Stefano Pioli believes Milan ‘made too many mistakes’ in their 3-0 Supercoppa Italiana defeat to Inter. The Rossoneri were put to the sword by their city rivals, making it their second loss in their last four games with the other two ending in draws. Pioli was speaking with Sport Mediaset after the game and while his players got back into the game in the second half, he believes the damage was done in the first 45 minutes:
“Our first half was certainly not up to the task, we made too many mistakes and from there it was difficult to turn around. We tried at the start of the second half, but didn’t do enough to deserve any more.
Clearly, we are not accustomed to these errors and they become very damaging against a side of this quality. We are certainly not going through our best period mentally, but we must do better and do more.
The only way to go forward is to work better, to raise our level, because clearly this is a defeat that hurts, a trophy we wanted to win, but the season is still out there waiting for us and we need to get back to playing the way we know how.
The errors? I did not expect this, as I know the quality of my players, so I expected a more positive performance. At this moment, we are struggling to react to an error, struggling to remain united as a team and collectively the lack of results is starting to weigh on us.
Hernandez? I don’t think it is anything to do with his attitude or concentration, nor is it right to point the finger at individuals. We need to rediscover that harmony and joy that allows us to play our style of football, as at the moment we are struggling to get it going.
There are many situations we need to develop better. The second goal especially was one where we had the men back in position, but weren’t organised enough to deal with it. Naturally, the collective grows with the individuals, we will have the strength to react.”
Maignan? Inter were very aggressive, we needed to move the ball better. Mike has a longer kick than Tata, but we still could’ve made better choices to give options to the player who has the ball when making the pass.”
