Stefano Pioli wasn’t too disheartened by Milan’s 0-0 draw with Empoli: ‘It’s a negative result, not a negative performance’. The Rossoneri dominated the match with 70% of the ball possession, 23 shots on goal and an XG of 1.99, but failed to make any of it count, the only clear chance coming from Olivier Giroud’s disallowed handball goal. Speaking with DAZN (as quoted by MilanNews) after the match, Pioli tried to focus on the positive points, but accepted that his team needed to do better when being so dominant in games:
“It’s not the result we wanted and we can have regrets for the first half. We played with great intensity and great pressure, conceding nothing and doing everything we had to do to win in the second half, but the ball didn’t go in. I see a healthy team. It’s a negative result, not a negative performance”.
“Rebic and Origi? From the forwards you expect goals. Higher full-backs would have given us more width in the first half and we had to fill the area better not only with the strikers. The team played a good game, but we lacked a little something…”.
“The judgement might have been different if Rebic had scored in the first half, if Origi had scored with his heel with a bit more luck…. De Ketelaere does everything he has to do in training to convince me; he works as hard as and like his team-mates. Then I had already changed so much and I didn’t want to exaggerate. You all said ‘finally the three midfielders’ and today…. Choices are made. Charles has to be ready and he trains very well: he’s a mature boy. Then I make my choices.”
“The game? It’s been a long time since we played with this intensity, compactness and desire not to let the opponents play. I’m sorry, we’re Milan, but as a coach I think we’re getting back to our level. We can do better. Our game is improving”.
“Against Napoli? Tomorrow morning I’ll tell the team one thing: in Napoli we needed points more than they did. On Wednesday we will have great motivation and we will both play with great energy. I expect a strong Napoli side, a completely different game to the one in the league. Maybe we will change something, because Napoli have positions that have created and could create problems for us. To play the Champions League here at the San Siro is fantastic. Napoli are a great team. Then, as happened to us, to exert so much in the Champions League we lost something in the league.”
