Inter clinched the Scudetto as they managed to beat AC Milan by two goals to one at San Siro this evening. After the game, Stefano Pioli spoke to the media and sent a signal to the Rossoneri owners amid Inter’s superiority.
It was indeed a tough evening for Milan as Inter dominated most of the game and could have scored three-four goals in the first half. The Rossoneri picked themselves up a bit after the second goal but it wasn’t enough, as their city rivals saw out the game.
Speaking to DAZN, as cited by MilanNews, Pioli shared his thoughts on what went wrong for his side. He also aimed a message at Gerry Cardinale and Redbird, stating that major improvements are needed to compete with Inter.
The most complicated evening since you took over Milan… have you spoken with the team?
“I went to the locker room to try to cheer them up, it’s a heavy defeat for everything that goes into it. I tried as much as possible to cheer up my players, because we have to finish the season well and we have another important match on Saturday.”
Your tactics with a 3-man backline for tonight, did they satisfy you?
“The idea was to try to remove the numerical parity for the 2v2 when Inter attacked, not to be too high and to find space for the counter-attacks. Then we conceded… Inter hurt us in the first half with a corner kick and then with the counter-attacks.
“We had a good chance with Rafa… The reality is that we wanted to defend a little lower to avoid exactly what happened at the start of the second half. That goal complicated the match even more for us, even if the team fought with great generosity and will. In some episodes, we didn’t have that bit of luck that could have even given us a draw.”
17 points behind Inter, how do we look at this?
“It can be analysed, Inter have only lost one match, and allow me to say ‘by mistake’. They have had the strongest squad for 3-4 years, I don’t think anyone can have any doubts about this. We were lacking in the month in which we lost two games and drew two, then we were lacking in the continuity of high-level performances. This is reality. If the difference between Inter and the other teams is so notable, it means that they are really strong and the others must make steps forward.”
What did you miss against Roma and Inter?
“We made a very good start because after 8 games, we were first in the standings. Then after the break, we had that very difficult month and then we arrived at these games with 7 consecutive victories. The games against Roma were not what he desired ones.
“We were fine and we had all the most important players in great condition. Yet, we stalled and performed two times below our capabilities and didn’t achieve an objective we believed in. The derby arrived at that moment… I can’t blame my players for anything tonight for what they put on the pitch. It was one of the most balanced matches of the last derbies, but it wasn’t enough.”
Is this cycle at Milan over?
“I don’t know. I first heard your analysis on Simone Inzaghi, who 14 months ago seemed to be in difficulty and then instead did everything he did. I’m fine, I work well, and I think the team has room for improvement. Now we have to finish the season in the best possible way and then the evaluations will be made.”
Milan will take on Juventus next and due to the red cards of Davide Calabria and Theo Hernandez, they will be stretched at the back. Fikay Tomori will also be suspended due to his yellow card, though most fans probably don’t care about this at the moment.
Still not taking any responsibility.
He is right that Milan needs improvements, starting with improving the coach.
He talks about Simone Inzaghi struggling and being IN difficulty 14 months ago.
14 months ago Simone Inzaghi already had 4 trophies won with inter in a year and a half. Sign me up for that struggle and difficulty.
Milan lacked a little bit of luck!?
Piolis career is built on luck.
And Milan had plenty of luck in tonight’s game. If it wasn’t for luck, the score would have been 5-1,6-1.
Hijack Motta from Juventus or call Conte who was watching this disaster in San Siro.
Milan needs competent coach, not someone who depends on luck.
Hahaha, the only pioli replacement we will get is Walter Mazari, nobody take Milan job when he get offer from Liverpool who have better player and team foundation.
Milan need compétent ownership, bringing Conte or Motta and keeping up the Moneyball strategy for the transfer market
Luck…
Ur luck was run out in scudetto season , Mister
We need better and faster defenders Calabria is a smart footballer but too slow in recovering. Musah needs to work on knowing where his player options are on the pitch and not dribble so much. As a team we are too slow in our passes we rarely coubter effectively
Calabria would NOT be first choice pick or starter in Monza Nor Lecce!!!
Yet he plays securely at milan and wears the arms band!! What captency or leadership has he ever provided .. and he is also asking for a new contract extension with a big raise.
Pioli complaning about luck ? He won a scudetto cause Inter were forced to play a canceled game mid week in a very tight schedule. Everything aligned for him perfectly. He get teams like Slavia Prague and chaotic Totenham last year in the cups. Practicly alwayes getting the easiest route lol. If he had something that was luck. Even tonight, it could have easily been 1-4.
he’ll always be remembered in history of Milan, the coach who lost 10 derby matches, 6 of it in a row
Same old excuse
Stupid fool started rafa as a 9 and benched chuks again …this man is just a fool …be gone already
They must play leao and chuk on the wing and giroud for no. 9. These mentality are confusing.
Next week play 3 CB or play simic on the left and musah on right wing. Milan lacked of luck and lacked of quality but most important milan are lacked of winning mentality now…
He will never play Simic. Or any youngsters. Cause he is stubborn old fool
Yes He is bald and stubborn as hell . not unfair to some players too
LOL!!! Did Piolly really say Milan lacked luck??????
This is legendary level trolling. Thanks to luck, first half only ended 1-0 because Thuram, Mikhitarian and Lautaro wasted absolute sitters in front of Maignan.
This guy has to go. He lives in la-la-land
Biggest positive from all this was inter helping AC MILAN getting rid of that moron Pioli. Full stop
There will be a lot of good options for a couch that can continue on the downward spiral that we started with the change of owners. Gerry, a guy knowing nothing about football calling all the shots plus an ego to prevent him to listen to anybody who might actually know something. Curva was quite distant to last summer events, but I bet it will not take long for things to go from bad to worse.
I think it will be better if management offload Pioli now.
Yes we still have matches ahead, but it is better, because management, pioli, team, and fans are being not solid anymore.
So, in my opinion, it is wise to offload Pioli, before everything going more wrong. Because however Pioli is the man who brought scudetto after Milan disaster era. We must respect that.
But if management want to still entrust Pioli, they must support him full, just like Arrigo Sachi commented before.
But yeah, back to management. Because what we wrote in here, I think will never be heard by management
Nah, they’re just too cheap to sack him right away. That’s why it’s a good news when Napoli rumored to hire Pioli as they can get rid of him with mutual agreement.
“They have had the strongest squad for 3-4 years, I don’t think anyone can have any doubts about this. If the difference between Inter and the other teams is so notable, it means that they are really strong and the others must make steps forward.”
Okay, so now what’s the excuse on the last result. Sassuolo? We don’t have to be recorded with this shameful history if you just simply get the result done against a relegation zone team. A team that’s got beaten 3-0 by Lecce in their own turf right after our match.
With Boulden’s short sighted match by match pov, we should just sign that Lecce coach right away.
Already lose 6 times in row vs simone inzaghi but never admit his mistake , always stubborn using his high line defense tactic . Knocked out vs Roma blaming ACM lack quality , are you kidding ? Roma player have more quality than ACM ? And now in derby he say ACM lack of luck . Same excuse every losing or knocked out. Go to napoli without pressure are best option for him
Yeah… Inter was sooooo lucky to win the scudetto by a 20-point margin, right? Milan did eeeeeeverything right but “bad luck” prevented it winning it all. Sure. I’ll buy that. And have some of that what he’s been smoking.
Last games was like a moment of truth for Pioli.Let’s have a look on the final scores…well,thank you Mr.Pioli-that’s all.Good bye and good luck
Just engage Conte and you will see the real transformation,2024/25 season AC MILAN will win trophies under Conte if he is engaged and I feel he is the right man the coaching job….FORZA MILAN
Omg 3 suspended defenders against Juve 😩 We’re lucky it’s juve though. Cause they are horrible. We have decent back ups and should be fine. Maybe Barthesaghi or Jimenez can take Theos place.
Cardinale, want you to reply to Pioli with a message of your own, and that message should be ” we no longer require you services, Mr. Pioli, you are fired,”
get pioli and his 4-0-6 formation the f*ck out of Milan, sign a CDM ffs, and play a clear tactical style with a good new manager
Very respectfully, go F yourself Stefano
Where is baldy’s usual comment “we played better for 30 mins”.
“They have had the strongest squad for 3-4 years”.
In 2021/22, we won the scudetto against Inter having had a draw and a win against them in serie A, technically that means we were at least as good as them right ? Last season Napoli steamrolled everyone and Inter was a mere 2 points ahead of us, now they’re steamrolling everyone.
We complain that we lost core players and failed to properly replace them and that’s what made us weaker. We lost Kessie, Rebic, Saelemakers, Tonali, Messias and Zlatan.
Inter has lost since 2022 Lukaku, Perisic, Handanovic, D’Ambrosio, Dzeko, Brozovic and Skriniar just to name those. Many of their new players who now form the structure of their squad were a bunch of no-names or has-been that didn’t succeed elsewhere, with the best example being Hakan who was about average until his last season with us and is currently the best regista in serie A. So don’t give me the: Inter is the strongest during this last 4 years, on paper they don’t even look that strong.
At some point we have to admit that the difference in quality came down to how the teams play: Inter has a solid system, play as a team and we rely on individual brillances than allow us to steamroll weak opposition but can’t do much against well organized sides.
I’m thankfull to Pioli for what he has accomplished, and his tenure is certainly better than the banter era, but it’s dissapointing the read such declarations coming from him.