Milan director Paolo Maldini revealed that goalkeeper Mike Maignan is expected back in 10 days time and explained why it’s not right the time to be talking about Rafael Leao’s contract extension. The Rossoneri legend was speaking to DAZN ahead of his teams 1-0 win over Torino last night, and touched on a number of topics related to the club, including the future of coach Stefano Piolo who has been the subject of online abuse:
“There were some unpleasant things that came out on social media. We have to take social media with the pros and cons and try to respect others. Every match is an opportunity, it is useless to hide the fact that January did not start in the best way.
“We won the first match of the year and dominated the second, then the rest of the games were below expectations.
“Is Pioli under discussion? No, we are all in discussion because we are judged every three days. He is not in discussion. The change of formation was an attempt to find solidity. Until Salernitana we were in line with last year’s points tally and the only thing that changed was Napoli, and then we qualified for the Champions League round of 16.
“The work at Milanello? The weeks have been varied, the work has been done well, the desire is to get back to doing what you were doing before, the mental aspect makes a difference. So you look for stimuli to get into the players’ heads. We have a young team… I tell them that with the best team in the world we’ve been through worse times’.
“Leao? When we got him he was second striker on the left. He has great speed and I must say that on the flank he is unmarkable. What Pioli asks is also coverage, but he has been dominant. Returning to a more central position won’t distract him much, he has developed an ability to score goals. He lacks attacking space without the ball. We also lack the signature on a renewal, we are where we were before, but this not the time to be thinking about that, we need to focus on the games. There are no meetings planned, but with Zoom we can see each other at any time’.
“Maignan? He’s planned for a return to the team in the next ten days. Then he’ll take his time: a goalkeeper who hasn’t played for so long has to recover. Having had two relapses he has to be careful. We also went through a possibility of surgery but it was avoided and in ten days he should be available.!
