Stefano Pioli claims this was Milan’s ‘first deserved defeat’ of the Serie A season, as they were out-played by Spezia in every way. ‘Nothing worked this evening.’
The Rossoneri suffered their first away defeat in Serie A since December 2019, 5-0 with Atalanta, and didn’t have a single shot on target at the Stadio Alberto Picco.
Stefano Pioli claims this was Milan’s ‘first deserved defeat’ of the Serie A season, as they were out-played by Spezia in every way. ‘Nothing worked this evening.’
The Rossoneri suffered their first away defeat in Serie A since December 2019, 5-0 with Atalanta, and didn’t have a single shot on target at the Stadio Alberto Picco.
This was going to be the weekend they took advantage of Juventus losing to Napoli and Inter with a tricky test against Lazio tomorrow, but instead they could lose the leadership.
“We certainly have to react and we will do. Spezia won deservedly tonight, this is our first deserved defeat of the season, as we had not enough quality or intensity, so our opponents quite rightly took advantage.
“It will be a valuable lesson for all of us, we realise that if we don’t perform at a certain level, we will be embarrassed like this,” the coach told DAZN.
“We are not a team capable of really winning ugly. We always try to focus on passing, intensity and tempo, so if we lack those elements, we are not as effective.
“We struggled throughout the game, nothing worked, including my choices and the performances of the players. Obviously, this isn’t what Milan are like, so we need to prove that from next week.
“We’re well aware of how negative this performance was, just as we’re well aware of the difficulty of the games coming up and well aware of what Milan are capable of. Anyone who saw us in training this week would not have expected this performance, and yet it happened. It was an off night, we need to get back on track.
“Perhaps we weren’t sharp enough to react to the difficulties that Spezia provided. We did expect them to be aggressive and had prepared counter-measures, but they didn’t work and we made mistakes, so nothing went right.
“If we don’t move the ball around quickly enough, we allow our opponents to get back into shape and become predictable. Nothing worked this evening, on the ball or off it.
"This was a bad performance, it's only right we leave the field with our heads down, but from tomorrow we get back on our feet."