Giroud on for Leao at the 57th minute is a sub I'll never understand.
Really?
Going down to 10 men, we needed all outfielders to work hard, defend, but Leao was standing still or walking headlessly, not even bothering to look around and block passing lanes while he was walking or standing still.
What I don't understand is why Leao acted like he's preserving energy for later in the game, when it was pretty obvious that he would be among the first to get subbed? A player that knows he'll only get 60-70 mins will act differently from a player who expects 90 mins.
Did Pioli not tell him that? If so, then that's Pioli's mistake.
The Giroud sub could've been good. But he needs to be paired with counter-threats, otherwise he'll be pretty much useless in these type of game scenarios.
However Rebic, Diaz and Leao were off.
Kalulu, Theo and Ballo-Toure do have pace for counters, but the former two had clearly been instructed to take very few risks, not push up, whereas the latter was way out of his depth.
It was a mess - players seemed unsure of what to do, where to be.
We had too many players acting like they had been given a CB role, but no one who took actual CB responsibility when an off-form Griezzman easily scored his first goal for Atletico since his return.
Now that's mostly Pioli's fault imo.