I?m not making excuses, but if you stop and consider our attacking talent, it?s pretty incredible what Pioli has done.
Zlatan - Old
Hakan - mental midget
Rebic - good player capable of extreme highs and lows
Samu - Spanish fodder
Sael - Hard working, good utility player, nothing more
Leao - Talented player that doesn?t quite fit anywhere in a 4231 and has questionable effort level
Diaz - Good, raw, physically weak
Hawg - Good talent, very raw and physically TBD if he can cut it at this level
Mandzukic - Should probably have been left alone in his retirement home.
There isn?t great talent there... Inter, Atalanta, Napoli, Juve, and Lazio all arguably have superior attacking talent.
I think Pioli over achieved dramatically with this squad and then injuries + COVID derailed things even yesterday - we were missing Ibrahimovic once again when we needed him. Yes, we shouldn?t need him to beat Cagliari, but that?s why he exists - To bully little anti-football teams. Elliott didn?t give Pioli a suitable alternative for a 39 year old, I mean that?s just insane.