Pioli admits Milan needed to do ‘more’ vs. Salernitana and discusses Leao’s form | OneFootball

Stefano Pioli spoke to the media after AC Milan’s draw against Salernitana and admitted that they needed to do more after taking the lead. Champions League and top four remain in doubt, as a result.

Milan took the lead through Olivier Giroud in the dying seconds of the first half and struggled to create any chances in the second half. Only after Salernitana’s equaliser did they push forward properly.

In his post-match interview with Sky Italia, as cited by MilanNews, Pioli admitted that Milan needed to do a whole lot more after taking the lead. He also shared his thoughts on Rafael Leao, who scored a 3.5/10 in our player ratings.

On the second half…

“We didn’t think the job was done after the goal. In the first half, we wanted to be more dangerous but Salernitana created problems for us. A team that takes the lead must do more to win the match. It’s a missed opportunity, there’s no point in hiding that fact.”

On the Champions League…

“We have to grow. If we want to be a great team, we have to learn to face all matches in the same way as in the Champions League. We have to do better, we knew it wasn’t easy, we have to grow.”

On Ibra…

“He’s an important player for us. We looked for him with long balls. We will see what decisions I will make for Udinese. Now we will analyse the match with the lads, we know we have to do much better.”

On Leao…

“I don’t think the renewal issue is affecting his performances. He has to stay more inside the game, and sometimes we have to look for him more. We had many attempts, but few on target.”

On the differences with last year…

“We are always united and cohesive. It’s true that we don’t have the continuity we need in the league. The same goes for the others too, except for Napoli. We are doing better, but we have to continue to grow a lot, especially in terms of mentality. We had to use the enthusiasm from the Champions League.”

On positives from tonight’s match…

“The desire to try to win it until the end. But I repeat that we are disappointed because we can do much better. After taking the lead, we had to do better. We could have done better when we conceded the goal.”

Milan will face Udinese on Saturday and they will have to make do without tonight’s goalscorer, Giroud, who will be suspended. It remains to be seen if Pioli will play Divock Origi or Zlatan Ibrahimovic from start then.