Stefano Pioli reflected on his first three years with Milan, the importance of winning the Scudetto last year and his thoughts after the first nine league games of the season.
The Rossoneri currently sit fifth in the Serie A table after nine matches, picking up 20 points from six wins, two draws and a loss. Had they beaten Napoli before the recent international break, they’d sit top of the table, but Luciano Spalletti’s side look unstoppable in the early stages of this campaign.
Speaking to Lega Serie A, Pioli first discussed his first three years with Milan.
“Yes, on October 9 I celebrated my first three years at Milan, three years full of emotions, of work, of collaboration in a great club.
“Three years in which an incredible journey has been made together with my players, always evolving. We continue to have ideas and mentality to improve and grow.”
He commented on if he expected to lift the Scudetto when he arrived three years ago.
“I have always been very confident and positive, the club has given me a team with a lot of potential and a lot of talent. When you combine these characteristics with willingness, the desire to grow and improve, you can really aim high.
“We are Milan, it was right to try to get back to winning something and having succeeded last year gave us great satisfaction.”
The Milan coach spoke about the psychological impact of winning the league title last season.
“Winning the Scudetto for such a young squad was important. It gave us more awareness of our qualities and our way of playing and being on the pitch.
“And then we became a target for our opponents, everyone is playing to beat us, so we have to keep thinking about raising our level if we want to compete to win again.”
He reflected on the first nine Serie A games of this season.
“The balance in the league would have been very positive if we hadn’t lost to Napoli because I think that, the way the team played, we deserved more. We know that we have to continue like this and that we can do better.
“At our level, in particular, attention to detail can make the difference, as we have seen and paid for on our skin. We conceded a few too many goals despite scoring little against our opponents.
“We must and we can do even more, we are preparing to face this part of the season that will be very special.”
Finally, Pioli discussed his and Milan’s plans for the World Cup break.
“It is a strange season because of the dates, we have never played so much in August, September and October. Now we are thinking about what we will do in this period and then also how to manage the long break, especially for those who will not go to the World Cup.
“We already have a programme for those who will stay in Milan, but the biggest unknowns will concern our players who will go to Qatar. In that case we will have to make individual programmes, based on when they will return and how they will return.
“We will have to understand when to rest them and when to play them. This will be the most delicate and important situation to manage.”
After the first 2 years this year is the right time for the team to move up definitely but they still fail to do the right thing. Napoli lost almost all their big stars and we all think they are going down, but see what they brought in, unlike us. We only bought DKL FROM Brugge which still need time to settle in, the rest are future players who will have no input on the team, so if we lose out in the CL again this year it wont be a surprise, you dont spend you dont win, its simple as that, even Maldini understand this.