Former AC Milan head coach Arrigo Sacchi is expecting an ‘English style’ game between the Rossoneri and Atalanta at San Siro tonight, while he once again backed Stefano Pioli.
After two consecutive defeats in the league and the Europa League, Milan are under pressure to bounce back with a win against Atalanta tonight, especially given that the Bergamo side just seven points behind in the table and have beaten them twice already.
Milan did secure progress to the Round of 16 of the Europa League on Thursday despite losing the game against Rennes 3-2, and before that they lost 4-2 against Monza despite coming back from a two-goal deficit to draw level.
There was some positive news on the injury front for head coach Stefano Pioli with Pierre Kalulu and Davide Calabria back in the fold, and Fikayo Tomori should recover for the Lazio game.
Sacchi gave an interview to La Gazzetta dello Sport about the game tonight at San Siro, as well as the current moment that the Rossoneri are in.
What are your thoughts ahead of tonight’s game?
“Milan-Atalanta promises a spectacle. They are two teams that don’t hold back: they have courage and give everything they have. They hope that we can have fun: we need football to give us a bit of beauty and serenity”.
Do you like Pioli and Gasperini as coaches?
“They are good, they demonstrated it on the pitch. Milan and Atalanta, when they are well, play good football: proactive, aggressive, in line with the European mentality.”
Let’s analyse Pioli’s season…
“In my opinion, he is doing well. So far I would give him a 6.5 rating, but he has the possibility of reaching 7 or even 8. The problem is that they have brought him many new players and it takes time to integrate them all.
“He tries to rotate them and it happens that, when someone who plays less comes in, the team gets stretched, expands and goes into crisis. It’s normal, but the opinion on the coach doesn’t change.”
What do you like about the Milan coach?
“He is moving away from tactics and is becoming more and more a strategist. The tactician is the one who relies on the individual, the strategist is the one who focuses on the collective game.
“The tactician makes the club spend a lot of money, the strategist is based on what he himself creates: the manoeuvre in the offensive and defensive phases. This is a fundamental difference that in Italy we should begin to understand also to fix the clubs’ budgets.”
Pioli, however, is coming off two consecutive defeats and there are shadows over his future…
“This is a problem, the managers should always support him. I know something about it: Berlusconi helped me a lot when I first arrived at Milan.
“Here we need to understand that at Milan there are good players, but not champions. They can only become champions if they are helped by the group: teamwork always hides the mistakes of individuals.”
What do you say about Gasperini?
“He is a master. In past seasons he has created a true masterpiece. Credit to the club which supported him and identified him as the right man to achieve certain objectives.
“Playing against Atalanta is like going to the dentist: he said it yesterday Pioli and Guardiola had said it even before. They are a very difficult team to face.”
What do you appreciate about Atalanta?
“He had a drop in performance when he wasn’t renewed, but now he’s returning to high levels. Intensity, speed, movements without the ball, aggressiveness, pressing: Gasperini’s boys know the vocabulary of modern football.”
Would you say they are a courageous team?
“Gasperini adopts the pure system, man against man across the pitch. His players attack and defend in a compact way. They have an extraordinary athletic preparation, you can see that on the pitch they make the most of the week’s work.
“And I appreciate De Ketelaere, who He had difficulties at Milan, but evidently he had the right qualities to break through as Maldini claimed. All it took was a little patience, a skill which in Italy, unfortunately, is a rare commodity.”
Finally, a prediction for the game?
“If Milan plays as a team, as a collective and pays the right attention in the defensive phase, and if Atalanta puts in the intensity that I have seen lately, the result will be in the balance until the end.
“I expect a very English match, at a great pace, without a moment’s respite. I don’t know how it will end, but I think there are the conditions for having fun.”
