I'd understand pro-Pioli gang if we had a clear advantage quality/quantity-wise in Serie A, but Roma is gaining momentum and has now-healthy Lukaku, they'll bully teams and grind 3 pts against weaker squads (which makes up most of Serie A lol). We, on the other side, have huuuge problems penetrating bunker-style tactics...
If we had any kind of assurance we'd comfortable finish fourth - then we could leave Pioli and squad here on auto-pilot until june... But even then, our players form and valuation would still decline... So I just don't see it.
Theo... I wrote couple of weeks ago there was a rumour that he had a foreign offer and wanted to leave... But seeing though we kicked Maldini out, sold Tonali, mngmnt didn't want to put itself in even more shit spot. He's playing at 40%, look at his runs/concentration, it's practically non-existent.
Tactically, we are the same for the last 3 years. Last time we had pass and go game was in 2021 with Kess/Benna/Hakan trio + Rebić & Salad upfront for maniacal pressing. Of course, it wasn't sustainable when we started to play 3 games a week, but those 2 goals by Dortmund last night was something we used to score quite regulary at that time... When was it we actually scored a goal with a one-two combination or a couple of fist touch passes? I remember the penalty against Roma, when Giroud sent RLC through and that's about it. I never saw a "top" team relies exclusively on one-on-ones in def and att phase, unbelievable.
I screamed repeatedly last night at my screen how static we were, and that ladies and gentleman is a clear sign of lack of ANY ideas. You can see trained moves when players start to move off the ball in open spaces long before they actually recieve it. We don't have that, even in scudetto season Pioli's answer was to pile up players forward and bulldoze through, but then we had the rest defence in Fik/Pierre who were in form of their lives. I've said this repeatedly: Thiaw cannot be left alone one on one in open space, he's quite massive and heavy and he lose the first couple of steps (which is something you can't recover from if you don't have wlite speed ala Fik/Kalulu). His overall speed is quite good though, but it's too late when someone quick blows by past him; that's what happened last night when he got injured - he did get in front of an attacker, but that burst of speed shot his harmstring (same happened to Leao 2 weeks ago).
We don't haye any semblance of system which would hide those shortcomings, that's all on coach. Pioli is simply another Zaccheroni, even to I'll admitt we played great in that 2021-2022 span, played beautiful football (with Zacch it was pure torture for full 2 and a half years), but we all saw he got completely lost when he lost Hakan and continued to olay THE SAME WAY, even though Diaz was nothing alike Hakan. Same thing happened last year when we lost Kessie and he just put Tonali there hoping he'll do the same job (he's not that kind of player).
With everything stated above, looking through last 20+ years, a top team (Real) sacked their coaches repeatedly through the season to have a chance at silvervare. That's goes to show that our managment unfortunately isn't interested in trophys, it's just a convenient consequence of being financially great. Downside is, it can take you only so far, bc Theo, Leao etc. will in no way want to play here for sake of getting top 4. Managment also cannot expect to have players on 2-3 mil net contracts, it just doesn't wprk that way when those players establish themselves, and our managment fucking BRAGS how much money we earned; of course players (will) want their fair share. Theo could play for Wolverhampton and earn more than here.
Ibra won't change a thing, he's nit the coach, he can only motivate players for so long... He was here last season, Maldini was here also, and we were even worse than now so I think it won't solve anything, same thing with Maldini still being here. He was at Milanello every day and we still played like shit. I'm sorry for him bc our fanbase and all of us here identify him with this club, but our main problem is the coaching staff and now I put this solely on managment, because the writing was on the wall for a long time and nothing was done.
My only consolation in all of this is that Gerry is a money man and he just "lost" a lot of money with this CL exit (please, don't do the math about machday 6, don't do that to yourself). Only thing I can see shake this squad up is a change of a manager, it's like the playbook of how to salvage anything froma bad season. At least playera will apply themselves more.
One more thing: our squad is not made for polite (pussy) coaches. It worked bc we had Ibra and Kjaer who (as it turnes out) practically led this team, but when you have so much young-ish players you have to have someone who'll make it easier on them and impose a certain system. It doesn't have to be Conte, even fucking Tudor will do. Either we'll pay up or lose much more not qualifing for the next CL.
P.S. I already wrote this last week I think: we cannot appoint any manager that is/was in charge of a team in Serie A THIS SEASON. It's a rule that exists for decades, look it up. So no Motta, Italiano etc., this is not England where this is allowed. That's why Napoli hired fucking Mazzari, and not Italiano (who'd be tailor made for them).
