Pioli: ‘Milan have four or five top players, Leao needs to be encouraged in a certain way’
Stefano Pioli believes that Milan currently have ‘four or five’ top-class players and has explained how he used to get the best out of former Rossoneri star Rafael Leao: ‘He has incredible quality.”
Pioli discussed his time with Milan in an appearance on Sky Sport Italia during Sunday’s Serie A match between Juventus and Napoli.
Read more: Pioli analyses Juventus 2-0 Napoli: ‘Kolo Muani is working hard from what I can see’
Pioli on Milan, Leao, Maignan and Fiorentina departure
The 2021-22 Scudetto winner has been out of work since leaving Fiorentina early into the 2025-26 season, but says that a sabbatical has been exactly what he needed.
“I’m fine but I do miss it. I needed to take a break,” said Pioli.
“I really wanted to succeed with Fiorentina, I had other offers from abroad, but I didn’t take them into consideration. I think I made a mistake by trying to raise the bar too much. I put pressure on a team when there wasn’t a need to. Some results could have gone differently, but the pressure didn’t allow us to express ourselves properly.”
Pioli would go on to discuss his time with Milan and his relationship with Leao, who was sold to Galatasaray for a fee of just €38m over the summer, not including bonuses and sell-on clauses.
Leao was one of Milan’s star players when they last won the Scudetto and was also named as the division’s MVP that year.
“He was devastating in the year of the Scudetto, I’ve rarely seen players like that,” Pioli recalled.
“The work that Maldini, Massara and I did with him was important, he has incredible quality, but we weren’t as good at raising the bar for him, though.
“A coach has to understand his players. Rafa is a good player and a good person on the inside, but needs to be encouraged in a certain way. We had Kessie and Tonali, who did the job of three or four players. It’s not that Rafa can’t mark a full-back, it’s that he wasn’t supposed to. He would follow a centre-back and a midfielder would go wide. You need to find the right place for him.”
Pioli feels that current Milan star Diego Moreira has a bit of the Leao factor about him. He also went on to discuss Milan’s current squad and their need for more strength in depth.
“I watched him against Sassuolo and he impressed me. He and Rabiot have been very important players. Maignan made a great save [against Inter]. They’re a really strong team with their top 11 players, but they started to struggle a bit more when Amorim made a few more changes.
“It’s taken them a while to get to this point because when certain players arrived, they probably arrived with a few issues and needed time to settle in and find their rhythm. Now we’re seeing the results.
“Luka Modric is still an important player, Goncalo Ramos is doing a great job for the team as well.”
On Maignan, one of the few surviving Milan players from their 2021-22 Scudetto victory, Pioli said: “He’s the best in an absolute sense: The way he participates in games and the saves that he makes. Milan have four of five top players. Modric still has the legs in him, Rabiot, Pavlovic is a top defender, De Winter is growing as well. Ramos is an excellent striker and you can’t look past Pulisic either.”
