Parma vs. AC Milan serie a week 14; Sunday 01/12/2019
(12-01-2019, 05:55 PM)nefremo Wrote: How good? How good was he really? We have a very limited sample before he was at Milan. Every single thing seemed to go his way. Every half turn, every touch somehow seemed to find its way towards the net. It was too good to be true. He was in form, but also had luck with a lot of the goals he scored. He was also brand new to Serie A and therefore unknown to defenders (or rather scouts and analysts of games that give defenders info on how to mark someone, what to do, what to expect, etc). 

The problem is that, what we are seeing isn't just poor form. It isn't just bad luck. We are seeing fundamental, BASIC, elements of the game being misinterpreted by him. Technical mistakes that, seriously, you only see in Sunday morning pick up games at the local park.

While I agree that Piatek is awful this season, and I even think that we saw signs of the same during the last month on previous season, I don’t fully accept that it was just him being lucky, in form and an unknown quantity that made him such a revelation last season.
The Piatek that just blew past Koulibaly and smashed the ball past the keeper against Napoli was a very potent striker; strong, hard working and brave. We saw the same striker that pulled a goal of nothing against Atalanta, and then added another when he bravely lunged forward on a corner. The goals he scored last season (par a few) were not lucky tap-ins or scrappy goals, he showcased a self-confidence unlike most players in the league last season, and that seems to have completely vanished. 

I accept that the best solution might be for him to leave in January, but I think that we could quickly see him flourish somewhere else, given the right circumstances. Before we give up on him though, I’d love to see him upfront together with Leao for a few games. In Genoa, he was lethal in a partnership with Kuoame, a player not unlike Leao.
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For goal scorers, they need confidence. The current Piatek disgusts me. He is awful but we don't know if that's all he has. Plus, he is our #9 and I can't give up on him. Once he starts scoring regularly again, who knows, maybe he can't be stopped again. And I really don't need him to be another Weah, van Basten, Shevchenko or Inzaghi. I would be happy enough for him to turn into another Massaro or Simone.

Maybe he should give up #9. I am more and more convinced that curse is for real. Scared
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Losing confidence or form at Milan Piatek is hardly the first, that's why I keep mentioning culture change. It really doesn't matter if the 'real' Piatek is 4/10 or 10/10 as a striker, it's something that happens to players at Milan that doesn't make sense, it doesn't help that coach after coach refuse to change things. If formations are often similar you can bet the treatment behind the scenes is not that different either, that's partly why I didn't and dont agree with some who were saying bring back Gattuso. Milan needs fixing in places where we don't see every day, the sad thing is those that do see Milan every day are not changing much, easy example: I see no real difference in how Kessie, Suso, even Calhanoglu played today, positionally and tactically vs under several previous coaches.
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To me it comes down to two things; the manager and the sporting leadership, - and what those people’s aspirations are. Every single manager we have appointed since Seedorf has been a coward in one way or the other, and has always opted for the "safe" player choice because their only objective has been survive at the club and in the league. From Inzaghi over Mihajlovic, Montella, Gattuso, Giampaolo and to Pioli all of them came without a conviction that they knew what had to be done to take this crumbling club in a whole new upwards direction. Some people claimed that Giampaolo had a plan, but a man who gives up on his convictions after the first official match has no real plan and no guts, -he was a disgrace to this club. We need someone coming here to build a new project, and at this stage I’m almost convinced that it has to be someone who is not of the Italian school of management.

Secondly the sporting leadership has to be in support of this manager, for a much longer time than what we have seen so far. Everybody are praising Klopp these days, but he was afforded 3 years without a trophy to tweak and optimize his squad, -and the funds to acquire the players needed, largely because the improvements were everywhere to bee seen. I think ever since Sacchi and Capello this club has opted to bring in "weak" managers, who wouldn’t outshine Berlusconi, or object too much to his wishes. Ancelotti is not a fiery person, and as such he was the perfect fit at that time, but then again he was provided excellent players up until 2007 which compensated for a lack of real plan. Since then the money dried up, and the managers made due with what was given. Even with the Chinese €250M spree, it was clear that Montella didn’t have any actual influence over which types of players we needed -or any idea for that matter, and thus the money was wasted. These days you need a manager with character, with conviction and charisma if you wish to attract the best players and enhance the mediocre ones. We only attract mediocre Serie A hermit managers and we keep bringing them in, hoping that the next one will be different.

Unless Maldini and Boban show something different within a short time, I’d go as far as to say that they are part of the problem for only looking domestically for new managers. Since we can’t attract an established star manager, Paolo Fonseca at Roma is the type of manager I would have loved to see us go for; with a fresh approach and a focus on young players. Their games are still rather hit and miss, but you can see that they start to string together some very nice build-ups, and there are signs of more to come if they give him time. There are several of his mould out there, but the leadership need the courage to actually try something new.

I know for a fact that Pioli is going nowhere here, and we are going nowhere with him, so I guess it’s year zero with a new Serie A journeyman in 6 months time.
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Happy we finally got a win that was deserved. Conti is continuing to impress week after week. Bennacer with his obligatory yellow but doing well in his role. Hernández also coming up big again. Overall have to be impressed with our transfer market this summer. What we spent continues to be an upgrade or at least needed depth (Krunic).

Still holding out for Pioli. He is getting far more out of these players than MG with similar formation. I hope if he gets a say in the transfer market he can maybe shift to a more suitable system. Piatek is obviously disappointing all but he still finds the space to get good chances. I couldn’t believe he missed that header in the first half. With that said, he is finding those spaces as opposed to Leao.

Pioli took over a team low on confidence, very disorganized, very young and in the midst of a really tough stretch in the schedule. We can all objectively agree we are moving forward. We are conceding less and giving ourselves good chances to score. As we scrap together some wins I have to believe the goals will start flowing.
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Get him #19 back, he will be back scoring Smile
aka edysim
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