Milan coach Stefano Pioli was frustrated with his teams performance in their 2-2 draw against Lecce: “In the first half we did everything wrong.” The Rossoneri were stunned by a blazing opening 45 minutes from the hosts where they scored two goals in quick succession and could have easily scored more. Goals from Davide Calabria and Rafael Leao helped even the score line, but Milan will inevitably see it as two dropped points.
Speaking to DAZN (via MilanNews) after the game, Pioli reflected on a tough match against a good opponent and the upcoming SupperCoppa game with Inter:
In the first half we did everything wrong that we could do wrong. We made avoidable mistakes, then the match got complicated. We had a good reaction, we could have even won it in the end, but we have to do much better.
The Supercoppa? Wednesday’s match didn’t affect it. Also because we didn’t come from a victory, but from disappointing results, I expected a different start. We must have the quality and lucidity to keep the pitch better, as we did in the second half.
Hernandez? I could have changed many other players at the interval. I tried to change to improve my game on the flanks and therefore I removed Theo and Saelemaekers.
It’s always difficult if the team is too worried or too light. A little worry is fine for me before the match. We missed the impact of the match. We are in line with last season, but ee certainly could have done better since the restart of the season.
We have to do better, be more precise and avoid trivial mistakes which then complicate your games. We have to improve. Tonight’s performance needs to be analysed to understand what didn’t work.”
Two strikers? In some games it can be a solution, even if it’s not easy to play with two centre-forwards and Leao as well on the wing. You can do anything, you just need to have the availability and energy to tolerate this type of game.
The club has already expressed itself. We are recovering the players, I also hope to recover Rebic for the Supercoppa to have more solutions. Origi is fine now, I hope to recover Ibra soon too.
We are ready, we have no shortages in the squad, we are stronger and more convinced as a whole. We are lacking players who are also leaders. Now we have to analyse the first half and start from the second half.”
