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Extended Clip - Should AC Milan Sack Stefano Pioli?
1.2k Plays3 years ago
After suffering their biggest defeat in the Serie A since 1997 at the San Siro losing 2-5 to Sassuolo, Nima Tavallaey and Carlo Garganese discuss if AC Milan should part ways with Stefano Pioli now or at the end of the season.
This is an extended clip from this weeks free Monday episode of The Italian Football Podcast which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google podcasts.
To listen to ALL complete episodes of The Italian Football Podcast, go to Patreon.com/TIFP and become a Patron for only $2.99 USD per month (excluding VAT).
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Transcript
Historic Defeat for EC Milan
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian football podcast. Talking about chaos Milan, EC Milan, thrashed 5-2 at home to Sassuolo. Historic loss, a worse defeat for over 25 years since the 6-1 defeat to Juventus in 1997, which you may remember at San Siro, that was as well.
Worst Form in Five Years
00:00:30
Speaker
I mean, the question has to be asked now. Milan's form, it's their worst form in five years, four defeats in a row, 14 goals conceded in those four games, nine goals conceded in the last two games. Obviously, they got Hamid 4-0 last Tuesday by Lazio.
Should Pioli Be Sacked?
00:00:51
Speaker
The question now has to be asked, should Stefano Pioli be sacked?
00:00:58
Speaker
I don't think he should be, not in the middle of the season. I think it would be a mistake to sack him in the middle of the season. I think there's because, who would you bring in and would they be able to save salvage this?
00:01:20
Speaker
I'm not sure that's the way to go and I think having just extended Stefano Pioli's contract as well, I'm not sure financially it's a viable option for Milan as well because he won't get a bigger job than Milan and so Milan are going to have to pay him.
00:01:33
Speaker
for as long as that contractor is there. So financially makes no sense.
Players' Mental Breakdown
00:01:39
Speaker
And I don't think he's lost a dressing room either. I think that's a little bit too soon to say. I think Mila's problems are that the players look completely mentally broken. Giroud was speaking about this after the game, that those two late goals against Roma, you know, doubt started creeping in collectively and they started second-guessing themselves. And I think it's more a mental issue.
Is Pioli's Tenure Over?
00:02:01
Speaker
uh right now uh but i think in the long term when look come may purely will have been at milan for three and a half years that's not the purely high that's not anything like that that's a that that could that that to me if it's time to change it's because the cycle has come to an end three and a half years is quite a lot for a coach to be there yeah
00:02:23
Speaker
And what he's done from what he took over, you'd have to be completely blind if you argue that he's not done a fantastic job overall, and that he won't leave Milan in a better place than he found it. So I think it's an issue of maybe the cycle coming to an end.
00:02:44
Speaker
And I think that he can't take this team and this project any further. I'm not saying that is the case, I'm just discussing, I'm just raising the question. I think that, you know, you said how long has he been at Milan? Three and a half years. Three and a half years. Three and a half years. I mean, in modern football, like you said, that's a long time. And in football, it doesn't mean you're a bad manager. It just means that after a certain amount of time,
00:03:08
Speaker
you know the magic wears off and you need someone else to come in and develop it because your opponents are starting to read you as well. Opponents have worked you out, the impact that you have on the players doesn't rub off on them anymore and that's just natural, that's just what happens in management and that's why teams generally, you know, you don't get managers that stay for two, three years and they change managers every few years because
00:03:35
Speaker
No, you need to do that. You've got to do that. Maybe. That's where we've got to now. We've got maybe that, you know, he's not, even though he hasn't lost a dressing room, he's not, you know, he's not having an impact on the players. And the recent form would suggest that might be the case.
Loss of Team Spirit
00:03:51
Speaker
No, that's where I am as well. This is, they're not, and Rigo Saki said this, they don't look like a team anymore. They're not a team.
00:03:58
Speaker
at all, you know, everything that you've associated with, with Milan under, under purely that the togetherness and the spirit of never knowing that they're beaten, the intensity and the energy is just completely gone. And, and individually, they're all in, they're all in dreadful, they're all in dreadful form. And, you know, the
00:04:22
Speaker
We spoke about the defence every single episode, haven't we?
Tactical Adjustments
00:04:26
Speaker
The thing is, he needs to go back. I think what he needs to do now to stop the hemorrhaging and just bring this ship into port and to finish in the top four.
00:04:37
Speaker
is move away from man-marking, don't press as high and as intensely as you have before, lower the defensive line a little bit, move a little bit more to zonal marking maybe, and press, you know, have your press, but have the press start a little bit lower, and to find the balance, because I think Milan lack balance right now, and it's...
00:05:03
Speaker
When you lack balance and you've got young, inexperienced players, which Milan do have, they are kind of young squads still. And when that doubt creeps in, I think it creates insecurity in them and they just look like headless chickens out there.
00:05:22
Speaker
And I think one move from that is to play move to a 4-3-3.
Calls for Stability
00:05:28
Speaker
I think they have to go to a three-man midfield because in this game and in recent games, their midfield have been totally overrun, just sliced through them because they've got two men often playing against more players swarming that area of the field.
00:05:45
Speaker
against Leche as well in the first half, absolutely sliced through at will at times. I think they just put three men in there just to make them more compact, not even necessarily to do with the defensive line. Just have an extra man there in midfield so you can't get through there.
00:06:03
Speaker
But the problem for me is that when you that they play man man, like this is what I mean. Like when and right now they're not there. The man man working isn't working because they're not winning those individual battles. And so that's why they get overrun. And I think that's that's the problem here. You need to you need to create some sort of stability. I'm not saying change it permanently. I'm saying make that change to go back to create some sort of stability, some sort of confidence and belief and then build from there on.
00:06:30
Speaker
And if Pioli can do that and get this team to react accordingly and they return to winning ways, then the whole thing kind of, do you continue with him? And I think they would like to continue with him because they're happy with what he's done and they should be happy with what
Potential Sarri Hiring
00:06:44
Speaker
he's done. But personally, if I'm just looking at this objectively, who I would move to, I think in the summer I would move heaven and earth to get Maurizio Sarri.
00:06:54
Speaker
I would move heaven and earth to get Maurizio Sarri to this Milan side and to move away, because I think the natural step, the next step in the evolution of this Milan is to move towards
00:07:09
Speaker
a sari system. The triangulation, the movement, the high press, the high energy, high intensity football, Milan have the players to play that. And also, given the fact that they don't really have a number nine, well, play with a false nine then.