AC Milan boss, Stefano Pioli, granted a brilliant interview to those at The Guardian. The Rossoneri coach will be hopeful to win a trophy this season, but even if he does, his mother will tell him that he had not won any major trophy in two decades of senior club management...
"Definitely. Yes, definitely", he says, "And it’s right that she does. In every family there is the hard one and the soft one. My father was the softer one, my mum is the very tough one. That’s how it should be. That’s how you get the most out of someone."
He continued:
"I do try to look beyond the surface. To move past the value of a player and get through to the person. Even if these are young lads who we would call fortunate, they are still young lads with their own lives, their own emotional triggers, personal ties, difficulties."
"I don’t tolerate mediocrity,” he says. “And I don’t tolerate us failing to strain to get better. If I see players who are demanding of themselves, who are getting better through their own attitude, their own work, then I become more of a, I wouldn’t say a friend, but I give positive support. When I don’t see that level of strain, I have to ask more."
On Rafael Leao always smiling in the field when dribbling past defenders...
"Having fun is fundamental. That’s a thing that we look for. We try to be as serious as possible, committed and professional. But football is passion, enjoyment. When you train lads who are very young, you need them to put their enthusiasm on the pitch."
Pioli on Fikayo Tomori:
"I had watched videos and seen impressive characteristics. But Fika was a positive surprise in every way. On a footballing level, because he is a defender who has characteristics the team needed: aggression, pace, a capacity to read the game. Then he is an extremely serious lad, extremely calm."
"He has grown a great deal in these two years, but he can still grow more. Given how much faster he is than the average defender, sometimes he takes too many risks trying to anticipate an attack too early. He could wait a tiny bit longer and, instead of acting on the expectation of a certain play, he would wait for that play. But being such an intelligent lad, he will get better at that too."
On his team's reaction to the Spezia loss and the referee's mistake...
"The behaviour of my players was immense. They showed respect for sporting values and towards a person who made a mistake. In sport, we all commit mistakes. That should not make us feel superior to, nor less worthy than, anyone else.”
Pioli on the talented players at Milan:
"My young footballers are growing well. But soon it is going to be time to stop calling them young footballers, and just call them footballers, ready to compete at certain levels."
