Stefano Pioli is on thin ice and could be sacked by AC Milan next week, with the clash against Sassuolo decisive. The management already has the Primavera manager Ignazio Abate lined up as an interim solution, a report claims.
Friday’s 2-2 draw against Salernitana has put Pioli’s position in real danger and although Milan won’t sack him for the moment, the game against Sassuolo will be decisive for the manager. Without a win there, he will most likely be sick.
According to Calciomercato.com, in the event of a sacking, Milan will not replace Pioli by bringing in a big name from elsewhere. Instead, they will promote the Primavera manager Abate until the end of the season, thus opting for an interim solution.
Milan’s Primavera have done very well this season, currently sitting in third four points behind the league leaders Inter. The derby ended 1-1 one week ago and the standings are even more impressive when you consider that Abate has been forced to give away many of his stars to Pioli (Simic, Camarda, Zeroli, Nsiala and more).
It remains to be seen what will happen next week, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic will reportedly have a say in the matter. It should be noted that the Swede is a good friend of Abate, so he might push for that solution.
Even if Pioli wins against Sassuolo, he will still need to keep the team winning and go on a winning streak for the next 5-6 games before a loss is considered a warning sign.
If the team draws a game without a good performance it will land him outside the door. I hate to say that if he is sacked, the summer plans for who is needed in the team will be altered drastically as a new manager will be needed.
The club feels like it is back to square one if he is sacked. I am not someone who is a die-hard fan of Pioli but I know that with any new manager, it is a huge risk for the long-term plan and title hopes.
“The club feels like it is back to square one if he is sacked. I am not someone who is a die-hard fan of Pioli but I know that with any new manager, it is a huge risk for the long-term plan and title hopes.”
Let’s be real. Title hopes went down the drain already. Even Pioli can’t be that delusional that he think Milan can somehow carry on without any losses the rest of the season and win most of the matches. Those fairytales don’t come true.
Back to square one? That would be a step forwards from here. Milan has been awful this season. Last season wasn’t much of a joyride either (remember record-breaking January?).
One thing is certain. Things will NOT get any better with Pioli. Lots of people here have been saying we’ve reached the limits of Pioli ages ago. They are right. Pioli has shown he doesn’t learn from his mistakes and he doesn’t “evolve”. If you want to keep dropping points against the worst teams in the league, go ahead and root for Pioli. I want trophies and success. I want Milan to win every match they play. Pioli’s Milan will win one or two matches per month. That’s pathetic.
People also wanted to sack Allegri back in the day, that decision backfired big time.
Of course there are also many examples to the contrary, but clubs have ended up worse quite often as well.
Allegri’s sacking was right, just that the coaches after him were not good enough either, but Max was awful, one of the worst along side Gianpaoli guy. I didn’t need to be watching Milan matches to be stressed out about the sport, whenever I remembered Allegri being the Milan coach I’d get mad. He was unbearable
I’m ambivalent about Allegri. He’s not the most exciting coach, but he’s won quite a bit with Juventus, including going to two UCL finals. What happened to Milan after Allegri has more to do with the direction the club was taking vis-a-vis players brought in. You think Allegri would have done something with those squads during banter? Would he have turned the likes of Castillejo, Kucka, Paletta and Lapadula into elite players? The answer is no.
True. He’d make those players looked even worse lol our players almost played against us with his tactics. I think his only good achievements were the 2 CL finals with Juve. Each of the 6 times he’s won the league was miles ahead of his rivals in resources.
Exactly. Allegri is only as good as the players he has. He has always had far better squads than his competitiors. Just look at the Milan roster when he won the scudetto. That squad would have won the scudetto even without a coach at all!! And Allegri f*cked up the next season by being Allegri.
The scudettos he won with Juve were similar to the one in Milan. The squad was far superior to others.
We already back to square one when we decided to go with the genius 433 with all box-to-box mids this season.
Exactly! Whos idea was it to play with all box to box mids should be fired lol. I dont even know how they thought that a mid like that could work. It was obvious when they were buying this mids in the summer that it wont work Thats why i was against it, but o well. People thought that Loftus is the next big thing even tho he hasnt showned anything for the past 5 seasons. Getting a real DM with that money would have been totally diferent season.
I don’t know, man…. Coaching 19yo’s isn’t the same as coaching a room full of senior players with their egos… and he’ll have to keep us Top4? yea……. about that….
The same was said about Capello and we all know he was more successful than Sacchi. It is possible but risky to appoint Abate but at this rate Pioli is going we will risk even more.
I believe Pioli loss the dressing room and therefore Milan need to replace him next summer but for now Abate will do.
Pioli had the dressing room against Monza, last game and looked good. What changed in one game?
It’s more than just a game. He made many bad decisions on many important matches, such as the one against Dortmund. If Milan would have achieved, at least, a draw there. Milan would have been in the round of 16. Against most of the big teams in Italy, Milan has played poorly. Milan was ahead for 2 goals against Napoli and then Milan let Napoli draw the match. So, you cannot defend Pioli for one game against Monza. Also, he achieved already something with Milan, and most likely other clubs would like to have him, especially in Italy. But we will see
Good??? Please check Xg coefficient
Walked away 3-0 winners against Monza, didn’t they?
What about before Monza? It seems we play one game where we look like a title contender, then three days later we look like a relegation side, then three days later a title contender again, etc. Whether he “has the dressing room” is irrelevant. He doesn’t know how to manage any better than this. His players could he ready to jump off a cliff for him, but that won’t put balls in the back of the net or keep clean sheets.
THat’s what I mean though – there’s so much fluctuation from game to game, I can’t figure out if he has the team or not…. They look good against NUFC, then lose to Atalanta. Then Monza was much better, then Salernitana… Jekyl & Hyde.
I don’t get what changes between games.
Yeah, I do agree with you. Many coaches have come from the youth system, and not only at Milan. Also look at Guardiola, he was first coach of Barcelona B, and then Barcelona. So we don’t know what it could happen. I just hope that the change is for the best!
I’ll take Alessio Dionisi from Sassuolo…..
Give them Pioli as compensation.
Can Abate do any worse than Pioli? No, not really no. At least Abate would probably have Zlatan by his side as they’re good friends.
No interim solution please. Either trust in Pioli or a coach with at least 2 years contract. No alibi to the players. Players need to know that whoever is the new coach, he will also be the new coach next year.
Pioli is clearly over, the matches look all the same. We may win or lose, but there is never real control over the game. 2nd half performance drops dramatically due to physical condition and injuries.
There isn’t a suitable coach available now and who wants to commit to some “plan b” for 1,5, 2,5 or even 3,5 years now? Now THAT would be insane.
exactly… at a team he didn’t choose the players or half way through the season. They aren’t looking for a coach. They are looking for a baby sitter.
Baby sitter. Now that’s a suitable term here. Even some of the players are acting like little kids nowadays…
The Motta’s and DeZerbi’s won’t be available till the summer. In the meantime you need a coach who will be a bridge until then.
He is already at the club and on the books.
Give him a try, if you are satisfied with his work you can keep him even after the end of the season
Look at Palladino at Monza. He was coaching their youth team, took over the first team a month into the season when they were last in serie A , without a win, and finished the season 11 th, only 18 points behind Milan led by the great Stefano Pioli.
The players will have respect for him because he has accomplished more than any of them not named Giroud in his playing career.
He is a club legend.
He might be the next Capello.
We will not know until he is given a chance.
Either way the current fraud needs to go while the season can still be saved.
Stefano Pioli I warned you about your decision of playing the 4-3-3 I told you we don’t have the tactics and player for 4-3-3 that our players are solid at the 4-2-3-1 so I advised you to revert to that 4-2-3-1 before it becomes too late for you
shut up
They’ve been playing a 4-2-3-1 the last month at least. In defense they seem to be forming 4-1-4-1. The lack of creativity and defensive discipline/awareness is Pioli’s main issue. The same unit he got to play flawlessly during his first year and a half is now a liability. Cheap fouls and corners lead to individual errors that cost goals. A bad 10 minutes that wastes 80 minutes of good. The only real legitimate gripe against management is Pioli should have been replaced along with Maldini et al. Now Milan are stuck between a lame duck manager and someone like freaking Tudor. Personally I don’t want Abate to go like Inzaghi and fear he’s not yet ready to take over the club in this delicate situation. I’m not sure what would be the right choice as the linked coaches seem like lateral moves at best.
Pfft
There’s only one question we should ask: it’s obvious that scudetto is unrealistic dream as well as winning EL and it’s obvious that Pioli will/should be gone in Summer. So is he able to finish in top 4 this season? For me it’s a 50-50 chance at best. Cause 2nd half of the season will be even worse than first. Horrible injury situation, AFCON and Pioli isn’t the best at rotating squad properly.
On the other hand there’s Abate – I haven’t watched Primavera games to judge his tactics but considering our results he’s doing great, so if Abate is charge will we finish in top 4?
IMO Ignazio has at least the same chances as Pioli, probably even better. The only problem is that Abate would have to deal with the mess that Pioli leaves behind, but on the other hand new coach, new ideas might inspire players and there’s a chance we might play much better than now. I think we should go for Abate – we might get our Xabi Alonso/Guardiola whatever. or we should get a new coach at the end of the season. Either way I don’t think that Pioli can finish this season better then Abate.
Lol yeah let’s replaced experiences manager with a much less experience manager. Good idea!
Yeah Milan is not looking for an experienced manager ,Milan is looking for a good manager. Hugely experienced Pioli will win you no matches anyway
One of the factor for “Good manager” is they have a lot of experiences kid.
What experience has to do? Pep had no experience. So did Zidane and Alonso. Experience means nothing much if you can read the game
“Abate out” incoming…
Promoting pirmavera coaches has never worked out for Milan in recent history. They all got sacked eventually.
Worst possible choice. He will be out before end of the season, instead of him developing gradually like he should…
Can’t wait to see that happen in here when Abate failed to win his 10 first match.
I personally can’t stomatch another sad end for Milan legends.
DO IT! We need a change, dressing room is lost and the team needs some new fresh ideas!
Don’t want to defend him, we spent 85 million in 2 seasons. If you take out CDK, for another 20. That is 65. For a team that lost Donna, Hakan, Romagnoli, Tonali and Kessie. We got a title with many mid 30 year olds and a 40 year old. The value this squad loss vs the so called money we “saved” is Assbackwards. This mostly because the Muricans refused to sanction the amounts we needed to keep our player, which were not absurd demands either vs what they could get elsewhere. We trimed the salaries by 50 million euros leading to last summer. We had to increase it, 25 million to keep it together, not decrease it. but they refused to allow that to happen by being OVERLY FRUGAL.
He had a thin squad depending on aging players to guide them for 3 years. We weren’t allowed to invest. We are seeing the culmination of precipitated decisions in a poor attempt to patch up 3 years of negligence due to upper management and ownership groups only agreeing to less than minimum investment.
He got every ounce out of these players and the well dried up this years. We had to have a perfect preseason, with everyone present from day 1 for Pioli to have a slightest chance of preparing somewhat properly. He is the whipping boy for the poor upper management.
Bad idea. Filippo Inzaghi had a way better win rate than Abate at Primavera. I remember quite well how did he do with the first team…
Yet Pippo just proved he’s a far better coach than Pioli. 🙂
How Pippo a far better coach than Pioli when Salernitana at the bottom of the table and Milan at no 3.
You dipsh*t aren’t making any sense here with your hot takes every time Milan got draw, lost, or even when won convincingly.
Pippo with far inferior squad ALMOST beat Milan and played 100x better. Since the players on the pitch were bad worse, it must be the coach that made up the difference,
Only kids with IQ of 50 fail to understand that.
@ForzaMilan you’re comparing Salernitana squad to current Milan squad 🤡🤡🤡
Joke of the day, in terms of quality it’s not even half of AC Milan.