Pioli left Milan at the end of last season before moving to the Saudi Pro League.
About Tijjani Reijnders' progress, Pioli said: “Last season I always told him that he never put him in. I already knew him, I had seen a West Ham-AZ Alkmaar with my son and my other analyst and I said 'let's look at this player because I liked him.' For me he is a player with incredible intelligence, quality and class, but last year he had so many chances to score, even in training, because he has a great accurate shot and he couldn't score, but it belongs to such years.
“The first year in Italy is always very difficult for the players because we are complicated, we are different. More strategic, more tactical, football is more difficult to develop, but I have never doubted Tiji's qualities.”
About Christian Pulisic he continued: “He is another one of those players with incredible mentality and quality. One of those with whom I had my first video call, I was convinced before because I knew him as a player, I had I studied him at the characteristics we needed. I had seen him so focused, humble and so eager to face the new experience.
“Christian is also a top player. As a player he can play in many positions. He has the mentality to always give the best of himself, always positive, he was a pleasant player to coach.”
And asked about the new Milan coach Sergio Conceicao, Pioli also said: “I speak from my experience, I believe that you should go there and you should not know anything about what happened before, you should not ask 'what you have done, how you did it', defended it, how you attacked, etc.' You have to bring your way of being, you have to be yourself, you have to believe in what you are doing and then slowly understand where you can go and how you can achieve certain results.
“But I believe that Conceicao has clarity within himself about what he wants to become, what he is and therefore he will try to convey his way of playing, his way of training, his way of approaching the team and then everything will be done. ” unpredictable, in my opinion he is an excellent coach, so I wish him the best, but whether certain things will happen is difficult to predict.”
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