Stefano Pioli admits Milan’s performance in the goalless draw with Cremonese was ‘not up to our standards’ and that being eight points off leaders Napoli is ‘not where we wanted to be.’
The Rossoneri were badly missing suspended pair Theo Hernandez and Olivier Giroud, even switching to a three-man defence with Malick Thiaw getting his first start.
The problems were all upfront, failing to convert any of their chances, although Cremonese goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi made several crucial saves on their 16 attempts, five of them on target.
“I think our first half was decent, the second was not up to our standards, so we could’ve done much more,” Pioli told DAZN.
“We were unable to create enough attacking situations, Cremonese focused entirely on defending and closed down all the spaces, but we still could’ve done far better.”
Rafael Leao had another disappointing performance, looking very sluggish when coming off the bench today.
“We lost our fluidity and speed of movement in the second half, we didn’t win enough attacking duels, which is something we usually do well with one-on-one situations. We worked well to get the ball back with our press, but were above all missing movement off the ball to create the chances and give more passing options.
“It is wrong to always focus on an individual. We do well as a team, then when we don’t work as a team, we don’t get results. An individual can have good and bad days, this is natural, but tonight overall we didn’t perform up to our standards.
“We expected Cremonese to do this, as we saw that at the start of the season they were more aggressive defensively, but have started to sit deeper, so we needed to take the ball to them. We had our chances to score, especially in the first half, but when you don’t break the deadlock, these games get more complicated as time goes on.
“We didn’t create enough opportunities or solutions to unlock them.”
When asked about another disappointing substitute, Charles De Ketelaere, Pioli reacted with irritation.
“I understand the media focus on how much he was paid, but everyone tonight should’ve done better, including myself. We can play better football, with more pace, more quality and more chances.”
This stalemate, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the other 0-0 at Sassuolo, means the champions are now eight points adrift of leaders Napoli.
“It’s a lot, we certainly don’t like this situation, but we have an opportunity to win on Sunday and then there’s a long campaign ahead of us. Naturally, we didn’t want to be this far off at this stage. We congratulate Napoli on their record, but we could’ve done more.”
This weekend will be the final Serie A games of 2022 and Milan take on Fiorentina before the break for the World Cup.
Played a center back at right back 😂😂😂 sat there and watched seventy three mins of Diaz whilst two attacking midfielder barely even get on! Utter farce!
I will not watch Milan games any longer till this coach that feels like a god leaves the club.pioli out!!!!
@Toni.
The game management and decision making are simple inexplicable. And they want me to believe we have a chance vs Spurs hahaha.
Drew a match and Pioliout hashtags are starting again smh
There’s a lot to discuss and it’s easy to point out the mistakes after the fact. The hope is that Pioli and the players learn from these setbacks. Honestly this World Cup break comes at the perfect time for us. Actually I wish it would’ve come sooner. We need to recover players and our pas.sion.
Napoli won the transfer market battle from us and that’s why they are 8 points clear.
Brahma Diaz tried to play basketball at one point, no foul or booking given. Such a corrupt league