Stefano Pioli warns that if Milan don’t beat Inter after their 0-0 with Juventus, they will have to focus far more on securing top four than targeting the Scudetto, while the San Siro turf was behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s injury.

The Rossoneri knew they had to get a victory or fall further behind leaders Inter and be caught in second place by Napoli, but losing Ibrahimovic to a relapse of the Achilles tendon issue after 28 minutes was a real blow.

“Ibra felt pain in the Achilles tendon, he blamed the pitch, which was very hard, so we hope he can recover over the next few days.”

Serie A | Milan 0-0 Juventus: Ugly San Siro stalemate

Olivier Giroud and Davide Calabria had the best chances, but even then Wojciech Szczesny was not severely tested.

“We had the right performance for our circumstances and the opposition, but were lacking precision in the penalty area. The state of the pitch didn’t help either, as we had some bad first touches, had to take extra touches to get it under control and that slowed us down,” Pioli told DAZN.

“We tried to be dangerous and limited Juventus to no chances. We moved Messias into a more central position, but we lacked something in the final metres. I don’t think it was a tactical issue, as we had players in the box, but got the final ball wrong.”

Milan are still smarting after the controversial 2-1 defeat to Spezia, with an error so damaging that the referee apologised in tears afterwards.

“Winning games is tough at the moment, you need that quality and fluidity, but also perhaps that light-hearted approach to the sport that we had. Admittedly, it has not been an easy week for us, because it’s one thing to accept what happened, it’s quite another to just get over it.

“Our glass is half-empty because of the Spezia result, not this one. If we’d won that, tonight’s result would’ve been very different.”

There is a break for international duty now, but in a fortnight there will be Milan against Inter in the Derby della Madonnina, not to mention a Scudetto showdown.

“We knew the games against Juventus and Inter would say a great deal about our future. If we don’t beat Inter, then our campaign will be very similar to last season, when we won at the end to go second and risked crashing out of the Champions League places,” warned Pioli.

“We have our way of playing and must realise that if we want to achieve something extraordinary again, we need to give everything. I saw many individual performances of a very high level today.”

11 thought on “Pioli has Inter warning for Milan after Juventus draw”
  1. The big positive was Romagnoli and Kalulu’s performances in the centre. Maybe we can focus on signing an attacker, specifically a No 10, instead of wasting time, money and energy signing a CB when we have 4 decent ones who have all done a job?

  2. @ MALDINI HEIR

    Finally you make a sensible demand! I’ve been saying this for months now. We don’t need defenders, Kalulu is doing great and Gabbia is decent backup, but we sure as hell need an attacking midfielder because Diaz just won’t cut it out for us.

  3. @Milan Fan Diaz is the best attacking midfielder in the league. That’s why Milan let that useless Calhanoglu go. A lot of Milan fans said Diaz is far better than Calhanoglu so why would you buy a new AM? Just keep playing Diaz, please. Inter should keep playing that inconsistent Calhanoglu and Milan will win the scudetto this season for sure!

  4. @ Milan Fan Part of the reason I’m always complaining about transfers is because they always seem to be focusing on the wrong positions.

    I am really torn on Romagnoli. I really like him so I am biased but he’s also disappointed so often. He played well tonight and if he could put in those sort of performances and renewed then I don’t think we’d need to worry about CBs for the next 10 years!

    Why don’t we just bring in Adli now!

  5. Before Milan gets rid of Ibrahimovic, Giroud, Messias, Brahim Diaz and Krunic and before there is a really good striker up front who can bang in goals, then Milan is destined to remain in the shadows.

    Did Ibra do anything good yesterday evening before he went out? Nothing at all. He should be shown the exit door straightaway. He is old, self-centred, lazy and way past his prime ….. so please make way ….

  6. It is almost similar the situation with the last season. This season Milan started very fast, and even led Inter by 7 points. Now they are behind by 4 points and with surplus 1 game more. So mathematically Milan is behind for 7 points. If the derby is draw or Milan lost then indeed scudetto dream will be a just a dream again.

  7. @ Recoba

    Calhanoglu was more often than not useless for Milan, so yes he wasn’t worth what he was asking for. If he’s doing well for you in a slightly different position and you’re satisfied with him then good for him and you. We never believed we’ll be OK with just Diaz, one player for that position. The plan was to bring in another attacking midfielder over the summer, which Milan failed despite chasing several players like Faivre, Ziyech, Bernardo Silva and others …

    I don’t know why they are not trying to fix that issue now.

    @ Maldini’s Heir

    Romagnoli had a good game last night but Juve were toothless in attack and Kalulu overshadowed him. Cuadrado still glided past him on one occasion. I still think he is not good enough considering what he’s earning but sure he’s a good backup. I doubt he’ll want to sit on the bench though. The thing is, we can replace him over the summer if he leaves, but right now we need players in other positions. The trequartista is the most important position in the 4-2-3-1 and we basically only have Diaz there, and he’s not good enough to be the starter.

  8. Lets be honest, Juve last night, couldn’t score in a brothel so our defence survived. Inter won’t be as forgiving. Spezia weren’t as forgiving. We need another defender to complete with Kalulu, not replace him. We also need another 10 but that’s not looking like its a priority right now. So, we play Diaz until he gets some form back. He has improved in the last few games and I predict his early season form will return soon enough.

  9. @Milan Fan you don’t seriously believe Milan can get Bernardo Silva or Ziyech, do you? if Milan had even half that kind of money you’d have extended Calhanoglu instead. That Faivre guy is also not one that would guarantee you a better performance than Diaz. Attackers from Ligue 1 almost always have trouble adapting to Serie A.

    Plus you do have another attacking midfielder in Messias. He played his best football at Crotone as a CAM. The reality is just that you have no money to get great players and those that are present just aren’t good enough. Pioli has also never won any title so it was never realistic to expect him to win Serie A with a mediocre squad punching above their weight.

  10. @ Recoba

    Milan were chasing those players for real, but couldn’t sign them because they wanted to spread the cost. Milan have that kind of money (Hakan’s wages), but obviously don’t want to overspend on any player. Calhanoglu had 6 good months in 4 years at Milan, so he didn’t deserve than 1m more he demanded. Point is, neither Calhanoglu or Diaz are good enough for Milan in that position, but at least Diaz is on something like half his wages or even less, so it corresponds with his performances.

    Milan’s line of thinking was either we bring in an improvement on bigger wages, or we play Diaz instead of Calhanoglu. Hakan has a few more goal contributions in a better Inter side this season, but the difference does not justify the cost.

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