Speaking at a press conference on the eve of the match against Cagliari, Stefano Pegstechnician of Milanspoke about many topics including the San Siro match.
Pioli: “Ranieri is a gentleman. The team is doing well.”
These are the words taken from Milannews.it:
Mister all of us, all the fans really want to see Milan win again after the home match against Genoa. Shall we do it tomorrow?
“It’s like this. This is what we want too, for many reasons, because the period in which we have come without a victory is too long. Because I believe that second place is an important objective in any case and is not completely achieved, and therefore. Because we are professionals, out of pride and respect for our club, for our fans and all the motivations that go into this match.”
A couple of curiosities, the first going back a few days: Florenzi’s interview was very nice. Speaking about your work he often said that you seemed to be almost a lightning rod for the team, you took too much criticism, only we who know him well know how much he is suffering in this period. So I ask you, do you want to tell us something more, if you want to make public how you are living, how are you feeling this last period?
“The only thing that would bother me – and nothing bothers me anymore – is if the team didn’t have the right motivation to finish the championship well. This is the only thing I care about and am worried about. How I am doesn’t count, in the sense that I’m focused on these last matches, then at the end of the championship I’ll meet the club and we’ll decide what our future will be. But I believe that in the figure of the coach, my role also includes acting as a lightning rod, protecting the team, protecting the club because all the responsibilities are there and this has never been a problem for me.”
Is the team ready for this season finale? And then Giroud, Jovic, can you give us some indication, who is better?
“The team is doing well. It is clear that we are still at the end of a long, demanding and complicated season, and there may be those who have a little more energy, those who have a little less, those who are a little better, those who have a little less, therefore I will try to choose those players who I believe have the energy, the best possible condition to try to put on the field a fair match, with quality concentration to try to win tomorrow’s match”.
Milan wants to win again, but they are facing a Cagliari that wants important points for survival and perhaps the work done by Ranieri in Cagliari, who managed to revive a team that everyone took for granted, is not underlined enough
“We are talking about a great coach that I was lucky enough to have as a player. I had three teachers. Trapattoni, Bagnoli and Claudio. Claudio is a top, in everything. In terms of style, elegance, ability to motivate, ability to train. Where he has always gone he has always done a very good job, he has always achieved great results, so he knows how much I respect him, but he also knows that tomorrow’s match will be important for them but it is also very important for us so we expect to do well ”.
Do you share this concern of the fans who will continue to strike tomorrow? And what do you feel like saying and if seeing that empty curve had any effect on you
“I believe that the club has demonstrated in recent years that it knows how to work and can be ambitious. Then I repeat, I believe that all together we must try to finish this championship in the best possible way, then the club will try to give the right answers at the right time.”
Paolo Maldini spoke about managing everyday life, even difficult moments. I still refer to the term used by Florenzi ‘lightning rod’. Has it been more difficult this year to have less support from that point of view? On Wednesday we experienced a very Milan fans-Leao moment. To see Leao smiling like this even on the pitch, what is needed?
“As regards Paolo’s statements, I don’t think I should be the one to comment on his statements. I believe that in general the merits and demerits of a season are always shared between the coach, the club, the players, among those who are the creators of the positive and negative results. As for Leao, to be smiling, I think he wants to do well, score and help the team score goals. I think the team wants this.”
You mentioned earlier that it would bother you if some players weren’t 100% connected in these last few games. We know that many will have international competitions, Copa America and also the European Championship. Is there someone who will go into management or perhaps have some private chat, especially for those of a slightly advanced age, I’m thinking of Giroud, or those who have many physical problems, I’m thinking of Maignan, if there has been any chat about preservation always with respect for Milan which comes first
“No. In fact I gave them the opportunity, they know where my office is. At the beginning of the week I said that my office is always there, and therefore those who, without further ado, those who feel they have already given everything, those who feel a little tired, less energetic, those who don’t feel they are capable to help the team the office was open, but no one showed up. So I saw the things I wanted to see this week, then after tomorrow I will field the team that I think is the best. I start with the best changes and then I can improve it during the race.”
Having seen the Europa League matches yesterday, very sincerely speaking, given that you were made fun of a bit for that sentence compared to Real and City, in your opinion, Milan, objectively, are not far from those heights that they have reached, in addition to Roma, also Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta
“I was also made fun of because I said that Atalanta was one of the favorites to win the Europa League. I was referring to the fact that only a year ago we had reached the semi-finals of the Champions League, and then the fact of being eliminated by Inter had diminished the importance of having achieved such an important goal. If you talk to me about this year, this year we have shown that we are clearly far from these teams, but I believe that Milan in the future, based on the investments they can make, I believe that this is a good team, but I don’t want to talk about the future because I think it’s more important for me to be focused on tomorrow’s match, on the championship finale and then we’ll see about the future. However, we are not far from Atalanta. Our regret this year was the two matches against Roma, absolutely, because we too could have gone to the semi-final against Bayer Leverkusen. The fact that I then said that these two reached the final was because the quality of the team and the coaches is high.”
Atalanta has officially announced that they will buy out De Ketelaere. Is there an explanation for last year’s poor performance and this year’s very positive performance?
“I think there could be two, as far as I can tell. Last year it was Charles’ first season in a different, difficult, very competitive championship. He certainly suffered this news. So this year he found himself with superior experience, in a role that is probably more suited to his characteristics than him.
Had he never thought about changing his role?
“No because we had other plans”.
In your opinion, has a sort of mental knot been created that is difficult to untie at this point of the season or can we still work on the players’ heads?
“Fortunately we are human beings and we too live with emotions, positive and negative. It is clear that the exit from the Europa League and having lost yet another derby certainly weighed heavily on our morale. However, I don’t believe that there wasn’t a reaction, honestly, considering that we didn’t play top games, yes, but no that there wasn’t a reaction because otherwise we wouldn’t have drawn with Juve, we wouldn’t have recovered from a difficult result, with a difficult start against Genoa. So in my opinion there was a reaction. It’s clear that we were all hoping for something more.”
In these last three games are you thinking of maybe giving the chance to those who have played less?
“It’s normal that those who have played more may be less brilliant, those who have played a little less may be a little more brilliant. Physically and also mentally, but not in terms of motivation, because mentally, having played less, you suffered and suffered fewer other situations. It can be anything. A coach always puts in place the one that can guarantee him results. I’ll do this tomorrow.”
How much players influence the style of play
“The coach gives an idea and game principles, the characteristics of the players then interpret these characteristics. We have never been defensive, I don’t want to be. This doesn’t mean we always have to concede those goals. We are a team that always wants to score one goal more than the others, yes.”
Over Borussia in the final
“European competitions are difficult to predict, being at the top in the single match or in the double match makes the difference. Look at Dortmund’s league standings. They knew how to take advantage of the opportunities they had. I could say that if Oli had scored the penalty against Dortmund maybe we would have had a great result, but the reality is that they beat us.”
What kind of approach do you expect from Cagliari?
“With the ball they are a direct team. Usually he doesn’t dribble much because he verticalizes a lot. In the defensive phase he changed a bit. Ranieri is a very capable coach, he will know how to prepare the match very well, and we will have to be able to prepare the match, and also be able to read these situations.”
On the condition of Kalulu and Bennacer
“It seems to me that they are fine, Isma is finding her rhythm again, Pierre is fine but he is not 100%. They are both ready to play.”
On the defensive phase this year
“Compared to the numbers we have, for the shots we conceded, we conceded too many goals. It means that we made a few too many mistakes”
