Muriel’s magical backheel sends Pioli’s Milan into a spiral against Newcastle

Photography: Stefano Nicoli/LaPresse/Shutterstock

“If the match had ended 2-2, then there would be a lot of positive things,” Stefano Pioli insisted on Saturday night. All that was missing was for a television chef to remind us that if his grandmother had had wheels it would have been a bicycle. Pioli’s Milan did not draw with Atalanta, but instead lost to a magnificent and mischievous heel from Luis Muriel. It was his fifth loss in the last 10 games.

The score was level in Bergamo before injury time. Milan captain Davide Calabria was then sent off for a second yellow card. Moments later, the fouled player, Aleksei Miranchuk, turned two defenders to free Muriel, whose goal sealed Atalanta’s 3-2 victory.

Related: The repeated nightmare of the bewildered 5-1 Bayern opens the title race | Andy Brassell

There were whistles from the home fans when those two were introduced as substitutes with less than 10 minutes remaining. Milan had just tied for the second time and Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini’s response was to send in a couple of players who had not scored a league goal all season. Ademola Lookman, who had passed them twice, came out at the same time.

But that was a day for redemption stories. We had already seen Charles De Ketelaere provide the assist for Atalanta’s second goal, reminding Milan of the talent they left out when they sacked him here in the summer. He rossoneri responded with a goal from Luka Jovic, for whom Real Madrid paid €60m in 2019 but whose stock has fallen so far that no upfront transfer fee was required to sign him in the most recent window.

The match had started very differently for De Ketelaere, who fired a chance from close range. He knelt and held his head in his hands for a moment before Lookman ran to pick him up off the ground.

A symbolic moment. De Ketelaere endured a disastrous chapter in Milan, joining in 2022 for €36.5 million and hailed as one of Europe’s most promising young attacking midfielders. He recorded one assist and no goals in 40 appearances before being loaned to Atalanta, who have the option to make the deal permanent, in August.

The story continues

He had a perfect start at his new club, scoring his first goal of the season against Sassuolo. However, he had only scored once more since then, against Rakow Czestochowa in the Europa League, and was recently sidelined with a knee injury. Critics have accused him of lacking the physical and mental resilience to succeed at the highest level.

De Ketelaere’s despondent body language after failing on Saturday (and would lose another one-on-one later in the half) told a story. But so did Lookman’s insistence on picking it up. There is a deliberate way in which Atalanta has supported the Belgian as he regains his trust. Gasperini later said that mistakes don’t matter when you play as well as De Ketelaere did.

“The only thing I’ve asked of him is to play football,” said the coach. “When he loses a ball, I just asked him not to drop his head. Anyone who has played soccer knows that many mistakes are made. He does not need to insist on it, but rather trust the atmosphere around him.”

After Lookman scored the goal that put Atalanta 2-1 up, he immediately pointed out De Ketelaere, showing the fans where he thought the credit should go. Perhaps he should have also gestured to the Milan defense. The ease with which he found space in a crowded area would have been shocking if it hadn’t happened throughout the match.

Milan are in the midst of an injury crisis and are without Rafael Leão on the left wing or five of their top six central defenders. Mattia Caldara underwent ankle surgery in September, while Pierre Kalulu, Simon Kjær and Marco Pellegrino have been sidelined since October. Malick Thiaw tore a hamstring during last month’s Champions League loss to Borussia Dortmund.

For the last two games, Théo Hernandez has replaced Fikayo Tomori at centre-back. After a useful performance against Frosinone, his positional indiscipline was evident here, often beyond midfield. Even when he was in the right part of the field, he struggled to play his role properly. He missed Lookman’s run on the second goal and was caught looking at the ball on the first: more concerning considering the assist was a throw-in.

His instinct to wander had a knock-on impact, teammates adapting to fill the gaps he had left, but it was difficult to tell where Milan was being undermined by individual players’ errors and to what extent it resulted from an instruction unclear tactics. Gasperini confessed that he was not sure if Milan intended to start with a three or a four in the midfield. Perhaps it was because left back Alessandro Florenzi spent half the game in midfield.

An increasingly vocal section of Milan fans have begun calling for Pioli’s replacement as the team’s results have plummeted. At the top of the table after beating Genoa on October 7, the club is now nine points off first place. Worse still, first place belongs to Inter.

Today, their rivalry has an added sharpness, stemming from the fact that both Milan clubs have won 19 Serie A titles. The next to claim a shield He will be the first to add a second gold star to his insignia.

It is unclear whether Pioli’s position is actually threatened. The first and most important goal for the club’s owners, RedBird Capital, is for Milan to consistently finish in the Champions League places, ensuring that income stream. Even after this latest defeat, they remain third in the table, with a four-point lead over Roma and Napoli.

However, there is certainly frustration over recent results. Milan were unlucky to be included in the “group of death” of the Champions League, but finishing last after five games is still a disappointment. Only an away win at Newcastle on Wednesday night will keep them in Europe, and even then they would drop to the Europa League unless an already qualified Dortmund also beat Paris Saint-Germain.

Pioli is not wrong to say that there were some positives on Saturday. Christian Pulisic has been an excellent addition and put in another great performance, setting up Jovic’s goal. Better yet, the Serbian has already scored in consecutive games. If Jovic could regain even some of the form that saw him score 17 Bundesliga goals for Eintracht Frankfurt in 2018-19 (and we must emphasize that it is a big ‘if’ for a player who has not reached double figures in any league campaign since then) that would clearly be a big help.

What Pioli cannot afford to do, however, is bury his head in the sand, taking advantage of the Atalanta winner’s last breath to convince himself that everything is fine. He repeated the same message before and after the defeat to Atalanta, saying that “finishing in the top four is our main goal, but we want to do something more.” Another setback at Newcastle on Wednesday would leave few options this season to achieve that goal.

Roma 1-1 Fiorentina, Salernitana 1-2 Bologna, Monza 1-0 Genoa, Frosinone 0-0 Torino, Inter 4-0 Udinese, Atalanta 3-2 Milan, Verona 1-1 Lazio, Juventus 1-1 Napoli.

Monday: Empoli-Lecce, Cagliari-Sassuolo.