Blame-shifting backfires for Pioli [Bonus article]

Lets’s begin this article by stating the obvious: AC Milan lack the necessary depth to compete in Serie A and the Champions League at the same time. The last few months have made that painfully clear and the management will have to act, but Stefano Pioli’s blame-shifting hasn’t worked either.

In the last few months, amid the tight schedule and struggles, Pioli has made quite a lot of rotation between the games. The Bologna game was the extreme example, as he changed every single player in the starting XI bar Mike Maignan, but there are many games he has made 4-7 changes for too.

Rotation and changes are necessary. It’s been said many times and we won’t dive into it again, because that is a whole discussion in itself. However, there is something to be said about managing the rotation. As a manager for a top-tier team, and especially one going far in the Champions League, you need to be really good at it.

Pioli, well, he hasn’t exactly been that. There have been far too many significant changes at the same time lately and a team like Milan cannot afford that, especially since they are so reliant on the likes of Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao. Benching both of them, therefore, might not be the wisest thing.

The heavy rotation has sparked a great debate among the fans on social media but the general consensus seems to be that Pioli hasn’t done well enough on that front. Not to mention the lack of playing time for someone like Yacine Adli, who has shown great promise when given the chance.

With the latest results in mind, the feeling is also that the overall stance among the fans has shifted. When the going first got tough for Milan, not everyone blamed Pioli but also highlighted the fact that Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara didn’t do enough to reinforce the team in the summer.

That statement remains entirely true, but one could argue that Pioli has been making the depth issues far too obvious in the last few months. We all knew, in a way, that the depth wasn’t enough but the manager didn’t have to make it so evident - in what could be interpreted as an attempt to highlight the mistakes of the management.

The blame-shifting, as we can call it, has completely backfired for Pioli as a majority of the fans believe he shouldn’t have made so many changes. If he had refrained from doing that, paradoxically, he would have had an even stronger argument against the management and a better explanation for the struggles.

“The rotation? I know what I’m doing and why I’m doing it,” Pioli said after the 1-1 draw against Cremonese and this only made him sound arrogant. For example, in the games Rafael Leao has been benched, Milan have only won one out of seven. For Theo Hernandez, the stat is exactly the same.

The future is uncertain and it remains to be seen if Milan will secure Champions League qualification for next season. As we told you a few weeks ago, the confidence in Pioli remains intact and it’s likely that he will remain even if the Rossoneri were to miss out on the top four. But, having said that, the semi-final against Inter will play its part too.

If you want to read about the financial implication of missing out on the Champions League, check out our article from a few weeks back. It’s not as bad as some of the newspapers have led you to believe, given that Milan have collected a lot from the competition this season.