Official: Stefano Pioli Thread

Milan2012

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To act like he's a failure is utter lunacy.



He has steadied the ship, found a suitable formation and challenged the big teams in a way we've struggled to in a long time.



It's almost getting to a point where I approach a big game with relish instead of mayonnaise.



Pioli’s not a failure, he’s a success. He was brought in as interim coach and he’s doing a good job at it. If Pioli overperforms (qualifying for champions) he would be offered an extension, at least that was the reported contract clause iirc.
 

Pingu

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Considering our early form under Pioli after GP disaster and how other teams have performed, top 6 seems the goal and CL will take nothing short of a miracle/Juve getting the Man City treatment and banned.
 

milanator

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Very good move to bring on Bona, put some spine back into the team and we attacked again in a more coherent way and Torino couldn't put us under power play in the last minutes.
 

Ronin

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grazie mister

played exactly like we should in such games
 

Birsaforever

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I think we should try against Fiorentina the formation that we will use in Coppa Italia against Juventus, without Ibra, Hernandez and Castillejo.
 

Polotelli

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I feel a little bit sorry for him
 

Savo

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I feel a little bit sorry for him

Decent coach, good guy. Miles better than Giampaolo but as I said many times, should have kept Rino to build on what he stated unless we were going to get a truly top tier coach (which we didn't).
 

joyrider

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Good job by making our unbalanced team play together and better.
 

Goodfella

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I can't wait 'til he's fired.
I see some great things in this team.
There are also some negative things, but these will all disappear with a new coach! No more games like the SPAL ones! With a new coach Paqueta will become a reliable goal scorer, Leao will become complete, Gabbia won't have to be fielded and we'll always have a proper CF available!

Let us not make the same mistake as in the past!
Let's throw away whatever has been built this season and build from scratch again with the new exciting Ragnick 4-2-2-2 project!
Forza!
 

voom

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3 win and one draw after restart. We dominated all teams that we faced.Game against Spal was unlucky . Good job Pioli.
 

Fusiproe12

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I can't wait 'til he's fired.
I see some great things in this team.
There are also some negative things, but these will all disappear with a new coach! No more games like the SPAL ones! With a new coach Paqueta will become a reliable goal scorer, Leao will become complete, Gabbia won't have to be fielded and we'll always have a proper CF available!

Let us not make the same mistake as in the past!
Let's throw away whatever has been built this season and build from scratch again with the new exciting Ragnick 4-2-2-2 project!
Forza!

Pioli resta
 

Qaas

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I am still salty over our 4-2 loss to inter. That first half was one of the best i have seen milan play in ages.

I want us too keep him, but then I am afraid of matches like SPAL.Those lower/midtable teams have always been our worst nightmare and it didnt change under pioli.
 

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I want us too keep him, but then I am afraid of matches like SPAL.Those lower/midtable teams have always been our worst nightmare and it didnt change under pioli.

The SPAL game was hardly on the coach. I'd say it was mainly the result of terrible circumstances.

Gabbia played like the Primavera kid he is, but he was only starting because Kjaer, Musacchio and Duarte were injured.

Floccari scored a freak goal against Donnarumma who is normally great.

The team took 39 shots, 10 of which came from Paqueta, who scored zero.
Some would say Paq was unlucky, but he was similarly influential and wasteful the last time he had a stretch of starts, which was why Pioli gave up on him in December. He also benched Paq yesterday/tonight.
Should he not have started Paq against SPAL? Perhaps, but I think Paq deserved a new chance - especially since Bona hadn't been convincing and needed a rest anyway.

Then there was the CF situation.
No Ibra, which meant that Rebic had to be used out of position again(Leao is not a better option).
Ante had an off day, and didn't get any counterattack opportunities against SPAL's parked bus.
 

Mario

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we seem to have the most solid spine we've had in years and hes achieving this under v unfavourable conditions
 

helloAgain

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he strikes me as middle version of montella and gattuso. i feel he would have gotten us CL if he was appointed instead of giampaolo.
 

Qaas

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The SPAL game was hardly on the coach. I'd say it was mainly the result of terrible circumstances.

Gabbia played like the Primavera kid he is, but he was only starting because Kjaer, Musacchio and Duarte were injured.

Floccari scored a freak goal against Donnarumma who is normally great.

The team took 39 shots, 10 of which came from Paqueta, who scored zero.
Some would say Paq was unlucky, but he was similarly influential and wasteful the last time he had a stretch of starts, which was why Pioli gave up on him in December. He also benched Paq yesterday/tonight.
Should he not have started Paq against SPAL? Perhaps, but I think Paq deserved a new chance - especially since Bona hadn't been convincing and needed a rest anyway.

Then there was the CF situation.
No Ibra, which meant that Rebic had to be used out of position again(Leao is not a better option).
Ante had an off day, and didn't get any counterattack opportunities against SPAL's parked bus.


It doesn?t matter what happened. The point is that they were playing with 10men for more than a half and we still didn?t take advantage of it. Just like how we always struggled against teams that play defensively.

Pioli lost points to lecce, genoa, sassuolo, sampdoria, hellas verona, spal and fiorentina..

Not to mention that historic 5-0 defeat to atalanta. And am not even including the losses to juve, lazio, roma and inter.
 

SpartanMilan

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First Milan coach to oversee 4 goals against Juventus since 1989.

I can't imagine anyone doing a better job than he has this season. I absolutely hate the idea of blowing it all up and starting from scratch. These players are performing for him, and I'd love to see what he could do with some reinforcements and (such as it will be) an offseason.
 

dcfcfan1

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First Milan coach to oversee 4 goals against Juventus since 1989.

I can't imagine anyone doing a better job than he has this season. I absolutely hate the idea of blowing it all up and starting from scratch. These players are performing for him, and I'd love to see what he could do with some reinforcements and (such as it will be) an offseason.

Ill say it again, if he had gattuso this season we would be 5th minimum (think bar for CL higher this season than last- where I think 68 pts was enough)

I agree- I dont want ragnick as a coach, but more as an SD with him working with pioli.
 

Ash

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First Milan coach to oversee 4 goals against Juventus since 1989.

I can't imagine anyone doing a better job than he has this season. I absolutely hate the idea of blowing it all up and starting from scratch. These players are performing for him, and I'd love to see what he could do with some reinforcements and (such as it will be) an offseason.
Not to take anything away from Pioli but lets not pretend that arent several other factors that could have also influenced our improvement in form.

- Covid break, so players were well rested.
- No fans in the stadium. Probably most key considering how mentally fragile the squad is.
- 5 subs rule meaning more fresh legs.
- less added pressure due to no CL spot to play for.



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Fusiproe12

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Not to take anything away from Pioli but lets not pretend that arent several other factors that could have also influenced our improvement in form.

- Covid break, so players were well rested.
- No fans in the stadium. Probably most key considering how mentally fragile the squad is.
- 5 subs rule meaning more fresh legs.
- less added pressure due to no CL spot to play for.



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No fans, Covid break, 5 subs for Ladri/Nazio/Spal aswell
 

Sognatore

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Bravo. I've been happy with him for a long time now
 

helloAgain

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Not to take anything away from Pioli but lets not pretend that arent several other factors that could have also influenced our improvement in form.

- Covid break, so players were well rested.
- No fans in the stadium. Probably most key considering how mentally fragile the squad is.
- 5 subs rule meaning more fresh legs.
- less added pressure due to no CL spot to play for.



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we've been playing well ever since he took over bar few games. atalanta and roma losses and second half to merda were worst games. we just couldn't finish our chances. ibra's arrival and rebic's form is helping us in that regard.
 

Goodfella

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It doesn?t matter what happened. The point is that they were playing with 10men for more than a half and we still didn?t take advantage of it. Just like how we always struggled against teams that play defensively.

Pioli lost points to lecce, genoa, sassuolo, sampdoria, hellas verona, spal and fiorentina..

Not to mention that historic 5-0 defeat to atalanta. And am not even including the losses to juve, lazio, roma and inter.

We've not always struggled against teams that play defensively.

If we look at the past decade, I'd divide it into two main styles; the slow, possession-based style with a 3 man midfield and a counter-oriented double pivot system.

The former, which was the main style of Allegri, Pippo, Brocchi, Montella, Gattuso and Giampaolo, was very effective in home games against minnows who only showed up to defend. But it was easily exposed against competitive opponents who would press and aim for 3 points. This lead to a lot of poor results in away games against teams in the bottom half.

The latter was/is used by Seedorf, Mihajlovic and Pioli. It's more direct and better prepared for competitive games.
Not so much for matches against opponents that aren't leaving any opportunities to counterattack.
However there are ways to combine. I'm aware that it has not been this black and white.
I think Pioli has been getting closer than any of our previous coaches in finding that perfect balance. We're playing with a lot more possession since the switch to 4-2-3-1. The team is doing more than just counter-attacks. Players like Hakan, Bona and a versatile, targetman like Ibra have reduced the problem. There have been lots of great 1-2s and patient, slow buildups in the final third.

I wouldn't pin all those disappointing results on difficulties with breaking down teams though.
The Lecce game was his first game in charge, and he was let down by wasteful players like this season's Piatek and Paqueta.
The Fiorentina game was more of a fatigue issue I think.
The team was out of energy, but there was no Rebic or Hakan on the bench who could re-energize us the way they've been doing in these last two games and in January. All of our energetic players started that game, and this was also the case in other February games with strong first halves and weak second halves, such as the derby. The lesson to learn from that month is that we need offensive impact subs. Pioli doesn't have any when he fields our strongest XI. Saelemaekers has energy, but he seems to have less end product than Borini. Leao has end product, but not much energy.

As for the other poor big game results, they were among his first games. Fans weren't even disappointed at the time because the performances weren't bad. We created as many if not more chances than Juve, Roma, Napoli and Lazio. However Theo seemed to be the only one who could take his chances.
That has changed. He's had more time with the squad, more time finding solutions to the countless number of problems he inherited from Giampaolo. He now has Rebic, who makes a lot of technical errors, but he can run and he can score. He has Bona, who returned from yet another injury and can't run anymore, but he can still score. He has Ibra, who despite his age and flaws isn't completely useless like this season's Piatek. Pioli faced Roma, Lazio and Juve in a better position this time, and defeated all 3 of them. We have faced Juve 3 times since that November game and not lost any of them.


Yeah, he lost 5-0 to Atalanta, with Calabria as LB and the Suso-attack, but he's also the same coach who destroyed Gasperini's Atalanta, 7-1 with fodders like Gary Medel at Inter. That was the same Atalanta side that finished 4th with Kessie and pre-injuries Caldara and Conti. He also had a 7-1 victory with his mediocre Fiorentina side against Roma last season.
 
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Goodfella

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Not to take anything away from Pioli but


Ok.

- Covid break, so players were well rested.

The team was doing well, post-Suso, before the Covid break as well.

Pioli didn't get a preseason. He inherited Giampaolo's lethargic bunch.
This break gave him an opportunity to prepare the players for his physically demanding tactics.

- No fans in the stadium. Probably most key considering how mentally fragile the squad is.

The worst Milan result of 2020 was the home loss to Genoa. It was in an empty San Siro.

.
- 5 subs rule meaning more fresh legs.

You mean the same rule that applies to everyone?


Let's sack Pioli. Everything will fall apart when he no longer can bring in Calabria for Conti as 5th sub while we're 2 goals up at '82.
Or Biglia in for Kessie at '86 while the score is 3-0.



He didn't even use more than 3 subs against Roma.
 

Ronin

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Not to take anything away from Pioli but lets not pretend that arent several other factors that could have also influenced our improvement in form.

- Covid break, so players were well rested.
- No fans in the stadium. Probably most key considering how mentally fragile the squad is.
- 5 subs rule meaning more fresh legs.
- less added pressure due to no CL spot to play for.



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:lol::lol::lol:
 

Fusiproe12

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04_pioli_salernitana_lapresse.jpg


:gt:
 

VooDooDoll

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this team would be destroyed by current arsenal
using paq as rw against team playing wide?! :fp:
its different to use paq in 3man midfield and this
yea... bye
 

Ronin

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This thread needs more love. When was the last time we played so well and got joy from a good stretch of games? RnB is so ungrateful

:heart: :star:
 

WILL2K

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Hope he gets to stay for next season, he deserves 1 full season for what he has done.
 
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