Coach Stefano Pioli spoke to DAZN in the post-match of Milan-Atalanta.
Here are his statements:
On the penalty awarded to Atalanta:
"Too soft, for two reasons: Holm puts his hands on his face, on his head, and that's not where he was hit. And that's already not right. And then it's too soft for Daniele Orsato's standards, not just today, he's the referee who calls the fewest fouls in penalties overall. It's too little, Oli [Holm] does nothing, then he puts his hands on his face... Then well done to them because they did it and forced them to review it. If he hadn't thrown himself, they wouldn't have gone to review it. Too bad."
Today Milan attacked almost always with 5 men. Were two points lost?
"Also the other times and also tonight. To deserve to win you have to score one more goal than the opponent and we didn't succeed. We played the best game of my Milan against Atalanta. We put them in difficulty, they didn't shoot on goal. It's a shame not to have won, the best performance of the week. Many positive things, not the result, I think we deserved to win."
Pioli commented on the midfield movements:
"We wanted parity in both phases with Adli who had to pay attention to Koopmeiners. They have a unique way of being on the field, we had to slide with the defender on the side to make it 2 against 2 with the full-back. Yacine in that position gave us coverage in the middle. The three forwards worked with the right intensity that favored the duels of our defenders."
To see tonight's Milan, do the legs or the head have to work? Pioli replied:
"I believe that lately we have often had this approach. Unfortunately, we messed up the performance against Monza. I also heard many negative comments about Thursday, we had to manage a clear advantage and I think we did it well. Unfortunately, we are conceding penalties from all sides because we have taken too many penalties this year. Some naivety on our part, in my opinion, some exaggerated in the refereeing assessments. Now we think about the next ones, Atalanta-Lazio-Empoli and Verona, plus the double confrontation in Europe, will say a lot about our season."
On Rafael Leao's great game:
"He had the best performance of the season in terms of continuity. He has always had his plays, but tonight he made them consistently important and with excellent defensive work. It all starts from him and his mentality. He will have to try to always be this type of player because he has the means."
Did Milan build self-esteem tonight?
"It must be like this, we played a high-level game, with technical and mental attitude. It must give us strength because the next weeks will be demanding."
On Wednesday, will you cheer for Inter or Atalanta?
"At the moment we have to think about stabilising the third place and try to reach Juventus. Now the cups are coming for the other teams except for Juventus, difficulties will come for everyone."
On Tijjani Reijnders' condition:
"He has no physical problems. Between him and Adli, Adli played the whole game on Thursday night and I believed Adli's characteristics were more suitable for tonight."
