Stefano Pioli produced quite a spiky response yesterday in his press conference when asked about the four derbies that his side have lost in 2023 so far.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) recall, when he heard the question about the difference between Milan and Inter, which emerged in the four games lost, he replied clearly: “I don’t care about them.” And later: “No one is thinking about it.”
A definitive response, perhaps with a hint of nervousness, that before big matches creates an atmosphere. Pioli’s relationship in the derbies is strange with ups and downs, but no real flat periods.
In general, the balance is negative: he lost more games than he won against Inter, meaning the bad memories are more than the good ones.
There are good memories though ultimately, like on Saturday 5 February 2022 when the game seemed in control of Simone Inzaghi’s side, then Giroud’s brace turned things on its head and Milan would go on to win the Scudetto.
Pioli has experienced three out of four Italian derbies, and there are not many who have known Turin, Rome and Milan on the most tense evenings.
He missed the Genovese derby, but only just. When he was called by Milan in 2019, he was evaluating offers from Genoa and Samp, both in crisis with their coaches. As a player, at Juve, he won a derby against Toro thanks to a goal from Platini.
In his press conference yesterday he added: “I saw a lot of attention in preparing for the match, a lot of serenity. I like how the new players collaborate with each other and how they are experiencing the pre-match. They are attentive, calm and smiling.”
Three new players will play from the start: Loftus-Cheek, Reijnders and Pulisic, hoping to put ‘the four nightmares’ to bed. The mantra of yesterday’s conference was that Pioli thought of a new Milan also to respond to Inter.
After the first leg of the derby won a year ago – it was September, Giroud and Leao double – Milan lost in the Supercoppa (0-3), in Serie A (0-1) and twice in the Champions League (0-2 and 0-1).
The Rossoneri always went behind, never scored, and were overwhelmed several times. The Milan fans, for whom the derby is worth a week of jokes and half-smiles with their office mate, don’t even want to think about the idea of having to show up at work on Monday with earplugs in their ears.
