There was tension in the Milan camp after the 3-0 defeat to PSG, as Stefano Pioli said his captain Davide Calabria was ‘wrong’ to criticise teammates for ‘not believing enough’ and then revealed another injury.
It is obvious where the problems lie for the Diavolo, who failed to find the net for five consecutive Champions League fixtures, something that no Italian side had ever done before.
Calabria came off the bench at half-time to replace Malick Thiaw, who was on a yellow card, but was unable to prevent Randal Kolo Muani and Kang-in Lee from adding to the Kylian Mbappé opener.
When he spoke to Mediaset Infinity after the defeat, Calabria was visibly angry at the performance and saw things in a very different way to his coach.
“We knew that this group would go all the way to the end. We are here. Every day we go to Milanello and work our a**es off so that we can play these games.
“If we want to keep going in the Champions League, and we do, then we must roll our sleeves up. Anyone who doesn’t believe should just stay at home.”
When these comments were passed on to Pioli, the coach was not at all content with the approach his captain had taken.
“He was wrong to say that. There is nobody who works at Milanello without the right focus or intensity. It can happen in the heat of the moment after a match to say things you don’t mean.
“What we prepared during the week is what we showed today, it was just that we lacked quality in certain moments, misplacing some crucial passes.”
Pioli was criticised for keeping Olivier Giroud on for the entire 90 minutes, but it emerged there was a good reason for that, especially with Noah Okafor and Samuel Chukwueze already injured.
“Luka Jovic felt a twinge in his adductor during the warm-up. I don’t know if he will be ready to play against Napoli.”
That left no strikers available, because Luka Romero is not in the Champions League squad list.
The only alternative was 18-year-old Chaka Traore, bumped up from the youth team to make up the numbers.
Results vs the likes of Cagliari, bologna, torino etc have not masked Milan‘s unwatchable style of play this season. No creativity. Zero composure in the final third, snails pace tempo, and clearly no personality to take on the big games. Pioli will go to the grave picking giroud and krunic. Hopeless footballers. Those players were a disgrace to the shirt and serie a.
Stupid Pioli should sell Krunic before transfer window closed . Milan should get rid of Krunic, Thiaw and Pioli.
the italian teams this year will faulter inthe champlons they cannot do both do not bse it on last year i hope i am wrong
Milan, great champions League Italian team who play anything but Italians. Seria Awful more likely. Play some Italians who want to make Seria great again. Cardinale do you like your European team???
Pioli reminds me of Zaccheroni.