Pioli: ‘Milan did not do enough’ in Supercoppa

Stefano Pioli fully admits that Milan ‘did not do enough’ in the Supercoppa Italiana defeat to Inter and are making too many ‘damaging errors,’ but tried to protect individuals from criticism.

The Rossoneri knew they were in worse form than their rivals going into the game, coming off two straight 2-2 draws in Serie A and crashing out of the Coppa Italia to 10-man Torino.

That proved accurate, because Inter surged into a 2-0 lead within 20 minutes thanks to goals from Federico Dimarco and Edin Dzeko.

While there was a general improvement after the break, they still rarely tested Andre Onana and were undone for a third time by Lautaro Martinez turning Fikayo Tomori on a long ball.

“Our first half was certainly not up to the task, we made too many mistakes and from there it was difficult to turn around. We tried at the start of the second half, but didn’t do enough to deserve any more,” Pioli told Sport Mediaset.

“Clearly, we are not accustomed to these errors and they become very damaging against a side of this quality. We are certainly not going through our best period mentally, but we must do better and do more.

“The only way to go forward is to work better, to raise our level, because clearly this is a defeat that hurts, a trophy we wanted to win, but the season is still out there waiting for us and we need to get back to playing the way we know how.”

Something has clearly gone awry for Milan lately, as they are without a win in four competitive games and conceded nine goals during that period.

Simon Kjaer came in for Pierre Kalulu, but they still made some sloppy errors and were caught napping.

“I did not expect this, as I know the quality of my players, so I expected a more positive performance. At this moment, we are struggling to react to an error, struggling to remain united as a team and collectively the lack of results is starting to weigh on us.”

Theo Hernandez has come back from the World Cup in particularly poor shape and was even substituted at half-time against Lecce.

“I don’t think it is anything to do with his attitude or concentration, nor is it right to point the finger at individuals. We need to rediscover that harmony and joy that allows us to play our style of football, as at the moment we are struggling to get it going.

“There are many situations we need to develop better. The second goal especially was one where we had the men back in position, but weren’t organised enough to deal with it. Naturally, the collective grows with the individuals, we will have the strength to react.”

Pioli was asked how much Milan are missing goalkeeper Mike Maignan, not just for his ability to make saves, but also to play out from the back and speed things up.

“Inter were very aggressive, we needed to move the ball better. Mike has a longer kick than Tata, but we still could’ve made better choices to give options to the player who has the ball when making the pass.”