacking player like Reijnders in a defensive role and wasting players abilities.
Reijnders, Musah : run a lot, thoug nonenof them thrived in defensive task, or can make the right call alongside an accurate passe, either a long, thorough or a short one
Chukuweze : scoring against Villareal/Newcastle, yeah but nothing making him stand out of the crowd, whether decision making – crosses – long ball – shooting ability – drribling
Cheek :?????
Pulusic : A good player nothing more nothing less, not such a player with full of skills
Okafor & Jovic : Judging their prices, a good deal, but can’t pull us to enter into the Scudetto race
Pelegrino :???? Calafiori would have been a better Choise, Motta use him as a CB, very satisfying performances
In conclusion : The summer signings are not poor players, though we would spent the 120 millions with a better way
Dont blame pioli!… pioli has done well! It is players who are failing the coach. Then this is where we can blame the coach for! … relying on players who are not ready to work! But interested in fame!… also where pioli needs to be blamed Is “sitting in there without questioning why players are getting injured in multiple, but without rigorous training routine! “… aside that, up till now, pioli is infact a genius coach. Looking at this crisis and still being able to maintain top 4?😳… please spare pioli! Only ppl who do not have any idea or technicalities of soccer will blame pioli. And that’s the reason it’s been hard to dismiss him!
Pioli is still here because of a lack of options, this year we had a negative goal record for the first time since 1930 and you’re going to tell me that this team is worse than the worst banter era team? The coach is a problem
This talk of buying foreign players and Pioli has done excellent things but hasn’t manage to give consistency to his work, confuses me.
I thought that what good coaches do, is they either play good football and win or they don’t always play good football all the time but get favourable results.
Pioli has not done anything close, this season and last season.
AC Milan is not the only club buying foreign players, yes we may have bought a lot of foreign players last summer. However, it goes without saying, that some of the Italian players are beyond our budget and Pioli requested these players or at least approved these signings.
Maybe if he rotate players regularly, they wouldn’t be injury prone all the time.
Fratessi : 30 millions
Calafiori : 4 millions
Cambiasso : 8 millions
Ricci : 9.5 millions (when he was at Empoli)
Rovella : 17 millions (not impressing at this time, though a way better than Musah who cost 20millions)
Scamacca : 35 millions
It’s still a sign he is not a top coach, because Jose Mourinho Roma has suffered so much injury yet grind out results…if we can take a reflection and retrospect! This bad play, performance began right from pre-season! Imagine a manager loosing almost all matches against big teams…only managing to win against teams from Africa ( Tunisia) if I’m not mistaken…the excuse then was that , he was giving them minutes…and I still believe he still want to add more minutes…till everyone gets injured
Pulisic is our most reliable attacker so far by convincing margin. I might start him on the left and Chuk on the right next game. Rafa way too mercurial. Cash in on him and let’s get a real manager.
Yep, in the end we need players who play for the team and HELP THE DEFENSE. Leao will never be this. Unfortunately we’ve committed to him. Should have been him sold to fund reinforcements, not Tonali.
This man sacchi always talk bad about Milan but when it comes to pioli always saying he’s better coach. I can agree if he is better than you but for now both of you are not interested here men
Here it is again. -Only foreign players were purchased, who did not come from brilliant experiences –
Its the foreigners.. they took our jobs :0