AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli has spoken to the media in a press conference after the goalless draw away from home against Sassuolo. Here are his words:
"We played too frenetic football, we weren't able to read the game and the attitudes of the opponents well and this complicated the game, it made it 'dirty', ruffled and with little rhythm, we struggled to find spaces. We got off to a good start, I really enjoyed the beginning, then we lost our clarity and we were in too much of a hurry in the search for the opponent's goal."
He continued:
"Sassuolo playing with a low defence? We are the ones who determine the attitude of our opponents. I believe that Sassuolo started aggressively then when they saw that we found the space they lowered as Atalanta did and since we are a mature team we have to change the attitude too based on the opponent but we were too hasty."
On what he said to the team:
"I have already seen the players, they have spoken more. We were not very qualitative and not very lucid, they are aware and it is important. I think that the next matches will be different."
Could starting De Ketelaere as a false 9 be an idea for the future for you?
"He played there, he likes to play there and I think it could be a good solution, then I saw Giroud tired and I tried to give fewer points of reference and more combinations with Adli: we did a few but we weren't so effective."
Did you miss the ferocity of last season?
"No, if we start all the times of last year's match, we will play the derby and talk about last year, but that's another story. In the last two months of the championship we won quite clearly with Sassuolo because we were in a good position and we were excellent physically and mentally. We have to work during the game and then we have the qualities to win. Our expectations have increased and we have to hold them up, but that's right, it's a privilege. I didn't like the many interruptions, we could win and even lose , but there were all these whistles and all these interruptions..."
Pioli was asked if this game influenced by the coming derby?
"It would have been serious if I had increased the loads before Sassuolo, we prepared the match against Sassuolo without ever mentioning the one with Inter. We recovered after Bologna and tried to prepare the game well from a tactical point of view. Saying something to the team for the derby will be easy, it is a derby, the rivalry is high and we know that beyond the ranking, which is now partial, how much the result can weigh and we will prepare it in the best possible way."
