PIOLI: "INTENSITY AND QUALITY TO MAINTAIN THIS LEVEL"

After their great performance at Old Trafford in the Europa League, AC Milan are set to host Napoli at San Siro. It's an important league match for the Rossoneri, who haven't won on home soil in over a month and need to right this wrong as soon as possible. Their 27th fixture of the Serie A season, which is scheduled for 20:45 CET on Sunday 14 March, provides an opportunity to do so. Ahead of the game, Coach Pioli held a press conference from Milanello. His words were broadcast live on the AC Milan Official App and Milan TV.

STATE OF PLAY
"During a season, there are difficulties that need to be overcome. We’ve needed them to revive ourselves, to make us grow, to motivate us to give our all in every match. This year, we’ve only eased off on one occasion: this happened in La Spezia and shouldn’t have occurred. In all of our other matches, the team haven’t been lacking in determination. I coach very responsible players and a group full of quality. Even when we have absences, I can count on excellent players. By playing as a team and actively working together, we can become strong."

NEXT OPPONENTS
"Napoli play a nice brand of football, they have a lot of quality. They’ve recently gone through a difficult spell but have rallied around their coach. We’re making our preparations, it’ll be a complicated game. They’re one of the best teams in the league. Compared to Verona, they take up different positions on the pitch, but they also have physically strong defenders and quick strikers. Gattuso? He did an excellent job here."

INJURY SITUATION
"Calabria and Romagnoli came back from Manchester with niggles and are doubts for tomorrow. Alessio trained in part with the team today, but we’ll make a decision tomorrow morning. I think that Hernández, Çalhanoğlu and Rebić will be available. Tonali has rested, I think he’ll be able to play. As for Ibrahimović, Mandžukić and Bennacer, we’ll have to wait until next week."

FIRST, NAPOLI
"We need to concentrate on tomorrow’s game, it’s the most important match. We can’t make calculations: we just need to win as many games as possible, and tomorrow is a big opportunity against a really strong side that has caused us problems in the past. After a year as busy as this one, the physical and mental condition of the players will drop for some and improve for others. Tomorrow, I’ll pick those who are doing well both physically and mentally. Intensity always hits you mentally first, then physically. In our recent games, we’ve done well in both phases of the game and played as a team. For a lot of the lads, this is their first season playing every three days; you’re going to get a drop-off, but we’ve done well to learn from our defeats. We need to have both intensity and quality at the same level in order to maintain this high standard."

HOW AC MILAN HAVE PICKED THEMSELVES UP
"With hard work and belief in our qualities. Just because we’ve had a couple of slip-ups, we can’t forget how well this team has played, allowing us to become the surprise package in 2020. We just needed to go over some situations and be much more compact. We’ve never lacked confidence even though there were a lot of negative things being said outside the team, though it wasn’t the case for us. The photo from the Rio Ave game? That’s the spark that AC Milan must always have, the picture reminds us of a great evening. It’s important to understand what we’ve gone through to get here."

KESSIE’S GROWTH
"He deserves all the praise. His day-to-day attitude has been brilliant, I don’t know how he was in the past. He’s got a strong mentality and is always ready to help his teammates, to say and do the right thing. With the quality that he has, he can play anywhere: at the end of the game, I moved him to the number 10 role – he can do anything now. He has a great presence, is positive and, at his age, can still improve. He’s becoming a really important player for us."

INDIVIDUALS
"Ibra is our guiding light, but AC Milan’s teamwork, qualities and ideas are all vital. Zlatan is a leader, but we have lots of leaders because we all acknowledge that we have a way of playing. Meïte has grown a lot: he was coming from a completely different style of play, so, at first, he was playing at a lower tempo compared to his teammates. He’s made great strides forward and produced performances that have been full of intensity and quality. He’s doing well. Saelemaekers and Castillejo performed well against Verona, both made a great contribution to the side and gave us good solutions, they also have the potential to develop further. Leão? I have to always protect my players, especially when I see an eagerness to work and a spirit of sacrifice in them. Rafa has improved a lot this year when it comes to being involved in games, it’s normal to expect a lot from him because he has the qualities to do well. But he’s putting in a lot and working hard for the team: he has a lot of room to improve with regards to recognising certain phases of play, his goal will come sooner or later."

THE IMPORTANCE OF SPEED 
"We have to play at a fast pace, including when we have the ball. We need to move it very quickly and make our opponents run. Particularly from a mental perspective, you need to move it around quickly if you want to play with tempo. When we weren’t playing with that tempo, the ball was moving around too slowly, which made it difficult to break through. Moving the ball and manoeuvring well are important objectives for us."

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