Ikr I don't know why Pioli didn't play like that against Inter. 3-5-2 and sit deep. Esp when we lost Leao who seemed to not enjoy to play that formation.
If we had Leao and Bennacer, fine, go 4231, when we are at full strength, we actually slapped the shit out of them, 3-2 was a flattering result for them.
January was a meltdown, but it also was self-inflicted because Pioli could have used the DAM during that period, but he
kept going with that 424.
But the blueprint to play against this stupid 352 was laid out for us against Spurs. Pundits, everyone, talked about "oh, it was such a boring game, nothing happened."
Uh. Great. Who gives a shit? We should have beat Spurs 3-0, but didn't finish our chances.
The worst thing about the semifinals was that... Pioli didn't have Leao, from the start. And he still went to attack. Why? It's the first leg. Make it boring. Bennacer got injured badly really soon into the first leg, calm your head, calm your team, you're down a goal, fine, relax.
Pioli had a nightmare of 2023, but the worst part of it all: it was
almost all self-inflicted.