Stefano Pioli received the 2021 Nils Liedholm award today and touched on a few Milan-related topics while talking to the journalists. “It is not easy to draw a comparison between the current team and his historical one. We started our journey two years ago. We hope it will bear its fruis soon. It takes time, but we are trying to get strong results quickly.”
Pioli was asked whether Sandro Tonali could be the next captain: “He is a great talent and has everything to become a mainstay.”
“I think that the most important thing is to stay true to yourself. I put my whole self into everything I do. It is not easy to find the right balance in football. We have a young team. It will improve over time, also through some mistakes.”
Pioli replied to the question of whether he would like to manage a national team: “Maybe in the future, but right now, I want to work on the pitch daily. I am in a great club, and I hope to stay as long as possible. I have had positive sensations since the first day I arrived at Milan. We created a nice bond with everybody inside the team. We are all rowing in the right direction, and that is key in my mind.”
“I have learned a lot from the coaches I had and from some teammates. I think that those that had the biggest impact were Giovanni Trapattoni, Osvaldo Bagnoli, and Claudio Ranieri. They all helped me cultivate my style, which is now more refined.”