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Stefano Piolicoach of Milan, this evening is a guest of Fabio Caressa a Sky Football Club. The transmission will begin shortly and, consequently, also the intervention of the Rossoneri coach, which you can find in full here with the direct text from the editorial staff of MilanNews.it. Stay with us!
23.00 – The program begins. Here is Stefano Pioli.
Your Giroud: “I think Oli is an optimal psychophysical moment. He had great enthusiasm for the World Cup and is proving to be a great player. I’m happy for him and for Theo, I hope they continue like this. It was enough for me to make a video call with him to understand his thickness and his abilities. He has always had a lot of impact, not just with goals. He puts great generosity on a daily basis. He is a very determined boy: he has all the important characteristics to be a leader. Is it better for him to leave now? I think it’s much easier to train satisfied players than to re-motivate them. Kjaer? He didn’t come back happy, Denmark faced the World Cup for the first time with higher expectations.”
Your Leo: “I gave the players a rule. I want to leave them alone but they have to call me after every game. Do you play little? These are difficult situations to judge from a distance. If you see Leao in training, he has incredible potential. He has technical ability combined with speed that few have . He had to deal with new working methods and a different reality. It took some time. I think he has to take one more leap to become a champion. Do you come back more? It depends on the strategy of the match, one on one becomes difficult to take. But there are times when he centers and others when he ducks too much. Such offensive players have to stay closer to the box. He can play anywhere. I think he can become even more decisive in the opponent’s box. very intelligent boy, very available. We are however talking about players who are talented, they must have freedom in the last 30 metres. I want him to close more at the far post, I always tell him. He should impact more.”
On the World Cup: “It’s more of an individual World Cup: this year they prepared for the World Cup in a week. It’s difficult for a coach to give an identity, even if I think Luis Enrique plays the best football. There weren’t any big surprises on a technical level -tactical. They looked more at concreteness and individuality since each match has an important specific weight. We played the last very important match against Fiorentina: I didn’t see my players thinking about the World Cup. Throwing themselves immediately into a competition like that in one week was not easy”.
How will the players come back: “For us that we had the chance to catch our breath it was good. The players who will return are a question mark, unlike those who did not participate since they have rested, even if they have had six individual sessions”.
On Goshawks: “His passing touched me deeply. Unfortunately, I say unfortunately, it was a situation that made me grow. After his loss I discovered new situations that opened my mind more. Now I’m closer to the players and I protect them more. It was not an easy situation to manage. I have had negative experiences in my career, but they are the ones that have helped me the most to improve”.
On exemptions: “The exemption is a blow because it prevents you from quitting your job. You consider it unfair, but then the pain passes and allows you to understand why it has arrived. After each negative situation, I left with greater awareness. In Palermo I could not find the spark with the players, then Bologna arrived”.
On the lockdown and Ragnick: “I had all the support from the technical area. But also from Gazidis, who always behaved correctly: at Milanello he told us that we were all under scrutiny. During the lockdown we gave the players ten days off and then we went back to training on Zoom. At Milanello, on the way back, something had changed, but I don’t know what. We restarted and then we did well”.
On the course and on Maldini: “If we have followed this path it is because all the components have given their contribution. From the first day I entered Milanello I felt good and the confrontation with Maldini and Massara gave me more strength in my work. It is something that it gives the coach more strength, more confidence. Maldini isn’t there just for training, he’s there to relate to everyone, he’s a central figure. We’re talking about a person with an incredible level of knowledge, with incredible DNA.”
Su Ibrahimovic: “Without taking anything away from anyone, Zlatan was a determining element in the team’s growth. He arrived in a young group, and for the first time in a non-winning team with players not similar to him, and he understood a different reality Everyone knew how to accept strengths and weaknesses. His mentality and determination raised the level of the team. If Zlatan was there in training, there was a certain level. But also Kjaer, Giroud, Maignan. We have four-five leading players who drive the group”.
On the post 5-0 against Atalanta: “I think the match against Atalanta was the match that kickstarted the construction of Milan. We needed other types of players to play our football: new mental, physical and talented characteristics”.
About the project: “Paolo and Ricky wanted to invest in certain players with sustainable costs for a club that wanted to pursue a certain type of path. It is a path that does not give immediate results, but we were good at anticipating these times”.
On references: “Many coaches. I watch many games by Guardiola, Nagelsmann, Klopp… Every great coach has a main characteristic. I have completed my staff with young video analysts who have helped me to get to know new situations. And I am lucky to coach available players. Like, for example, the proposal to Theo and Calabria to enter the pitch: I saw their enthusiasm. If I ask a player to do something and he doesn’t feel like it, I take a step back. I told Guardiola that everyone compliments him on the offensive phase, but for me he’s the best at recovering the ball. Not all opponents are the same, but our idea is not to let the other teams play. year are we longer and less compact? Yes, but because with the halfbacks we shorten less, we allow the first pass, we have to be quicker. Then we introduced a more offensive attacking midfielder. And also because we forced the depth too much with the ball , if you lengthen the team then you struggle. We need to dribble more in the opponent’s half. The big teams dribble and always have players attacking deep, but they don’t necessarily have to be served if they are followed by the opponent. The team wants to become complete, it wants to reach a higher level. The opponents change and the players must have the baggage to read the situation.”
On the attacking midfielder: “When a midfielder plays in the frontline, he certainly gives you a more solid defensive phase. But this year we haven’t gotten worse in terms of defensive numbers. With the break in the World Cup, we’re all making too limited balances: Vranckx, Thiaw and De Ketelaere are arrived three months ago. And it’s normal that it takes time. De Ketelaere? For me he’s a midfielder who needs to vary: I give him freedom, but without the ball he must have precise indications. In Belgium he played without realizing the collaboration of his teammates, now he has to learn to read the spaces. This break can help him. Tonali and Leao, for example, I left them at the end of May in a situation and I found them different. This year I saw this thing in Bennacer and in Messias”.
