Stefano Pioli’s job is perhaps the most at risk it has ever been since he joined AC Milan, with the club’s leaders ready to make their move should the difficulties continue.
La Repubblica (via MilanNews) reports this morning that the draw against Salernitana means that the Rossoneri coach’s position is increasingly uncertain and the feeling is that the match against Sassuolo will be decisive, as well as the Cagliari Coppa Italia game and the trip to Empoli.
The section is headlined: ‘Pioli still in trouble, three games to save himself but Milan’s future belongs to Conte or De Zerbi’. If Pioli’s job is in immediate danger, that naturally means it is difficult to imagine him remaining at the club beyond the end of the current campaign.
The serious injury situation and the inconsistent results are two big marks against him. The club would like to make changes to the staff, many of whom Pioli is loyal to, and then also the poor performance of top players such as Rafarl Leao and Theo Hernandez is a worry.
This is why the owners are already thinking about names for the future, with Antonio Conte remaining a very attractive option. Another suggestion could be Roberto De Zerbi from Brighton, though attracting him might not be easy.
Had Christophe Galtier or Marcelo Gallardo been free, one of the two could have immediately replaced Pioli but the Frenchman is at Al-Duhail in Qatar and the Argentinian at Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, the solution of Ignazio Abate as an interim does not convince the management.
Milan would be willing to make an economic sacrifice to pay Conte’s salary, and to pay the amount due to Pioli until 30 June 2025. Ibrahimovic is mentioned as being a big sponsor of the Conte idea.
To be fair Osti has been with Pioli at a number of other clubs and they never have had that amount of injuries. I can understand Pioli being loyal to him if the upper management cannot provide a clear prove that his methods are at fault.
We also sprint a lot but we are also still relatively far away from the most sprinting clubs in Serie A.
I think that the physical preparation has some influence, but it unfortunately is probably a multi factor problem and especially the medical team feels a bit under investigated to me.
Exactly. Even at Milan, there was a time we were one of- if not- the most athletically performing sides. After Covid and the following season for example. It’s hard to suddenly think these same guys suddenly became villains and outdated in that space. So I get the trust Pioli has of them. It’s not crazy.
Instead of looking for scapegoats; a more thorough analysis is needed. Then maybe an external consultant to help. Just…calm minds and no rashness.
I wrote this a while back, enjoy:
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IKWYDLS 16 November 2023, 15:30 at 3:30 pm
I did some digging (very time consuming) and cross checked Inter’s 2016/17 team and the time Osti spent as their athletic coach at the time (about a year or so). Here’s the injuries which occurred during that time below. It’s interesting to note alot of them are muscular. However, must caution this is only one year so we can’t really directly associate the injury to the coach (unless across time but it’s time consuming), doesn’t really account for players simply being injury prone themselves and other factors.
Santon: 26 days, Hamstring
Gagliardini: ankle injury and hamstring injury, 37 days total
Ansaldi: adductor, 41 days
Miranda, muscle injury, 47 days
D’Ambrosio: internal ligament injury 28 days (but right after Osti left)
Nagatomo, muscle injury, 16 days.
Joao Mario, muscle fatigue 10 days
Kondogbia, muscle fatigue, 10 days
Medel, muscular problems, knee surgery, 55 days
Brozovic, foot/toe injury, muscle injury, 28 days total
Palacio, muscle strain 30 days
Icardi, muscular problems, 23 days
Eder, Muscle fatigue, 3 days
Melo, knee bruise, 24 days
Ranocchia, Achilles tendon problems, 11 days
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I mean this is obviously worse than Inter now, but at the same time we would gladly take that, especially for a season. That are maybe 30% of what we have, which is a significant difference.
This is the same Osti who Pioli had hired at Inter and have him followed us here. Note the number of muscular injuries though
This means we do not fire Pioli untill the end of the season,and that is we lost all about this season rigjht now.
First question: did you follow Piolis whole career before milan? If not, how can you conclude that there were not many injury cases before?
Injury crisis hit milan every season in the past 3 years.
Evaluation/investigation should have done last season. Now it is just too late.
Milan had better/exciting transfer campaign last summer and the club is destroyed once again becausw of injury.
We are looking for the one who is responsible not scapegoat.
See above
Would be good to cross check over a longer time frame
The issue I have though is that Osti has been here with Pioli all along and the injuries haven’t been as bad as this season before. So what changed? Oour playing style. 4-3-3, pressing higher combined with the schedule, different competitions doesn’t allow the players to recuperate properly it seems so they wear out.
SO either the staff is telling Pioli that it’s all good, keep going (which it clearly isn’t) or Pioli is too dense/stubborn to change his ways and play in a way that doesn’t exhaust his players.
I dont know either to be honest. And like u said he was here before. But he does comes with muscular injuries during his time as physio. I believe that high press all the time is the issue. Sometimes we need to just sit and counter. Just do the simple things and do things that don’t stress the muscles ie press all the time (which doesn’t work these days anyway because not everyone presses equally)
100%. That intensity game in and game out is not sustainable. But Pioli chooses weird times to innovate tactically… Nothing wring with defend & counter against touch opponents.
like VS Sassuolo, given the injuries, don’t wear out the players more. Play deep. Then throw Leao and Chuk at them.
I don’t know.
Regarding Pioli, another question is: Has Pioli worked with Osti his entire career? In other words: How long have they collaborated? It would be interesting to analyze the injury trajectory in that sense. Both to A. See what it has been with Pioli over time, and also across time with and without Osti (if there is a time before Osti).
Last week it was “sassuolo is the decider”. Now it’s “three games to turn it around”… And on and on we go…
In the meantime we’re just gonna throw coaching candidacies at the wall – something is bound to stick. Then we’ll say, we told you so!