Stefano Pioli explains what went wrong with the Malick Thiaw red card and how he adjusted Milan with 10 men, but still believes they ‘were at no point inferior’ to Juventus.
The Rossoneri had numerous absentees for the big match, including Mike Maignan, Theo Hernandez and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
The game inevitably changed with two first half incidents, as first Wojciech Szczesny made an extraordinary fingertip save on Olivier Giroud, then Malick Thiaw saw red for hauling down Moise Kean.
Juve won it with their first shot on goal, a Manuel Locatelli long-range strike that took a huge deflection off the returning Rade Krunic.
“I usually don’t talk to the team after the games anyway, as there is a great deal of tension and today also disappointment,” Pioli told DAZN.
“It was not the result we wanted, but we played well with 11 men, we played well with 10 men and were at no point inferior to Juventus, so I feel we could’ve got the result.”
Thiaw seemed to be left rather isolated against Kean in the red card incident, so what went wrong in the Milan defence?
“On the red card it was a naïve error, both individual and of the team. Thiaw should’ve stalled rather than chase him down. The full-back was also in the wrong position. At the same time, Thiaw was unlucky when he slipped, but he should’ve done better.”
When Thiaw was sent off, Pioli substituted Christian Pulisic with Pierre Kalulu and was asked about that decision.
“I decided to make Leao and Giroud work against the three Juve defenders and maintain the defensive set-up we had, as there were some good reference points against them.
“We believed that the contribution of the midfielders like Musah and Reijnders, or Giroud holding up the ball for Leao, could allow us to continue being dangerous in attack.
“The second half started pretty well, but then we lacked a little intensity above all in midfield. It’s also true that we allowed Juventus barely any chances, so with a little more intensity I feel we could’ve taken home a very important result even down to 10 men.”
Rafael Leao was limited by Juve working in unison, as Weston McKennie and Timothy Weah combined with Federico Gatti to cover his area of the pitch.
“We expected Weah to be working more on Leao than Gatti. It’s true that Leao caused him a lot of problems and Gatti made a lot of fouls, a lot from start to finish. The rules say if you make repeated fouls, you ought to be booked and he got a card eventually after at my count 22 fouls.
“We should’ve filled the box more with Reijnders and Musah pushing up. I feel that a positive result would’ve been fair considering how we played throughout the match, even down to 10 men.”
Luka Jovic replaced Giroud in the second half, but continues to look rather rusty.
“I think Jovic held the ball up well, his condition is improving and in those situations we need someone who can hold it up rather than Noah Okafor, who is better when running into space.”
This was Milan’s second Serie A defeat of the season after the hammering to Inter, but they remain in second place, one point off new leaders Inter.
Pioli joked that after the last setback, they put together a list of wins that took them to top spot.
“This defeat takes nothing off our confidence. We are not superficial in evaluating our performances, we will try to do better. If we can recover from this the way we did after the derby with a run of victories, then we don’t mind!
“All jokes aside, the team knows it is on the right track. We need to become more efficient in front of goal.”
Milan were exhausted and lost all the desire in the last 15 to 20 minutes. Even a bottom team are better than this.
Final score says otherwise.