Hi Caio,

Thanks for the kind words. You can contact me on [email protected]

Thank you, much appreciated

Hi Giuseppe,

Yes, my intention wasn’t to draw any conclusion at a higher level than this only match. I think it’s impossible from the outside to determine what the actual causes are, and there were some good games this season, that shouldn’t be forgotten as well.

I think there can be a lot of different reasons really:

– Physical condition is a big one. There have been a lot of games since January, few injuries, but also we need to bare in mind that this is the 3rd coaching staff in 3 seasons, all with different physical preparations, so it’s fair to assume that players lack consistency at this level

– Some of the problems we see, like multiplying short passes at the back even though pressure has been drawn, are recurring from last season, so it raises the question: are the players simply not understanding what they should do, or are they encouraged to do this? The latter would be very worrying as this would go against the basics of playing from the back

– I think a major question as well is is Pirlo trying to force players into a system/style of play independently of their attributes? Does he really have what he needs to implement what he wants? That was again something we could wondered under Sarri

It’s hard to know what Pirlo really wants to do though as he has no previous experience to base a judgement on, and all we know about him as a coach is what we’ve read in his thesis.

Would you look at Ronaldo and question his lack of discipline. He roams the pitch, trying to get involved when it’s going badly but he makes more problems than he solves. He comes too deep, then the long ball isn’t on…..I could go on but it’s so frustrating